Rigolet has a salmon festival? Yes — and the town hopes it's a way to boost tourism

A salmon festival in a Labrador community might be a way to highlight the town's tourism potential, its leadership says.

The festival in Rigolet ran from Aug. 2-3 this year. It's been a yearly celebration for the last three decades, but organizer Georgina Allen says the world has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic.

"People feel lonely," Allen says. 

"I'm not saying everyone, but the world changed and for us to come together into a community hall and have traditional food and have lots of fun and entertainment, that's what it's all about right there."

The festival includes an opening parade, square dancing, and several spin-offs of television game shows.

It also highlights the potential the town has for future tourists, Allen said. Work is continuing on the nearby Akami-Uapishkᵁ-KakKasuak-Mealy Mountains National Park Reserve, with new trails being crafted later this year. 

"We do love our community, but a lot of times we have to show our own community that we have so much potential," Allen said. 

WATCH | It's Christmas in August in Rigolet at Salmon Festival: 

At Rigolet’s Salmon Festival, you’ll find traditional tattoos, Christmas in August and a spin on the Price is Right

3 months ago

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The Salmon Festival in Rigolet swells the coastal Labrador town’s population each summer. It’s about bringing people home and showing others what residents love about their community, says Georgina Allen, who sits on the planning committee. The CBC’s Heidi Atter visited the community for this year’s festival to check it out.

Sharing and passing on culture to the next generation is another important part of the festival, Allen said. Elders get the chance to talk to youth and spend time with them, whether it's sitting and enjoying a meal or playing games together, Allen said. 

"It's about your grandmother and your grandfathers and their families, bringing Inuit culture that we have here and keeping it alive," Allen said. "It's just close to the heart that they're getting taught by the ones who taught us."

While The Flummies played traditional music and people square danced on the deck, Ocean Pottle-Shiwak was sharing another aspect of local culture: traditional Inuit tattoos. 

Pottle-Shiwak took Vaseline and mixed it with black pigment to create the material for the temporary tattoos, explaining them as she designed the markings on people's faces and wrists. 

"It took a little bit of courage for people to come and actually get them done," she said. "But ... they're wearing them very proudly and I'm very proud of that."

The traditional practice of face and arm tattoos was something taken away from Labrador Inuit due to influence from European missionaries. Pottle-Shiwak said it's important to reclaim it, one person at a time. 

"Now that people know that it's OK to wear them, like people will do it if they see somebody else doing it. So it's just taking that first step," she said. 

Allen said it's one thing to talk about the community and tell people to visit, but it's another for people to genuinely feel the community atmosphere in town. 

"There's no other place like it. There's no other place like Rigolet and we're proud of who we are."

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