When Mabel Ervana Angulalik was a child her family travelled around the King William Island area.  Later they moved to Perry River, and that is where Ervana learned how to sew.  She married Stephen Angulalik in 1941 and they raised a large family at Perry River and later at Cambridge Bay.   She moved to Cambridge Bay in 1967 with her family and her elderly husband. Ervana was one of the founders of the Kitikmeot Heritage Society in 1995. Members of her family continue to play key roles as keepers of Inuinnait culture and language in Cambridge Bay. 

 

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“My name is Mabel Ekvana Angulalik.  I will tell you a few short stories of my memories as I was growing up and living in an iglu.  I remember growing up and living in a seal hunting camp.  At times we had hardship when there was a shortage of food and a shortage of seal oil - that I remember.  I was born on the mainland in the Queen Maud Gulf area.  Amaaqtuaqyuk was where I was born. 

 

I was put outside of an iglu to freeze because my birth mother was paralyzed.  Her name was Makok.  Emingak, who at that time was a young boy, having seen this, ran to his mother.  Emingak may have seen that I was being put out to die and had wanted me to be adopted by his parents.  Before I froze Posoktok (Emingak’s mother) fetched me.  She adopted me and brought me up to live. 

 

I have fond memories of them. Not once had I seen them being angry with each other during my growing years.  My mother would always laugh and was always in a happy mood.  She had no anger; it seemed it never showed on her face.” 

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