riverwalkers, a contemporary caveman + caribou balls

Riverwalker on the Yukon.

This post is dedicated to Caveman Bill, who is one of my favourite people in Dawson. He's kind, generous and intelligent, as well as being a keeper of a lot of interesting history of Dawson, from over the past couple of decades that he's been here.

Christmas Eve day, my partner and I forged a new path across the Yukon River, directly across from frozen bank to bank in the direction of Bill's cave. I had a steaming hot loaf of Macaulay House Bread, straight out of the oven and wrapped in a tea towel, to give to him.

Big, beautiful blue ice chunks litter the river. We follow animal tracks across. After a couple of -29˚ days, we are sure the river is frozen solid. 

The entrance to Bill's cave - he climbs up the front of it to find me Spook's skull, which he still has.

Inside Caveman Bill's cave, looking towards the front entrance (that he built).

Inside, we enjoy a cup of green tea that just sits on the wood stove and never gets cold, even though it takes an hour to drink it all.

There's Bill sitting on his bed at the rear of the cave, the deepest part. (Click any image to enlarge it)

Caveman Bill is a prolific woodworker, and the inside of his cave is full of beautifully crafted dovetail jointed boxes, cabinets, cupboards and desks that he's built and embellished with sweet designs carved into the front or top. The day we visited, he was just finishing a lap desk that he was about to give away to the person whose name he'd drawn in the Secret Santa draw. I was astounded that he'd give such an exquisite handmade gift - it was a writing-style desk top, with a hinged lid and underneath compartment, plus a side drawer that pulled out. His reply to my astonishment over the gift was that he donates all kinds of these hand-carved trunks, chests, boxes, etc to local fundraisers. I'm not sure he realizes the value of his work, or if he does, it doesn't compare to the value of the joy he gets from doing it.

He shows us some of his unfinished works in progress, kept outside under a sheet of plywood.

Speaking of woodworking, my partner and I built two boxes today of scrap wood we found in one of the Macaulay House sheds, for to house my 'bones' when they are abandoned outside. I aged them after they were built, with a wash of black acrylic, to look like so much of the old wooden structures in Dawson City. When they were finished, I loved them so much that I wanted to take them home to Montreal instead of abandoning them, but they were easy to make AND taking anything out of Dawson by plane is extremely pricey, as you pay per kilo. An abandonment project is a very good idea for KIAC residency. The boxes will have clear plexi fronts, so that the bones inside (and the web address leading to the audio clips of osteobiographical tales) can be seen without having to be tampered with.

Working in my studio.

Crystals are growing now on my hog gut matrices to produce the bones for my project.

I have feasted at different feasts continuously over the past three days, and I have to say that my favourite foods of all were Dan's amazingly delicious caribou meat balls, and Lulu's amazingly delicious moose meat stew. It was my first time eating caribou, that magical beast with the whirligig legs. I fared extremely well with local food, particularly considering that I could have been stuck with this Yukon standard for xmas dinner: