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'Gay Eskimo' song lyrics stir controversy at Inuvik school

Last Updated: Friday, June 1, 2007 | 1:09 PM CT

CBC News

Staff at the high school in Inuvik, N.W.T., banned a student from performing a comedic song about a lonely "gay Eskimo" at a recent school fundraiser, claiming that the lyrics are culturally insensitive.

Crystal Saunders wanted to sing the song "Eskimo" with some friends at a fundraiser last week at Samuel Hearne Secondary School. Staff there turned down her request to perform the song on the basis that the word "Eskimo" might be considered offensive — a point that Saunders, who is Inuvialuit, disagrees with.

"It shouldn't be," she told CBC News. "[For] some people it would be, but those people might need to build up a little bit more humour and take it easy."

The song, which is attributed to the Canadian comedy group Corky and the Juice Pigs from its 1993 debut album, includes the lyrics: "I go out seal hunting with my best friend Tarka, but all I want to do is get into his parka. I'm the only gay Eskimo in my tribe."

The song also includes the lines: "These cold winter nights are taking their toll, I even get excited when I see the North Pole. I'm the only gay Eskimo ... I'm the only one I know."

Vice-principal Lorne Guy said Inuvialuit elders have told him using the word "Eskimo" is unacceptable, adding that the song's references to homosexuality may also have played a part in the school's decision.

"I don't know if the sexual nature of the song weighed into it heavily," Guy said. "I would say that the combination of both the cultural sensitivity and the sexual preference — the combination of that and the conversations that we've had with our elders and people of the community … that was just someplace we weren't willing to go."

Saunders said she may try to perform the song at another Inuvik venue this summer. She believes most Inuvialuit would find the tune funny, she said, although it may be a different story if a someone who wasn't Inuvialuit sang it.

"If someone from down south, if they were doing the song, it might offend them," she said. "But, you know, I'm part of the Inuvialuit, so I didn't think it was going to be that bad."

This story is now closed to commenting.

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