Joan Dicker, 64, remembered as pillar of Nain who fought to keep living life

Yahoo

06-07-2025

It's hard to sum up the legacies Joan Dicker is leaving behind.
The longtime Inuktitut teacher wasn't one to stay still for very long, working tirelessly to help and give back to others in her hometown of Nain over the span of decades.
The 64-year-old Inuk elder, who died at the Labrador Health Centre on May 29, is being remembered as a champion for her language and culture, not to mention a dedicated volunteer who was proud of her community.
Her daughter, Julie Dicker — principal at Jens Haven Memorial school in Nain — says her mother was one-of-a-kind, describing her as a "hands-on, actions speaking louder than words type of woman" who always kept busy.
Funny, outgoing, sometimes blunt, Julie says her mother wore her heart on her sleeve and always spoke her mind.
She said her mother espoused working hard for what you want, but to not shy away from asking for help if needed.
"She instilled in me values of treating everyone with respect, being kind to everybody, and doing good for yourself and others in your community," Julie Dicker said in an interview with CBC Radio's Labrador Morning.
Julie said her mother's breast cancer diagnosis didn't stop her from doing what she was passionate about.
"She didn't even want us to know how sick and tired she was. But, like, she kept going. She kept being busy," she said. "She kept going to these workshops, these language summits, volunteering, and like this was all when she was sick right within this one year."
A leader from childhood
Joan Regina Dicker was born in Nain on Jan. 5, 1961.
She was 18 years old when she started teaching in September of 1979, Julie said.
She began as a student teacher, then changed teaching positions a few times before getting a teaching degree in 2002.
Joan worked at Jens Haven Memorial School as an Inuktitut teacher for over a decade until her retirement in 2017. She also taught Inuktitut courses with Memorial University and with the Nunatsiavut government.
Her lifelong friend, 65 year-old Sophie Ford, remembers Joan as being a leader since childhood. Their friendship goes back to when they were just toddlers, setting the stage for a lasting friendship that included singing in the Nain choir together.
Ford remembers the boarding school in Nain promoting English in a big way in those early years, but says Joan made Inuktitut a priority, having learned the language since childhood growing up with her grandparents. Her grandfather, Martin Martin, was a respected chief elder in the Moravian church.
"She was a proud person, proud of her language, proud of her culture and proud of her grandfather," Ford said, adding that she rebelled against the dominance of English from a very young age, speaking Inuktitut during recess.
"I always admired Joan's ability to speak … it to her grandparents, you know, without blinking an eye."
At residential school in North West River, Joan and fellow schoolmate Beatrice Hope wrote a song called Nainimut Aigumavugna — a song that translates as 'I want to go back to Nain'.
That song tugged at the heart strings of teens like Ford and others who were also at the Yale residential school, far away from home.
Decades later, Joan shared her residential school story during the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Parliament Hill in September 2024 — and she proudly spoke in Inuktitut.
She was invited to speak on behalf of survivors in Labrador.
Joan was dedicated to working with and for people, said Julie, whether that was volunteering at a Cain's Quest check point, helping to do community cleanups or coaching junior and senior girls' broom ball.
In the late 1980s, Joan and Ford, together with some others, started Nain C.A.R.E. — Nain Community Assistance and Relief Effort —to help people who lost their homes to fire, needed financial help getting to medical appointments or getting home for funerals.
As volunteers, they raised funds by holding weekly dances. In later years, Nain C.A.R.E. took over organizing the Jan. 6 Nalujuit night gathering in the town with Joan's involvement, as always, Ford said.
Joan loved Christmas traditions in her community.
She said Nalujuit night was the most exciting time of the Christmas season during Labrador Morning interviews. It's a tradition where people dress in furs and skins — said to have come off the sea ice having travelled from afar — and make their way around the community chasing children and adults alike.
She sang in the Moravian church choir with the likes of tenor Karrie Obed, and the Christmas concerts they put off together at the school were unforgettable, said Julie.
"People go to watch the Christmas concert because they knew it was Joan Dicker's Christmas concert type of thing," she said.
Julie said her mother started the Starlights — a girls gospel music group — that performed at the Katilautta music festivals. The festival was another one of Joan's ideas, who then worked with others to put it off in Nain.
Her love for music goes back to when she was young, said Julie, growing up listening to lots of music in her home. Later she became passionate about translating songs into Inuktitut.
Ford recalls she did a lot of that translating to use in the classroom.
"She said she found it hard to find material that was translated into the Inuktitut language. There was some, but she wanted more. And so she did her own," Ford said.
Ford remembers her artistic friend — talented at embroidery — as always being a joy to be around, someone who never wanted to sit at home and wonder what to do next in life.
"I'll just remember her as a really, really good friend and someone who was always there to make life better for others and especially for the community," she said.
Other friends miss her, too.
"I wish it was just a dream that you are gone to heaven" a friend posted on Joan's Facebook page recently.
"It's still hard to believe Joan (Inuk Titut) isn't here with us anymore. It's hard to put into words of the life she lived because they are so many, but I will say she was a very special person who cared for so much and didn't ask for anything in return," said another.
Julie said news of her mother's death was felt across the North, including Inuktitut language organizations and others across Inuit Nunangat.
She always knew how hard Joan worked, but after her death she heard from others about just how creative her mother was in the classroom, how her teaching was "so interactive and effective" with students and just how passionate she was about everything she did.
"She affected so many lives as a teacher, as a volunteer, as a person passionate about her language and culture," she said.
Joan's dedication became crystal clear when Julie wrote down her mother's thoughts a few days before she died.
"She really wanted to say, for me to say, on her Facebook page from her, that she is so sad because she has so much more to give to her community, to her people, to the language and to her family and to her grand kids. And that like, stuck in my mind, like that's her legacy is giving back," she said.
Joan's words, as written down by her daughter, read in part:
"There's so much more work to do, so much more to give. I wanted to do so much more in my community, even though I did a lot. I wanted to do more, because there's so much more to give, to my community and my people. So much more to do and give to my people and my family everyday. Unfortunately, I can't at the moment."
Julie said her brother picked the perfect spot for Joan's final resting place, about a 45-minute snowmobile ride away from Nain.
A cross sits on top of a hill right by her cabin looking out toward the ocean and the point.
It reads Joan "Areke" Dicker with the words "one day at a time" inscribed below. Areke is short for Arekena, which is how her middle name Regina is said in Inuktitut.
"One day at a time" is the name of one of Joan's favourite songs, Julie said. It's a song her mother translated into Inuktitut and sang with her dad, Sam Dicker, playing it on guitar.
Julie said her mother was singing and humming the song a couple of days before she died, and it played during her mother's memorial service at the church.
Julie smiles now thinking how fast her mother would make the trip to her cabin by snowmobile, leaving everyone else behind.
Ford remembers her friend's unrelenting zest for life.
"She passed away on May 29 and she was out on skidoo in April. You know, she was on the go right til the last month," Ford said. "She fought to keep living life."
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