WHAT IS TOONIK TYME?

Spring - that time of the year when the sun returns to the Arctic, the bitter cold surrenders and the days start getting longer. Since 1965, residents of Iqaluit have been celebrating it with Toonik Tyme - a week of games, music, competition and feasting. No matter who you are, you’ll find lots to see and during Toonik Tyme.

TOONIK TIME: A COMMUNITY TRADITION

Toonik Tyme was founded by a group of community leaders in 1964 as a way to attract tourism to the north and put Iqaluit, known then as Frobisher Bay, on the map. The idea was to provide the community with an event that both revitalized traditional Inuit activities and promoted Iqaluit has a tourist destination. Iqaluit’s first spring festival was in May of 1965, at a total cost of $700. Since then, Toonik Tyme has become a community tradition; something residents of Iqaluit look forward to every year. Although there have been many changes to the festival since then, Toonik Tyme is still going strong over four decades later!

WHAT TOONIK TYME HAS TO OFFER

Toonik Tyme is an opportunity for local residents to get outdoors to burn off some energy after a long, cold winter. It’s also a time to come together as a community, rejuvenate traditional activities and celebrate the unique culture of the Canadian Arctic. Proud of their culture, it is also an opportunity for Inuit to showcase and share their traditions and way of life with the many visitors that Toonik Tyme attracts. Traditional events during Toonik Tyme include seal hunting and skinning, a community feast, igloo building, dog team races, fishing and traditional outdoor and indoor games.

Over the years, more and more events have been incorporated into the festival. What started out as a few days of traditional activities has now turned into a week-long festival with a schedule jam-packed with different things to do. Highlights you won’t want to miss include the snowmobile uphill climb, the snowmobile drag races, Toonik Tyme Fear Factor, the craft fair, scavenger hunts and much more.

WHERE DID THE NAME ‘TOONIK TYME’ COME FROM?

Toonik Tyme is named after the ‘Toonik’, an individual of the Tuniit people. Known to archaeologists as the Dorsets, the Tuniit were people who lived in Greenland and the eastern Canadian Arctic before the ancestors of today’s Inuit (known as the Thule) arrived from Alaska about 1,000 years ago. Inuit history tells us that the Tuniit were superb hunters and possessed almost superhuman strength and speed. Because they didn’t have bows and arrows or float harpoons, they had to hunt their game up close with spears and lances. Stories say that their parkas were so long that Tuniit hunters were able to spread them out around them like tents, inside of which they kept little seal oil lamps to warm themselves while waiting for seals. By about 600 years ago, the Tuniit disappeared from Greenland and the Canadian Arctic, but they’ll always be remembered through the ancient stories of the Inuit.