Culture Shock

Once upon a time, I worked in a small CBC station in the Arctic (click to listen). I did a lot of behind-the-scenes work, lining up interviews for one of our show hosts.

The most memorable of those hosts was a fellow named Roy. He was an old-fashioned guy who took a lot of pride in his Inuvialuit heritage. He'd hunt polar bears with a bow and arrow and knew exactly which type of snow to use when building igloos.

One day, I lined up an interview with a local Inuvialuit elder who'd just published a book. He was a wizened little guy, and I'm pretty sure he knows how to put a curse on people, so I was keen to stay on his good side. I didn't have time to read the book, though. I knew it was about his life, and I figured I could write general questions that would work well. The book was titled Call Me Ishmael: an obvious Moby-Dick reference that signalled that it was about old-time whaling. Perfect. Whaling was a traditional Inuvialuit activity and it would work really well for our show.

Note to journalists: Do not line up interviews with authors unless you've read the book. Roy took one look at the list of questions I'd prepared and stared at me like I had two heads.

"What are these questions?"

"They're for Mr. Alunik. About his life as a whaler."

"He's not a whaler."

"What are you talking about? His book is Call Me Ishmael. He's a whaler, isn't he?"

"No. It's called Call Me Ishmael because his first name is Ishmael. Why would you think he was a whaler?"

"Because of Moby-Dick."

"Because of what?"

Fortunately, Roy was a pro. I have no memory of what they talked about, but I do know that it wasn't about whales.