When I Was eIght Christy Jordan-Fenton Margaret Pokiak-Fenton Art by Gabrielle Grimard The school Margaret attended in Aklavik The school Margaret attended in Aklavik
I knew many things when I was eight I knew how to keep the sled dogs quiet while Father snuck up on caribou and to bring the team to him after a kill I knew the sun slept in the winter and woke in the summer And I knew that when the sun-warmed Arctic Ocean shrugged off its slumbering ice we would cross it to trade furs with the outsiders
When I Was Eight
Lemaun is eight and knows a lot of things. But she does not know how to read. Ignoring her father’s warnings, she travels far from her Arctic home to the outsiders’ school to learn.