As far as fieldwork goes, Eastmain was a whole new ball game. It’s a larger community than Nemaska, and where most people were spending time together because of the gathering, in Eastmain people were busy at their jobs. They didn’t sit around on their front porches and wait to start conversations with a few fledgling anthropology students.

Of course, the purpose of our field work was to explore how tourism might be a possibility in the Cree communities; our role in Old Nemaska was to guage people’s reactions to having outsiders at the gathering. Now in Eastmain, our role was to talk to people who were involved in tourism planning. What were their goals? Could tourism have a positive effect on the economy without having a negative effect on the local culture?

There were a lot of meetings and discussions, some of them pulled together late at night, just as we were settling in for a cozy night’s sleep in Bubba. Interviews were often long and challenging. Political sentiments and emotions ran deep. These were the challenges unique to Eastmain.

On the upside? We got to spend our first night in a hotel. With electricity. And phones. And showers. Sometimes tourism research has its perks.