Above & Beyond | Canada's Arctic Journal 2017 | 01

2017 | 01 • $5.95

Meet the North Adventures with ICC President One Introduction at a Time the Forty Mile Herd Nancy Karetak-Lindell

Arctic History in the Cards

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o www.arcticjournal.ca

© ANGELA GZOWSKI

© DORIS OHLMANN

In the News

Connecting with industry Honoured in business The Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce has named First Air as the Corporate Business of the Year. The Corporate Business of the Year Award is presented to a corporation with more than 100 employees that has demonstrated significant business achievement and sustained financial growth and performance. This business must have demonstrated service excellence, involvement in the community, innovation and a commitment to sustainability. Congratulations to all nominees and to the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce that also, like First Air, recently celebrated their 70th anniversary.

First Air participated in the 44th Annual Geoscience Forum in Yellowknife this past November and was pleased to meet and greet with delegates, customers and visitors who attended this annual event, the largest mining and petroleum conference and trade show in the Northwest Territories. Here, Troy Broman, Manager Cargo Ramp Services Commercial in Yellowknife and Western Sales Manager Kim Poulter show off First Air’s 70th Anniversary logo.

Supporting Northern culture

© DANIKA WARD

© WILL FOX

Canada Goose partnered with First Air and brought their Resource Centre to Pangnirtung, Nunavut, this past fall. The Resource Centre gives Inuit traditional seamstresses access to free fabrics, buttons, zippers and other materials to use in hand-made jackets and clothing for their families. It is First Air and Canada Goose’s way of honouring and supporting our Northern culture, heritage and people of our Northern communities.

Celebrating with cultural performances Members of Nunavut Sivuniksavut perform at the Canadian Museum of History in November for an appreciative crowd of First Air employees celebrating the Airline of the North’s 70th year. Nunavut Sivuniksavut is a unique college program that serves the needs of Inuit youth from

Canada’s North and beyond by providing unique cultural and academic learning experiences that will allow them to develop the knowledge, skills and positive attitudes needed to contribute to the building of Nunavut.

Brock Friesen / XÇ4 K‰n8

Jobie Tukkiapik / JW bexW4

Dear Guest, A Happy New Year to you all. As we welcome 2017, I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on the past year and to focus on our main objectives for the New Year. 2016 was a time of profound transition for us at First Air. We completed our two-year fleet renewal program by investing over $100 million to modernize and standardize our fleet to serve our communities.

We introduced a fourth Boeing 737-400 to our fleet plus newer, quieter, more comfortable and more fuel-efficient ATR 42-500s. The ATR 42-500 offers many improvements in performance and passenger comfort including high powered engines, a newly designed cabin, and increased cruise speed. With the introduction of the 500 series, some ATR 42-300s are being upgraded to full freighter aircraft, offering increased capacity and flexibility for our cargo customers.

From December 2016, our passenger service schedules in the East are being adjusted to accommodate the newer higher capacity ATR42-500 aircraft. Two stations in the Baffin region, Pangnirtung and Clyde River, will continue to be served by the ATR 42-300s for both passenger and cargo services, as the ATR42-500 is unable to operate at these locations due to the short runways.

In the Western Arctic, the ATR42-500s will start daily service to Inuvik and Norman Wells from Edmonton and Yellowknife commencing May 2017. Service to Cambridge Bay will transfer from being a codeshare service to being operated by our own ATR42-500 aircraft. Our YellowknifeRankin Inlet-Iqaluit service will operate on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday using regional jets operated by our partner, Summit Air. In 2017, we will continue to build on our momentum by providing unsurpassed hospitality and comfort to our Northern communities by remaining committed to our guests.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your loyalty, making us the Airline of the North, and helping us reach our 70th year of service. We look forward to serving you for many more years to come.

Brock Friesen First Air President & CEO

ᑐᕌᖅᑐᑦ ᐃᑭᒪᔪᓄᑦ,

ᐅᑭᐅᒥ ᓄᑖᒥ ᐊᑐᕆᐊᓕᖅᑎᓪᓗᒍ ᖁᕕᐊᓱᑦᑎᐊᕆᑦᓯ ᕼᐋᐱ ᓂᐊ ᔨᐊᖅᐸᑦᓯ! ᐅᑭᐅᖓ 2016 ᐊᑐᕆᐊᕐᓂᖓᓂ, ᕿᒥᕐᕈᖃᑎᒋᔪᒪᕙᑦᓯ ᐅᑭᐅᕆᓚᐅᖅᑕᑦᑎᓐᓂ ᐱᓕᕆᐊᕆᓚᐅᖅᑕᑦᑎᓐᓂᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑕᕝᕙᓂ ᓄᑖᒥ ᐅᑭᐅᕆᓕᑕᑦᑎᓐᓂ ᐱᔾᔪᑎᒋᓗᐊᓂᐊᖅᑕᑦᑎᓐᓄᑦ ᐱᓕᕆᐊᒃᓴᕆᕙᒃᑕᑦᑎᓐᓂ. 2016 ᐅᑭᐅᖓ ᐊᑐᖅᑎᓪᓗᒍ ᓇᓗᓇᐃᒻᒪᕆᒃᑐᒥᒃ ᐅᕙᑦᑎᓐᓄᑦ ᕘᔅᑦᑎᐊᒃᑯᓐᓂ ᐊᓯᔾᔨᖅᐸᓪᓕᐊᓂᖃᕐᕕᒋᓚᐅᕋᑦᑎᒍ. ᒪᕐᕈᐃᓐᓄᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᓐᓄᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᑦᑎᓐᓂᒃ ᓄᑕᐅᓕᕆᐊᖅᑎᑦᑎᓪᓗᑕ ᐱᓕᕆᐊᒃᓴᕆᓚᐅᖅᑕᕗᑦ ᐱᔭᕇᕈᓐᓇᓕᓚᐅᕋᑦᑎᒍ ᑮᓇᐅᔭᓂᒃ ᕿᑐᕐᖏᐅᖅᑎᑦᑎᓂᒃᑯᑦ ᐅᖓᑖᓄᐊᖅᑐᓂᒃ $100-ᒥᓕᐊᓐᑖᓚᓄᑦ ᓄᑕᐅᓕᖅᑎᑦᑎᒋᐊᕈᑎᒋᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᒫᓐᓇᐅᓕᖅᑐᒥ ᐱᓕᕆᔾᔪᑎᐅᕙᒃᑐᓄᑦ ᐋᖅᑭᐅᒪᓕᖅᑎᑦᑎᒋᐊᕈᑎᒋᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖁᑎᒋᔭᕗᑦ ᐱᔨᑦᑎᕋᕈᑎᒋᕙᒃᑐᑎᒍᑦ ᓄᓇᓕᒋᔭᐅᔪᓄᑦ.

President, Makivik Corporation & Chairman, First Air xzJ6√6, mr=F4 fxS‰nzk5 x7m w4y?sb6, {5 wsf8k5 Président, Société Makivik et président du conseil, First Air

Chers invités, Je vous souhaite une bonne et heureuse année. Au moment d’accueillir 2017, j’aimerais profiter de l’occasion pour réfléchir à l’an dernier et à me concentrer sur nos principaux objectifs pour la nouvelle année. Une profonde transition s’est effectuée chez First Air en 2016. Nous avons terminé le programme de renouvellement de notre flotte, échelonné sur deux ans. À cette fin, nous avons investi plus de 100 M$ en vue de moderniser et de normaliser les aéronefs qui desservent nos collectivités.

ᓴᖅᑮᓯᒪᓕᓚᐅᖅᐳᒍᑦ ᓯᑕᒪᕆᓪᓗᒍ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᒥᒃ 737-400-ᓂᒃ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᑦᑎᓐᓄᑦ ᐃᓚᖃᖅᑐᒍ ᓄᑖᖑᓂᖅᓴᒥᒃ, ᓱᓇᖅᐸᓗᓗᐊᖖᒋᓐᓂᖅᓴᐅᓪᓗᓂ, ᐃᖢᐊᕐᓂᖅᓴᐅᔪᒥᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐅᖅᓱᖅᑐᐊᓚᐃᓐᓂᖅᓴᐅᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᓴᖅᑮᓯᒪᓕᕐᓂᐊᕆᓪᓗᑕ ATR 42-500-ᓂᒃ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᓂᒃ. ᑖᒃᑯᐊ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᑦ ᐱᑕᖃᕐᒪᑕ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖅᑎᓄᑦ ᓴᓇᕐᕈᑎᐅᕙᒃᑐᓂᒃ ᐊᑐᖅᑕᐅᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᑭᒪᔪᓄᑦ ᐃᖢᕐᕆᓇᕐᓂᖅᓴᐅᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᐃᓚᖃᖅᑎᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᓴᖖᒋᓂᖅᓴᓂᒃ ᐃᑯᒪᓂᒃ, ᓄᑕᐅᓂᖅᓴᓂᒃ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖅᑎᑦ ᐃᓂᒋᕙᒃᑕᖏᓂᒃ, ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᖃᖓᑕᔪᓐᓇᕐᓂᖅᓴᐅᕙᒃᑐᑎᒃ ᓱᒃᑲᓕᓂᖅᓴᐅᓪᓗᑎᒃ. ᓴᖅᑮᓯᒪᓕᖅᑎᓪᓗᑕ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᑦ 500-ᓂᒃ, ᐃᓚᖏᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖅ ATR 42-300-ᖑᔪᑦ ᓄᑕᐅᓕᖅᑎᑕᐅᒋᐊᕐᓂᖃᖅᐳᑦ ᐅᓯᔾᔪᑎᐅᕙᓐᓂᐊᕐᓕᖅᑐᑎᒃ, ᐃᓂᖅᑯᕐᑐᓂᖅᓴᐅᓂᐊᖅᑐᑎᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᓯᔾᔨᕆᐊᖅᑕᐅᕙᒍᓐᓇᕐᓂᐊᖅᑐᑎᒃ ᐊᑐᖅᑕᐅᕙᓐᓂᖏᑦ ᐅᓯᓂᐊᖅᑎᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᐊᐅᓪᓚᖅᑎᑦᑎᕙᒃᑐᓄᑦ ᑎᑭᓴᐃᕙᒃᑐᓄᑦ.

Nous avons acquis un quatrième Boeing 737-400, en plus des ATR 42-500 qui sont plus neufs, silencieux, confortables et économes en carburant. Les ATR 42-500 offrent plusieurs améliorations au niveau de la performance et du confort des passagers, y compris des engins plus puissants, une cabine de conception nouvelle et une plus grande vitesse de croisière. En raison de l’acquisition des aéronefs de la série 500, certains ATR 42-300 sont en voie d’être transformés en aéronefs-cargos et offriront ainsi une plus grande capacité et souplesse à nos clients de fret.

ᐅᐊᓕᓂᕐᒥᐅᓂ, ᖃᖓᑕᓲᑦ ATR42-500-ᖑᔪᑦ ᖃᐅᑕᒫᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᕙᓐᓂᐊᓕᖅᑐᑦ ᐃᓅᕕᖕᒧᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓄᐊᒪᓐ ᕕᐊᓪᔅᒧᑦ ᐃᑦᒪᓐᑕᓐᒥᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᔭᓗᓇᐃᒥᑦ ᐱᒋᐊᕐᓗᑎᒃ ᒪᐃ 2017-ᒥ. ᑎᑭᑉᐸᓐᓂᖏᑦ ᐃᖃᓗᒃᑑᑦᑎᐊᕐᒧᑦ ᐊᓯᔾᔨᖅᓯᒪᓕᖅᑎᑕᐅᓂᐊᕐᐳᖅ ᐊᑭᒋᔭᐅᕙᒃᑐᓄᑦ ᐊᒥᖅᑲᖃᑎᒌᓐᓂᐅᔪᓂᑦ ᐊᐅᓚᑕᐅᖔᓕᕐᓗᓂ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖁᑎᒋᔭᑦᑎᓐᓂᑦ ATR42-500-ᒥᑦ. ᔭᓗᓇᐃᒥᑦ ᑲᖏᖅᖠᓂᕐᒧᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᕙᓐᓂᕗᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᕙᓐᓂᐊᖅᐳᑦ ᓇᒡᒐᔾᔭᐅᑦ, ᐱᖓᑦᑎᖅ, ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑕᓪᓕᒥᖅ ᐅᓪᓗᖏᓂ ᐊᑐᕐᓗᒋᑦ ᐊᕕᒃᑐᖅᓯᒪᓂᕐᒥ ᓱᐴᔫᓕᓐᓂᑦ ᐊᐅᓚᑕᐅᓗᑎᒃ ᐱᓕᕆᐊᖃᖃᑎᒋᔭᑦᑎᓐᓂᑦ, ᓴᒥᑦ ᐃᐊᕐ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖏᓐᓂᒃ.

Dans l’Arctique de l’Ouest, les ATR 42-500 fourniront un service quotidien à Inuvik et Norman Wells à partir d’Edmonton et de Yellowknife à compter de mai 2017.

Le service à codes partagés pour Cambridge Bay sera modifié et offert par nos propres aéronefs ATR 42-500.

Notre service pour Yellowknife-Rankin Inlet-Iqaluit sera opérationnel les lundis, mercredis et vendredis par des avions à réaction régionaux sous la direction de notre partenaire, Summit Air.

ᑎᓯᐱᕆ 2016-ᒥᑦ, ᐃᑭᒪᓂᐊᖅᑐᓄᑦ ᐱᔨᑦᑎᕋᕈᑎᒋᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᑦᑕ ᖃᖓᑕᕙᕝᕕᒃᓴᖏᓄᑦ ᐋᖅᑭᒃᑕᐅᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᕿᑭᖅᑖᓘᑉ ᒥᒃᓵᓂᑦ ᐋᖅᑭᒋᐊᖅᑕᐅᕙᓪᓕᐊᒻᒪᑕ ᐃᖢᐊᖅᓯᒋᐊᖅᑕᐅᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᓄᑕᐅᓂᖅᓴᓄᑦ ᐊᒥᓲᓂᖅᓴᓂᑦ ᐃᑭᒪᕝᕕᐅᔪᓐᓇᓕᕐᑎᑕᐅᓂᐊᖅᑐᑎᒃ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖅ ATR42-500-ᖑᔪᒥ. ᒪᕐᕈᐃᖑᔪᒃ ᒥᑦᑕᕐᕕᐅᕙᒃᑐᒃ ᕿᑭᖅᑖᓘᑉ ᐊᕕᒃᑐᖅᓯᒪᓂᖓᓂ, ᐸᓐᓂᖅᑑᖅ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑲᖏᖅᑐᒑᐱᒃ ᓄᓇᓕᖏᑦ, ᓱᓕ ᑎᑭᕝᕕᐅᕙᓐᓂᐊᖅᑐᒃ ATR42-300 ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖏᓐᓂᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐅᓯᔨᐅᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖑᕙᑦᑐᓂᑦ, ᐱᔾᔪᑎᒋᓪᓗᒍ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖅ ATR42-500 ᑖᒃᑯᓄᖓ ᓄᓇᓕᐅᔪᓄᑦ ᑎᑭᖃᑦᑕᕈᓐᓇᖖᒋᒻᒪᑦ ᒥᑦᑕᕐᕕᖏᑕ ᓇᐃᓗᐊᖅᑑᓂᖏᓐᓄᑦ.

2017-ᒥ, ᑲᔪᓯᑎᑦᑎᓯᒪᓂᐊᖅᐳᒍᑦ ᐱᓇᓱᐊᕐᓂᕆᕙᒃᑕᑦᑎᓐᓂᒃ ᐱᑕᖃᓕᖅᑎᑦᑎᓯᒪᓂᑦᑎᓐᓂᒃ ᐊᔾᔨᖃᕋᑎᒃ ᑐᖖᒐᓱᒃᑎᑦᑎᕙᓐᓂᑦᑎᓐᓄᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᖢᕐᕆᑦᑎᐊᖅᑎᑦᑎᕙᓐᓂᑦᑎᓐᓄᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᒥ ᓄᓇᓕᖏᓐᓂᕐᒥᐅᖑᔪᓄᑦ ᐱᔨᑦᑎᕋᐃᓐᓇᕐᓂᑦᑎᓐᓂ ᐱᔾᔪᑎᒋᕙᒃᑐᒋᑦ ᐃᑭᒪᔨᒋᕙᒃᑕᕗᑦ.

ᑕᒪᑐᒪᓂ ᖁᔭᓐᓇᒦᕈᒪᕙᑦᓯ ᐃᑲᔪᖅᓱᐃᑦᑎᐊᖏᓐᓇᕐᓂᑦᓯᓐᓄᑦ ᐅᕙᑦᑎᓐᓂᒃ, ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᒥᐅᓄᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᕆᑎᓪᓗᑕ, ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᑲᔪᓚᐅᕐᓂᑦᓯᓐᓄᑦ 70-ᓂᒃ ᐅᑭᐅᓄᑦ ᐱᔨᑦᑎᕋᖅᑎᐅᕙᓕᓚᐅᕐᓂᑦᑎᓐᓂᒃ. ᓂᕆᐅᓐᓂᖃᑦᑎᐊᕐᓂᐊᖅᐳᒍᑦ ᐃᓕᑦᓯᓐᓂᒃ ᐊᒥᓱᑲᓪᓚᐅᔪᓄᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᓄᑦ ᐱᔨᑦᑎᕋᕐᑎᐅᓂᐊᖁᓪᓗᑕ ᐃᓕᑦᓯᓐᓄᑦ.

ᐸᕌᒃ ᕗᕇᓴᓐ ᕘᔅᑎᐊᒃᑯᓐᓄᑦ ᐊᖓᔪᖅᑳᖅ & ᐊᐅᓚᑦᑎᔨᒻᒪᕆᒃ

Depuis décembre 2016, nos horaires de services passagers dans l’est sont adaptés à la nouvelle capacité plus grande des ATR 42-500. Deux escales dans la région de Baffin, Pangnirtung et Clyde River, continuent d’être desservies par les ATR 42-300, tant pour les services passagers que pour le fret, puisque l’ATR 42-500 ne peut être utilisé dans ces localités du fait que les pistes d’atterrissage y sont trop courtes.

En 2017, nous continuerons sur cette lancée en offrant une hospitalité et un confort sans précédent à nos collectivités du Nord et en restant engagés envers notre clientèle.

Nous aimerions profiter de l’occasion pour vous remercier tous de votre fidélité, nous permettant ainsi d’être la Ligne aérienne du Nord et de nous avoir aidés à atteindre 70 ans de service. Nous comptons rester à votre service pour plusieurs années à venir.

Brock Friesen Président-directeur général de First Air

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We value your support and thank you for making First Air The Airline of the North.

Nous apprécions votre soutien et vous remercions de votre appui à First Air la ligne aérienne du Nord.

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Book online at firstair.ca or call 1 800 267 1247

ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᖅᑎᐅᑉ ᐅᔾᔨᕆᔭᐅᑎᑕᐅᓂᖓ

Employee Spotlight | Iqqanaijaqtiup Ujjirijautitauninga ᕼᐃᐊᓕᓐ ᒫᒃᑭᓕᓐᑖᐊᒃ | Helen McClintock

ᕼᐃᐊᓕᓐ ᒫᒃᑭᓕᓐᑖᐊᒃ, ᐃᓱᒪᑕᕆᔭᐅᔪᒧᑦ ᐃᑲᔪᖅᑎᐅᔪᖅ ᑮᓇᐅᔭᓕᕆᔨᒃᑯᓐᓂ, ᐱᕈᖅᓴᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᕗᖅ ᖃᓂᑕᕆᔭᖓᓂ ᑳᕐᑉ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᒃᑯᕝᕕᐊᑕ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑮᓇᐅᔭᓕᕆᔨᒃᑯᓐᓂ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔮᖃᓕᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᓪᓗᓂ ᕘᔅᑦ ᐃᐊᒃᑯᓐᓄᑦ 1978-ᖑᑎᓪᓗᒍ.

Helen McClintock, Assistant Supervisor of Accounts Payable, grew up right beside the Carp Airport and began working in the accounting department at First Air in 1978.

ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐅᔭᖅᑎᖖᒍᓵᖅᑎᓪᓗᒍ, ᑕᒪᕐᒥᑲᓴᒃ ᑮᓇᐅᔭᓕᕆᓂᕐᒧᑦ ᑎᑎᖅᑲᖁᑎᒋᔭᐅᔪᑦ ᐊᒡᒐᒻᒧᑦ ᑎᑎᕋᖅᑕᐅᕙᒋᐊᖃᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᕗᑦ, ᐊᖏᔪᐊᓗᓐᓂ ᑎᑎᕋᖅᐸᓪᓕᐊᕝᕕᖕᓂ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓇᕿᑦᑕᐅᑎᓂᒃ ᐊᑐᖅᐸᒋᐊᖃᖅᑎᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᓱᓕ. ᐊᑯᓂᐅᓂᖅᓴᖅ ᐱᓕᕆᐊᖑᕙᒋᐊᖃᕋᓗᐊᖅᑎᓪᓗᒋᑦ, ᕼᐃᐊᓕᓐ ᐱᓕᕆᔾᔪᓯᐅᕙᒃᑐᓂᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐱᓇᓱᐊᕈᓯᐅᕙᒋᐊᓕᓐᓂᒃ ᑐᑭᓯᐅᒪᓕᕈᑎᒋᔪᓐᓇᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᕙᐃ ᖃᓄᖅ ᐋᖅᑭᐅᒪᓕᖅᑎᑕᐅᕙᒋᐊᖃᕐᓂᖏᑦᑕ ᑎᑎᖅᑲᖁᑎᒋᔭᐅᕙᒃᑐᓄᑦ. ᑕᒪᕐᒥᒃ ᖃᖓᑦᑕᐅᑎᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐅᓯᔭᐅᔪᓄᑦ ᑎᑎᖅᑲᖁᑏᑦ ᑎᑎᕋᖅᑕᐅᕙᒌᖃᑦᑕᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᕗᑦ ᐊᐅᐸᖅᑐᓂᒃ ᕿᕐᓂᖅᑕᓂᒃᓘᓐᓃᑦ ᐊᔾᔨᖃᖅᑎᑕᐅᕙᒃᑐᑎᒃ ᐊᒥᓱᓕᐅᕈᑎᒋᔭᐅᔪᓄᑦ. ᐊᖏᕐᕋᕋᔪᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᕗᖅ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᕐᕕᒻᒥᓂᑦ ᐊᒡᒐᖏᑕ ᓄᕗᖏᑦ ᐊᐅᐸᖅᑑᓕᖅᐸᒃᑐᑎᒃ ᐅᕝᕙᓘᓐᓃᑦ ᕿᕐᓂᖅᑕᐅᓕᖅᓯᒪᑎᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᕐᓇᖅ ᐃᓱᓕᓯᒪᓕᕌᖓᑦ! ᒫᓐᓇᐅᓕᖅᑐᒥᓕ ᑕᒪᕐᒥᒃ ᐱᓕᕆᐊᖃᕈᑏᑦ ᖃᕆᑕᐅᔭᑎᒎᓕᕐᒪᑕ.

When she first started, most of the accounting was done manually, on large columned pads and on a typewriter. While time-consuming, it gave Helen a solid grasp of the theory and processes required to achieve the end result. All the tickets and freight waybills were pre-printed with red or black carbon between the copies. She often went home with red or black fingertips at the end of the day! Now it is all computerized.

ᕼᐃᐊᓕᓐ ᕿᒥᕐᕈᐃᔨᐅᕙᒃᑐᖅ ᐊᑭᓖᒃᓴᕆᔭᐅᔪᓂᒃ ᑕᒻᒪᖅᓯᒪᖖᒋᒃᑲᓗᐊᕐᒪᖔᑕ ᓇᓗᓇᐃᒃᑯᑕᖁᑎᖏᑦ, ᓈᒻᒪᒋᔭᐅᓯᒪᓂᖏᑦ, ᐃᓐᑲᒻᑖᒃᓰᔭᒐᐅᔾᔪᑎᑦ ᐊᑐᓕᖅᑎᑕᐅᓯᒪᓂᖏᑕ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᒪᓕᑦᑎᐊᕋᓗᐊᕐᒪᖔᑕ ᓂᐅᕝᕈᑎᖃᖅᑎᑦᑎᔨᐅᔪᑦ ᒪᓕᒃᑕᐅᒋᐊᓕᖁᑎᖏᓂᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᑭᑭᓪᓕᒋᐊᕈᑎᖏᓐᓂᒃ. ᓇᐅᑦᓯᖅᑐᐃᔨᐅᕙᒃᑐᖅ ᐊᑭᓕᐅᑎᒋᔭᐅᔪᓂᒃ ᐱᔭᕇᖅᑕᐅᓯᒪᓕᕐᕕᒃᓴᖏᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᖃᖓ ᐱᔭᕇᖅᑕᐅᓯᒪᕝᕕᒃᓴᖏᑦ ᒪᓕᒃᑕᐅᓯᒪᒐᓗᐊᕐᒪᖔᑕ. ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᖅᑎᓂᒃ ᐱᓕᒻᒪᒃᓴᐃᔨᒋᔭᐅᕙᒃᐳᖅ ᑐᑭᒧᐊᒃᑎᒋᔭᐅᕙᒃᑐᓂᓗ, ᐃᑲᔪᖅᑎᐅᕙᒃᑐᓂ ᓄᑖᓂᒃ ᐱᓇᓱᐊᕈᓯᐅᕙᓐᓂᐊᖅᑐᓂᒃ ᑎᑎᕋᖅᓯᒪᔪᓕᐅᖅᐸᓐᓂᕐᓂ, ᐃᑲᔪᖅᑎᐅᕙᒃᑐᓂ ᖃᐅᑕᒫᑦ ᑮᓇᐅᔭᓕᕆᔨᒃᑯᑦ ᐊᑭᓖᒃᓴᖁᑎᓕᕆᔨᖏᓐᓂ, ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑮᓇᐅᔭᓕᕆᔾᔪᑏᑦ ᓇᓕᖅᑲᕇᒃᑎᒋᐊᖅᐸᒃᑐᓂᒋᑦ.

ᓲᕐᓗ ᐃᒪᓐᓇ ᐅᖃᖅᑕᐅᕙᒻᒪᑦ: "ᓱᓇᓕᒫᑦ ᑮᓇᐅᔭᖅᑐᖅᑐᑦ'. ᑕᑯᕙᒃᑲᒥᒋᑦ ᐊᑭᓖᒃᓴᖑᖅᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᓄᑦ ᐃᓚᖁᑎᒃᓴᓂᒃ ᐱᓯᒪᓕᓚᐅᕐᓂᕐᒧᑦ, ᓄᓇᒥ ᐱᔨᑦᑎᕋᖅᑎᐅᓂᕐᒧᑦ, ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᖅᑎᐅᔪᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᒥ ᓯᓂᒃᑕᕐᕕᖕᒦᔾᔪᑎᖏᓐᓄᑦ, ᐊᓪᓚᕝᕕᒻᒥ ᐱᖁᑎᒃᓴᓄᑦ, ᐃᒡᓗᕐᔪᐊᒧᑦ ᐋᖅᑭᒃᓱᐃᓂᕐᒧᑦ, ᐅᕝᕙᓘᓐᓃᑦ ᓄᑖᒥᒃ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖅᑖᕐᓂᕐᒧᑦ ᐱᔾᔪᑎᖃᖅᑐᓂᒃ, ᕼᐃᐊᓕᑦ ᖃᐅᔨᒪᑦᑎᐊᓕᕈᑎᒋᕙᖏᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓈᒻᒪᒋᓪᓗᓂᒋᑦ ᖃᓄᑎᒋ ᐊᑭᑐᓂᕆᔭᐅᕙᒃᑐᓄᑦ ᐊᐅᓚᑦᓯᓂᖃᕐᓂᐊᕐᓂᕐᒥ ᕘᔅᑦ ᐃᐊᒃᑯᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᓕᕆᔨᖏᓂᒃ ᖃᐅᑕᒫᑦ.

ᕼᐃᐊᓕᓐ ᖁᕕᐊᒋᔭᖃᕐᑐᖅ ᐊᔾᔨᒌᖖᒋᐅᖅᑐᓂᒃ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᕐᕕᖕᓂᒃ ᐱᓕᕆᐊᖃᖃᑎᖃᖅᐸᓐᓂᕐᒥᓂᒃ ᕘᔅᑦ ᐃᐊᒃᑯᓐᓂ, ᓈᒻᒪᖖᒋᓕᕈᑎᐅᓯᒪᔪᓂᒃ ᐋᖅᑮᒋᐊᖅᐸᓐᓂᕐᓂᒃ, ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑮᓇᐅᔭᓕᕆᔾᔪᑎᓂᒃ ᓇᓕᖅᑲᕇᓕᖅᑎᑦᑎᒋᐊᖅᐸᓐᓂᕐᓄᑦ ᐱᔾᔪᑎᖃᖅᑐᓂᒃ.

ᐃᓛᓗ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔮᒥᓂ ᐅᐊᔭᕆᐊᖃᓗᐊᖅᐸᖖᒋᒃᑲᓗᐊᕋᒥ, ᐅᑭᐅᓂ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᖅᑎᐅᓪᓗᓂ ᐊᑐᖅᐸᓪᓕᐊᓂᖏᓐᓂ ᑕᑯᔭᖅᑐᐃᓯᒪᔪᓐᓇᓚᐅᕐᐳᖅ ᐃᖃᓗᐃᑦ, ᑭᖖᒐᐃᑦ, ᐸᓐᓂᖅᑑᑉ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᕿᑭᖅᑕᕐᔪᐊᑉ ᓄᓇᓕᖏᓂᒃ.

ᕼᐃᐊᓕᓐ ᐊᒥᓱᑲᓪᓚᒻᒪᕆᓐᓂᒃ ᐃᓄᓐᓂᒃ ᑲᑎᓯᖃᑦᑕᖅᓯᒪᓕᕐᐳᖅ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᖅᑎᐅᓪᓗᓂ ᕘᔅᑦ ᐃᐊᒃᑯᓐᓂ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᒥᓱᒻᒪᕆᓐᓂᒃ ᐱᖃᑎᐊᓗᒃᑖᕐᓯᒪᓕᕐᑐᓂ ᐱᖃᓐᓇᕆᓂᐊᖅᑕᒥᓂᒃ ᐃᓅᓯᓕᒫᒥᓂ.

ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᕐᓇᓂ ᐃᓱᓕᓯᒪᓕᖅᑎᓪᓗᒍ ᕼᐃᐊᓕᓐ ᖁᕕᐊᒋᔭᖃᕐᐳᖅ ᓄᓇᒥ ᐱᕈᖅᓯᐊᓕᕆᕙᓐᓂᕐᒥᓄᑦ, ᓈᓴᐅᑎᓕᕆᓪᓗᓂ ᐱᖖᒍᐊᖅᑕᐅᕙᒃᑐᓂᒃ ᓱᑑᑯᒥᒃ, ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᖃᕆᑕᐅᔭᕋᓛᒥᓂᒃ ᐱᖖᒍᐊᕈᑎᖃᕆᐊᒥᒃ.

Helen reviews invoices for correct coding, approvals, tax applications and compliance to vendor terms and discounts. She monitors payments to make sure deadlines and due dates are met. She trains and guides staff, assists in writing new procedures, assists in the daily running of the Accounts Payable department, and reconciles accounts.

As the saying goes: “Everything costs money”. Seeing invoices for everything from aircraft parts, ground handling services, crew hotels, office supplies, facility repairs, or a new aircraft purchase, gives Helen a good knowledge and appreciation for what it takes to operate First Air on a daily basis.

Helen enjoys the interaction with the various departments within First Air, problem solving, and account reconciliations.

Although her job doesn’t require much travel, she has had the opportunity to visit Iqaluit, Cape Dorset, Pangnirtung and Qikiqtarjuaq over the years.

Helen has met a lot of incredible people during her time at First Air and has many friendships that will last for a lifetime.

In her spare time Helen enjoys gardening, Sudoku, and playing on her iPad.

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From the Flight Deck What do the letters on a plane mean?

Everyone is familiar with licence plates on cars. It turns out that each individual aircraft also requires a version of a licence plate.

Unlike cars, we don’t actually purchase a plate to attach to the aircraft. Instead, the licence plate number, which is officially called an aircraft registration, gets painted onto the aircraft. These are the letters that you may notice close to the rear door on all our aircraft.

Vehicle licence plates are controlled by each province. Aircraft registrations are controlled nationally by Transport Canada but they also must meet international standards. Under the international rules of aviation, each country is assigned a specific way to start their aircraft registrations (called a nationality mark). Canada’s nationality mark is ‘C’ so all Canadian aircraft registrations must start with that letter. Most nationality marks are letters (‘N’ is assigned to the United States, ‘G’ to the United Kingdom, ‘F’ to France…) but numbers are also used (‘6Y’ is assigned to Jamaica and ‘8Q’ to the Maldives.)

In Canada, all aircraft registrations are five letters long. They all start with a ‘C’ followed by a dash and then the last four letters. There are only three options for the second letter: ‘F’, ‘G’ or ‘I’. (You won’t see ‘I’ on any airline aircraft though. The ‘I’ is only used in the registrations of ultralight aircraft.) Any letter can be used to fill the last three positions. The combination of those five letters is unique to each aircraft and serves the same purpose as a licence plate on a car.

If you wander through an aviation museum, you may spot a subtle difference in the registrations that are painted on the aircraft on display. Until 1974, Canada was assigned the nationality mark ‘CF’.

As a result, all registrations began with ‘CF-‘ followed by three letters. In 1974, the nationality mark was changed to simply be ‘C’ so all registrations became ‘C-‘ followed by four letters (the first of which was either an ‘F’, ‘G’ or ‘I’). To correctly reflect their history, many aircraft in museums still carry the ‘CF-‘ markings.

(Likewise, an aircraft that was registered before 1974 that is still flying is still allowed to show a ‘CF-‘ registration.)

There are currently just over 40,000 aircraft registered in Canada. The above requirements for aircraft registrations (starting with a ‘C’ followed by a ‘F’, ‘G’ or ’I’ then three letters) means that there are just under 53,000 possible combinations. I hope that Canadian aviation continues to grow to the point that we need to establish a fourth option for letter number two!

Just like cars, vanity registrations can be requested for use on aircraft. Given the format restrictions, the options are limited but with a bit of creativity, there are still plenty of possibilities. A large Canadian chain of grocery stores owns ‘C-GRCY’ and an eastern Canada frozen food company owns ‘C-FRYS’. First Air has also used special registrations – our first jet aircraft, a B727, was registered ‘C-FRST’!

Captain Aaron Speer Vice President, Flight Operations First Air If you are curious about a specific topic regarding flying and aircraft operations, let us know what you’d like to learn about and we’ll try to include it in a future column. Email: editor@arcticjournal.ca

First Air’s ATR42-500 aircraft, with registration C-FTIQ. © Mark Taylor

Dedicated to being first in service — and our commitment to the communities and people we serve!

2017 | 01 • $5.95

Meet the North Adventures with ICC President One Introduc on at a Time the Forty Mile Herd Nancy Karetak­Lindell

Arctic History in the Cards

PM40050872

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A Sir John Franklin card collection: Portrait of Sir John Franklin by Operti from the Hassan series, “The World’s Greatest Explorers”; Franklin expedition relics found in the 1850s by the Franklin Search expeditions, and the Franklin Arctic Expedition of 1819-1822, both from the Player’s series; and the Hassan card depicting the 1845 Franklin Expedition ships, Erebus and Terror. Courtesy David Gray

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Contents 8 24

30

Features

8

Meet the North

Like many southerners, I grew up with a notion of a nearly empty North. I didn’t know that the Arctic cannot be separated from its people, nor had I experienced the cultural diversity of northern latitudes. — Jennifer Kingsley with Photography by Eric Guth

21

Arctic History in the Cards

In the early days of the 20th century, collector’s trade cards were produced, which featured the people, wildlife and landscapes of the Arctic.

— David R. Gray

24

Adventures with the Forty Mile Herd

In the Yukon, the Forty Mile caribou herd once numbered 500,000. Numbering 50,000 caribou now, they are returning to their traditional wintering grounds in the Yukon for the first time in generations. — Maya Cairns-Locke with Photography by Peter Mather

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21

January | February 2017 Volume 29, No. 1

12

Living Above&Beyond

35

Education Preserving a Disappearing Culture through Words — Season Osborne

19

38 41

44 47

49

Nancy Karetak-Lindell, ICC-Canada President

Nancy Karetak-Lindell, the new president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council-Canada, reflects on the importance that International Politics can have on the role of Inuit in Canada.

— Mieke Coppes

A B OV E & B E YO N D — C A N A DA’ S A RC T I C J O U R N A L

2017 | 01

50

Resources

Youth Jane Glassco Northern Fellowship — Teevi Mackay

Science Canadian High Arctic Research Station Prepares for Opening — INAC Culture Tales of the Hunter’s Knife — Peter Autut Bookshelf

Guest Editorial It takes a region to save a life — Minnie Grey, Executive Director Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services Inuit Forum — Natan Obed President, ITK

7

Meet the North Life in the Arctic, One Introduction at a Time

By Jennifer Kingsley | Photography by Eric Guth

I first met the Arctic through its rivers. I was a canoe tripper and travelled from the south, like many others, in search of rugged landscapes far away from people. At the time, I didn’t realize how common that vision was, or how incomplete. Like many southerners, I grew up with a notion of a nearly empty North. I didn’t know that the Arctic cannot be separated from its people, nor had I experienced the cultural diversity of northern latitudes.

For the last two years, photographer Eric Guth and I have been travelling the Arctic with the support of Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic to learn about the North from its people. By meeting one person at a time, and by asking that person to introduce us to someone new, we are journeying around the pole, story by story. Here we present a few stops along the way.

Pastor Leif Magne Helgesen was raised in Madagascar, and he's been in Svalbard since 2008. Helgesen presents a global context in his sermons, reminding us of climate change, conflict and poverty. His love of this place goes beyond the landscape that draws most people here. “Nature is nice here... but it’s nice in the Maldives and in Madagascar. I would not have stayed here for so long if it wasn't for the rich cultural life.”

Singing in Longyearbyen, Svalbard

At the Store Norske Men’s Choir’s annual concert, these men honour the coal mining tradition that founded their community in 1905. They sing in harmony, yet their members represent every political party in town. The conductor, Espen Rotevatn, also leads the local green party which intends to end mining, yet as a fellow choir member Sveinung Lystrup explains, "Your political belief and what you culturally relate to are two different things.” When I asked Rotevatn about what happens when politics mix with music, he replies, “Nothing. We sing and we drink beer.”

8

A B OV E & B E YO N D — C A N A DA’ S A RC T I C J O U R N A L

2017 | 01

Farming at Minni Mastunga, Iceland

Icelanders in the countryside invited us into a world of northern farming, starting with the annual sheep round-up. The mission: find your sheep and bring them home with you. Most people identify the sheep by the tags in their ears, but some farmers recognize their animals’ faces.

All six of Olga Andreasen's children are home for the sheep round-up, along with some of her grandchildren. Before supper, she pulls out three different homemade desserts, plus cheese, butter and hot cocoa.

Then we go out to dig potatoes, and Andreasen introduces us to the mystical side of Icelandic life, including the hidden people who live in the countryside. They are much like us but usually cannot be seen.

“My grandmother’s best friend was a hidden person,” she said.

A B OV E & B E YO N D — C A N A DA’ S A RC T I C J O U R N A L

2017 | 01

9

Sewing in Sisimiut, Greenland

The women gather around the sealskin to clean it. Some use ulus or butter knives. Others work with their bare hands. It’s part of a two-year program where students learn to make the Greenlandic national dress. Instructor Nikoline Kreutzmann (at right, facing the camera) was a graduate of the program in 2013.

“When I applied to the school... it was after my grandmother died. She had made some clothes for us, but we didn’t ask her how to do it, and nobody knew how to do it.”

Listening to student Vera Larsen and taking notes, she says enrolment is impacting her whole family, “They are very proud of my work. I can see in their faces that they love what I do.” The finished product includes beading, crochet, and embroidery, but it all begins with skins prepared by hand. These traditions were in danger of being lost until a small group, including these women, committed to making them strong again.

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Celebrating in Pond Inlet, Nunavut

Four long strips of plastic and then cardboard are laid out on the floor. Next, the frozen meat, cut with saws, is spread. Anyone who wants to eat comes with a knife. Deputy Mayor Eleanor Pitseolak helps to lay it all out: Arctic char, caribou, aged walrus and aged narwhal. Some of the food is local, some has been traded with Igloolik, and the tuktu (caribou) comes from a special hunt, led by Abraham Kunnuk, that took almost two weeks.

Food is more than fuel; it’s culture.

Early in our visit, Joshua Arreak asked me why southerners don’t know about Arctic celebrations. Joyful news rarely makes its way south, but laughter is also part of the Arctic soundscape.

Joanna Kunnuk doubles over with laughter during games at the community hall.

The local hockey team prepares for a journey to play in Igloolik.

Meet the North is supported by the Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic partnership. www.meetthenorth.org or Instagram: @meetthenorth Jennifer Kingsley is a Canadian writer and radio producer based in Ottawa, Ontario. She is the author of Paddlenorth: Adventure, Resilience, and Renewal in the Arctic Wild.

Eric Guth is an American photographer and naturalist based in Portland, Oregon. His landscape and portrait photography has been published around the world.

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LIVING ABOVE&BEYOND

Irish take all at NWT Wade Hamer Challenge Hockey Cup

Boys team, shot moments after winning the Cup. © Brent Currie

Around 1,500 people crowded into the Ed Jeske Arena on the afternoon of November 23 to witness the 32nd Annual Wade Hamer Challenge Cup between St. Pat’s High School and Sir John Franklin High School. Grown into one of the largest one-day sporting events in the Northwest Territories, this was one of the most exciting sports days of the year in Yellowknife! The standing room only arena was alive with energy — and green and blue decorations — as the crowd witnessed the furious hockey action between the Irish of St. Pat’s and the Falcons of Sir John. As the chants and songs faded away,

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St. Pat’s had won both the Male and Female Cups.

For the Female Cup, St. Pat’s had won it back from Sir John last year for the first time in four years with a 6-0 victory. This year, they attempted to be repeat champions for the first time since 2011. The Irish ladies started out strong, scoring four goals within the first four minutes. From that point on, they continued to dominate the game with their skating and passing abilities and, in the end, came away with a lopsided shutout victory. Despite the final score, both teams played with great sportsmanship and left the game feeling proud

of how they had played and happy to have been apart of another year’s Challenge Cup. For the Male Cup, St. Pat’s had won the Cup the last three years and was looking to make it four in a row. The Irish started out the game in penalty trouble as they made trip after trip to the penalty box. Despite this, they scored first on the penalty kill (one of three short-handed goals in the first period). Sir John, however, responded with a power play goal to tie the game up. The rest of the period continued to see the Irish take penalties and try to hold Sir John off. The first period ended at 5-2 for St. Pat’s on the strength of St. Pat’s three short-handed goals.

The second period saw the Irish pull away as they scored four goals to win the game 9-2. This was the 9th victory in the last 11 games for the Irish men.

Details about the Challenge Cup — and its history — can be found at the NWT School Athletic Association’s website: challengecup.nwtschoolsports.com.

Submitted by the NWT School Athletic Association.

Girls team, moments after winning their second Cup in a row. © Brent Currie

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LIVING ABOVE&BEYOND

Ensuring safe marine transportation in the Arctic

The Arctic will receive improvements to marine safety over five years starting in 2017 due to

Canada’s new $1.5 billion Oceans Protections

Plan, unveiled in November.

The plan includes:

• increased protection from oil spills and other marine emergencies;

• making Arctic resupply operations faster, safer and more efficient for

communities;

• extending the service season of the

Canadian Coast Guard’s icebreakers

Canadian Coast Guard icebreakers, like the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent shown here, will see extended service as part of the new Oceans Protection Plan.© Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Auxiliary;

Help line aids mental wellness

stations to improve northern search and

announced the launch of the national toll-free

presence in the Arctic;

• the creation of a Canadian Coast Guard • creating new seasonal rescue boat

rescue capacity and a seasonal inshore

rescue boat station in the Arctic, including eight new community response boats;

• research into the impacts of increased shipping on marine ecosystems; and

• improved marine traffic and navigation information for mariners, Indigenous

people, and coastal communities.

Jane Philpott, the federal Minister of Health,

announced by Ottawa last June to support

First Nations and Inuit Hope for Wellness Help

and increased access to mental health care

Line in October. Nunavut’s suicide rate is nearly 10 times the national average, especially affecting men between 14 and 25 years old.

The Help Line will provide safe telephone

counselling support around the clock and across

the country for those who need it, when they

need it. It is funded as part of the $69 million

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crisis response teams, mental wellness teams

services.

The new toll-free number for the First

Nations and Inuit Hope for Wellness Help Line

is 1-855-242-3310. Counselling is available in

English and French and, upon request, in Cree, Ojibway, and Inuktut.

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LIVING ABOVE&BEYOND

New Arctic marine protected area created A new marine protected area in Canada’s

Arctic, located around the west side of Darnley

Bay near Paulatuk has been created. Called

Anguniaqvia Niqiqyuam, the area comprises 2,400 square kilometres of ocean territory in

the Beaufort Sea near the Inuvialuit settlement region of the Northwest Territories.

and seals. Together with the Tarium Niryutait

Marine Protected Area in the nearby Mackenzie

River estuary of the Beaufort Sea, the new area

The protected area’s boundaries include

two potential deep water harbour sites at Wise

belugas.

required to support future economic develop-

28 percent, or close to 40,000, of the world’s

As well, there’s a large geological anomaly

that’s believed to contain deposits of nickel and

colony in the Western Arctic, plus abundant

Inuvialuit hold surface and subsurface mineral

The International Maritime Organization’s Polar

operating in the Arctic. Much of the soot

stocks of Arctic char, cod, beluga, polar bears,

Darnley Bay Resources Ltd.

will safeguard key summering habitat for about

It’s an area valued highly for its ecological

resources: the only thick-billed murre bird

concession agreement for those lands with

copper in the area. It lies on land for which the rights. The Inuvialuit have already signed a

Bay and Summer’s Harbour, which may be ment in the region.

Commercial fishing is banned, but Inuvialuit

may continue to harvest fish in the area with

recreational fishing also allowed.

IMO plans to prevent marine pollution Code on the protection of polar waters, which

comes into force in 2017, says “ships are encouraged not to use or carry heavy fuel oil in

generated from exhaust from slow-burning heavy

ship fuel oil and other sources has a powerful

oil they use, as well as other data. This will help

responsible for at least 30 per cent of warming

gas emissions from ships.

up and magnify heat and are believed to be

October, which included hearing from Arctic

in the Arctic. A heavy fuel oil spill in the Arctic

Indigenous representatives from Russia, the United Stations, and Canada, the IMO plans to begin phasing out heavy fuel oil in the Arctic.

This oil is used by almost half the ships

collect consumption data for each type of fuel

impact in the Arctic. The black particles soak

the Arctic.” However, following a meeting of its

environmental protection committee in late

Under the IMO new requirements, ships

of 5,000 gross tonnage and above will have to

could cause long-term damage to the environ-

ment. Research has shown that reducing soot

emissions could cool down the Arctic faster and more economically than any other solution.

inform the IMO’s plan to reduce greenhouse The International Maritime Organization is

the United Nations agency responsible for the

safety and security of shipping and the prevention of marine pollution.

Removing heavy fuel oil from the Arctic will protect human health, coastal communities, and Arctic wildlife like the beluga whale. © Luna Vandoorne / fotolia.com

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BHENY Program achieving success Children in the North have a 32 to 40 per cent

The teachers and the children in all four

higher rate of hearing loss than their counterparts

schools are keen to use the sound systems — the

hearing is critical to literacy and learning. Thanks

the students can share a portable microphone.

in the south, and as second language learners, to monies received as one of the 2015 Arctic Inspiration Winners, BHENY (Better Hearing in

The benefit is that teachers don’t have to strain

their voices to be heard while all students,

particularly those with mild hearing loss, either

students with hearing loss.

more clearly. It is a win-win situation all around.

Lynne McCurdy (project leader) and Barb

temporary or permanent, can hear their teacher BHENY’s mandate is to train staff and imple-

Holmes travelled by First Air this past fall to the

ment these Soundfield Systems in all K-Grade

Systems in two more schools in Nunavut:

the Department of Education recognizes the

Nakasuk Elementary School in Iqaluit, having

extending the program throughout Nunavut.

Pangnirtung in the spring. In both locations, the

continue the implementation process, with

second launch of the Soundfield Amplification

Attaguttaaluk Elementary School in Igloolik and

completed the schools in Pond Inlet and

teachers and Student Support Assistants have

been trained in the use of this technology

which clarifies a teacher’s voice above the normal noise of a busy classroom.

Genova Angutimarik, a Student Support Assistant at Attaguttaaluk Elementary School in Igloolik, participated in the Hearing Fair held for students, where at one of the stations, they had fun learning about how northern animals hear. © BHENY

teachers use them everyday in every lesson and

Education for Northern Youth) has been seeing much success with their program to assist

LIVING ABOVE&BEYOND

5 classrooms in the Qikiqtani region. Already

help for schools. So far, the Student Support

benefits for learning, and is interested in

Assistants, often local northern residents, are

Northern personnel are being trained to

necessary. It is a model that BHENY believes is

the “experts” on site, troubleshooting when

sustainable, a very, important criteria for long

guidance from the BHENY team, with a plan to

term success.

two years. A Virtual Resource Centre is also

progress from the BHENY Program, check out:

complete all 11 sites in Qikiqtani over the next

being developed to provide additional online

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For more details and to track further

www.Bheny.ca.

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AIP winners announced At ArcticNet’s 12th Annual Scientific Meeting,

Qarmaapik House. © Arctic Inspiration Prize

Qarmaapik House in Nunavik received

sualujjuaq, leads the project team along with

held in December in Winnipeg, Manitoba,

$700,000 to expand its parenting program to

community health and social service providers,

from the fifth annual Arctic Inspiration Prize

with tools, resources and support for healthier

The t(e)ach project received $400,000 to

three organizations came away with cheques

(AIP). The winners are Qarmaapik House, t(e)ach, and SmartICE, sharing $1.5 million.

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provide families and community members

environments for children and youth. Hilda Snowball, Mayor of the community of Kangiq-

elders, parents and educators.

support a computer science and game development community in Nunavut by developing an

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LIVING ABOVE&BEYOND online infrastructure to teach programming, game design, engineering and computer science to students at beginner and advanced levels.

The team includes technical experts, curriculum

producers, mental health workers and youth

ambassadors from the north and south, led by

Team leader Ryan Oliver of Pinnguaq Association.

SmartICE was awarded $400,000 to expand

its service across the Arctic. SmartICE is a

diverse partnership of community, academic,

government and industry that has developed a

near real-time monitoring and dissemination

system that improves safety conditions for coastal sea-ice travel and shipping. Integrating

Inuit Traditional Knowledge into its system,

The t(e)ach project. © Arctic Inspiration Prize

SmartICE (Sea-ice Monitoring And Real-Time Information for Coastal Environments), is led

by Trevor Bell, a Professor of Geography at Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Olympian Clara Hughes and Andrea Brazeau

from Nunavik co-hosted the awards ceremony

that included remarks by His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor

General of Canada, and featured a performance of Vincent Ho’s Arctic Symphony with students from Nunavut Sivuniksavut.

Winners also received artwork created by

Jean Taylor, a Tlingit artist from the Yukon (Qarmaapik House); Inuvialuit artist Derrald

Taylor (t(e)ach), and Tlingit artist Mark Preston, also from the Yukon (SmartICE).

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SmartICE. © Arctic Inspiration Prize

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LIVING ABOVE&BEYOND

Long-time fur designer opens retail store Rannva Design held its Grand Opening in the heart of Iqaluit, Nunavut, on November 5, 2016 with a Winter Welcome Celebration Fashion Show.

The evening included an outdoor Fashion show, complete with music while models strutted down the street with gorgeous fur fashions and onlookers enjoyed hot chocolate while watching the show. Mayor Madeleine Alexander Redfern also attended the event, while trying out one of the fur coats.

Rannva’s work is widely distributed throughout Canada as well as in the U.S., Greenland, Denmark, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Isreal, Korea and Japan.

Rannva has been designing fur fashions since 1999 and lives in Apex (a subdivision of Iqaluit). Her new downtown store is located at 661 Pitsi/Mattaq.

Contact Rannva at 867-979-3183 or info@rannva.com.

Here, some of the models at the Winter Welcome Celebration Fashion Show. © Michel Albert

Support programs receive new funding

The Quebec government has announced a

Montreal is home to one of the country’s

new fund for support programs for urban

largest urban Inuit populations, with local

over five years will be used for direct services

about 1,500 Inuit live in the city.

Indigenous communities. The $8.9 million

that are culturally relevant for vulnerable

Aboriginals.

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organizations that work with Inuit estimating Through Nunavik’s Ungaluk crime prevention

fund, Makivik already invests approximately

$250,000 a year into support programs through-

out the city, including Inuit-specific case workers

and drop-in programs, such as the day shelter, Chez Doris, in downtown Montreal.

Inuit and other Indigenous organizations

can submit funding applications directly to

Quebec’s Secrétariat aux affaires autochtones,

which is administering the new program.

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RESOURCES

NUNAVUT

Work continues on potential diamond mine

Following a promising early economic assess-

NWT

New partnership will explore known kimberlites

Arctic Star Exploration Corp. has announced

ment completed at their Chidliak property in

that it has entered into an option and joint

develop the potential diamond mine with the

Inc. The T-Rex Property is comprised of a total

Nunavut, Peregrine Diamonds is continuing to next phase of work to begin in February and

continue until spring.

It is hoped that mine operations will begin

in the next four to eight years at the site, 170 kms

venture agreement with Margaret Lake Diamonds

of 62 claims totaling 54,000 hectares, of which

Margaret Lake has earned a 60 per cent interest in 23 mineral claims, totaling 18,699 hectares

(the “Diagras Property”). They will jointly

north of Iqaluit. Once fully operational, it is

explore the new property package on a 40-60

shared between the two closest communities,

as operator.

estimated to create between 275 and 325 jobs, Iqaluit and Pangnirtung.

In 2017, Peregrine Diamonds will spend

east of the Ekati diamond mine. Historical work

have used in the past — maintained free of

are 13 known diamondiferous kimberlites

and hunters.

plan to begin ground geophysical work in

Peregrine Diamond’s Chidliak property is

comprised of about 577 separate claims,

Spring 2017.

rare earth exploration project has won an award

drill results from the Madrid North Naartok gold

Avalon Advanced Materials Inc.’s Nechalacho for best use of renewable energy at an explo-

ration site.

The company reduced the amount of diesel

consumption by installing a series of solar

panels, a battery bank, and inverters. The

zone in Nunavut are very encouraging and

battery bank provided a reliable electricity

the Madrid gold trend. The results also demon-

heaters could be replaced with special digitally-

demonstrate the significant upside potential of

strate the excellent prospectivity of the entire Hope Bay Belt and provides further encourage-

ment for TMAC to continue to advance other known Hope Bay deposits towards development.

Naartok is approximately eight km south of

the Company’s Doris processing plant, which is

source so inefficient, hard-to-control diesel controlled diesel heaters, reducing diesel consumption to a tenth of what the older heaters were using.

Nechalacho is located at Thor Lake, about

100 kilometres east of Yellowknife.

to begin producing gold early in 2017 and achieve

Lead and zinc mine in the process of getting new owner

2017.

of intent to buy the defunct Pine Point lead and

in the final stages of construction and expected commercial production in the first quarter of

study, estimated to take about two years, before

the company can start to raise money for the potential mine.

present on the Diagras Property. The companies

at least 10 years.

TMAC Resources Inc. has announced that the

government consultations. Then, a feasibility

on the Diagras Property has shown that there

Rare earth project wins award

Drill results prove promising at gold site

Next steps include community and territorial

of the Diavik diamond mine and 36 kilometres

covering an area of more than 564,000 hectares

of land. The mine’s lifespan is estimated to be

metres.

The Diagras Property is located in the

sampling and pre-feasibility studies. That will charge — and accessible to recreational users

assets contain 42 known zinc-lead deposits

over a strike length of approximately 68 kilo-

prolific north-northeastern (NNE) part of the

Lac de Gras kimberlite field, 22 kilometres NNE

entail reopening the groomed winter trail they

previously owned by Tamerlane. The Pine Point

joint venture basis, with Margaret Lake acting

between $15.5 and $17 million developing the

Chidliak site and conducting additional bulk

zinc mine east of Hay River, Northwest Territories,

Darnley Bay Resources Ltd. has signed a letter

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Dawson City from atop the Dome. © CullenPhotos / fotolia.com

YUKON

Mining claim under review

The Yukon Environment and Socio-Economic

Assessment Board (YESAB) has recommended

the territorial government reject a plan for mining

development along Dawson City’s Dome Road.

Darrell Carey wants to operate a placer

mine on 34 claims on the east side of Dawson

City’s Dome Road. However, the YESAB says the

proposed mine would be too damaging to the

community’s well-used trail system on the

Dome Road.

“If the government accepts these recom-

mendations, they’ve effectively expropriated a

placer miner from mining and they can’t really

do that, without compensation,” says Randy Clarkson, agent for Darrell Carey.

The Yukon government says it needs more

time to consult with the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation before ruling on the proposed mine.

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A Greenlandic woman wearing traditional Inuit clothes (Hassan), Inuit man and dog team, Inuit man hunting harp seals by kayak, Parry and Hoppner meeting the Inuit of Igloolik in 1822, and Greenlandic Inuit and their skin tents or “toupiks” (Player’s Polar Exploration series).

Courtesy of David Gray

Arctic History It’s in the Cards

By David R. Gray

In the early days of the 20th century, when the rest of the world knew little or nothing of Canada’s Arctic (now the Canadian Territories of Yukon, Nunavut and Northwest Territories), knowledge of the places and people of the North came mainly from newspapers and published accounts of the explorers' experiences. There was a great interest in the Arctic and this demand for knowledge spread and was met in some surprising ways. One of those ways was the collecting of “trade cards”.

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Arctic cards produced by the Hassan Cigarette Company of New York, USA: Sir John Franklin, Capt. Roald Amundsen, Robert A. Bartlett, The Erebus and Terror, Cape Sabine, and Cape Victoria.

Courtesy of David Gray

C

ollecting hockey and other sports cards is still today a popular and common hobby. Back in the early days of advertising, sports cards were only one of a huge variety of collectable cards produced and marketed by different companies. Among the cards produced, mainly in Europe and the United States, were a number of sets which featured the people, wildlife and landscapes of the Arctic.

There were card sets of famous Arctic explorers and their ships, Arctic historic sites, Arctic plants and animals, and the people of the Arctic.

Some were fanciful, and not too accurate, and the accompanying texts were often poorly written. But for that time period, these cards did provide an easily accessible source of information on what had been a relatively unknown part of the world.

In 1910-1912, the Hassan Cigarette company of the USA produced two of the Arctic card sets most sought-after by collectors. Their series called, “The World’s Greatest Explorers,” included many explorers who travelled in what is now Nunavut. There are cards for American Robert Peary and his companion Matthew Henson, Norwegian Otto Sverdrup who charted and named many islands in Canada’s High Arctic, Adolphus Greely whose U.S. expedition headquarters still remain on Ellesmere Island, Roald Amundsen of Northwest Passage fame, and a very unhappy-looking Sir John Franklin. The only Canadian featured was Captain Bob Bartlett of Newfoundland who accompanied Peary on his polar expeditions almost to the North Pole. Vilhjalmur Stefansson and the Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913-1918 were unfortuately too late to make the series.

In the accompanying Hassan series called, “Arctic Scenes,” two Canadian localities were featured: Cape Sabine and Cape Victoria, both on eastern Ellesmere Island, and on the route to the North Pole. Several other cards showed Arctic expedition ships and Greenlanders in their traditional skin clothes, but none showed Inuit from Canada. The artist was Albert Operti, a well-known Italian painter who travelled North with Peary in 1896.

Arctic animal cards: Arctic foxes (Dwight’s Soda), Polar Bear (Millbank), Harp seal and Inuk hunter (Player’s), and Tundra wolf (Red Rose Tea).

Courtesy of David Gray

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Five cards from the 1973 Red Rose Tea “The Arctic” series: Seal Hunter, RCMP Patrol Boat St. Roch, Gyrfalcon with Rock Ptarmigan, Hudson’s Bay Post, and The Manhatten Voyage (also showing the icebreaker John A. Macdonald).

Courtesy of David Gray

John Players and Sons produced a series of 25 cards, in 1915, and again in 1916, called “Polar Exploration,” depicting Arctic and Antarctic explorers.

The earlier version included several Canadian scenes, including the abandonment of Henry Hudson in Hudson’s Bay and Edward Parry meeting Inuit near Igloolik in 1822. Sir John Franklin’s explorations are covered with cards showing his 1819-1822 travels in the western Arctic, and the relics of his tragic last expedition of 1845-1847. Some of the items shown on the latter card will be displayed at the Canadian Museum of History in a major exhibit on the Franklin expeditions to open in 2017.

Again in this set, the local people of the North were mostly represented

by Inuit from Greenland who assisted the explorers on their Arctic travels towards the North Pole.

A set of small and flimsy cards made in Switzerland in about 1929, featuring “La Conquête du Pôle Nord” (Série No 39), advertised Nestlé chocolates and showed several explorers who travelled within Canada, including Peary and Amundsen. The back of the card held only advertising about the series, nothing about the explorers. An album to hold the cards could be purchased where the chocolates were sold.

Most trade card sets include some Arctic wildlife, usually at least a polar bear. An example is a fold-out polar bear in a set of 60 “Animals” made for “Millbank: the Quality Cigarette” in England. The polar bear is accurately described as being “equally at home in water and on land.” Less common are Arctic fox cards. A beautiful old “Arctic Foxes” card is found in an “Interesting Animals” card-set used by the John Dwight Company of New York to increase sales of their “Cow Brand Soda.” The back of the card wrongly tells us that the Arctic fox has “very little of the proverbial cunning of its kind.” The entire 60-card set could be purchased with six two-cent stamps.

In more recent times, Brooke Bond Foods Limited of Montreal produced an attractive, accurate, Canadian series of trade cards. This 1973 bilingual series called “The Arctic – L’Arctique” included 48 different cards depicting Arctic history, people, plants and animals. The cards came in packages of Red Rose Tea. A special album to display the cards could be purchased for 25 cents.

These cards were lithographed in Canada and copyrighted by the National Wildlife Federation. Three different artists created the illustrations (Clair Walton, Charles Ripper, and Lazare and Parker).

Among my favourites in this series are the Seal Hunter, the Arctic Wolf, Gyrfalcon, Hudson’s Bay Post, RCMP Patrol Boat St. Roch, and the Manhatten Voyage. The consultants for the card series were Roger Tory Peterson and James Woodford. They did a fine job, and helped many young Canadians learn about Canada’s Arctic history, people, and wildlife.

All cards illustrated are from the author’s collection.

Two cards from the 1912 Hassan card series “Arctic Scenes:” Cape Victoria and Cape Sabine, and two Nestle’s chocolate cards: Peary and Amundsen.

Courtesy of David Gray

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Adventures with the Forty Mile Herd

By Maya Cairns-Locke | Photos by Peter Mather

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In the fall of 2013, the Forty Mile caribou herd returned to the Yukon for the first time in generations, wintering in Tombstone Territorial Park.

The Comeback Caribou: Across Northern Canada, the health of caribou herds is of great concern.

In the Yukon, the Forty Mile caribou herd once numbered 500,000. In the 1970s the herd was reduced to 5,000 animals, but cross-border conservation initiatives with Alaska have brought the herd back from the brink. Numbering 50,000 caribou now, they are returning to their traditional wintering grounds in the Yukon for the first time in generations.

T

Below, our expedition to find the herd.

he trip was Peter’s idea. One summer afternoon he just jumped up and said, ‘Hey, wanna go photograph ten thousand caribou?’ It really didn’t occur to me that he wasn’t joking until he made me do a ton of research on the Forty Mile caribou herd. I grudgingly scoured the internet. After a few hours of thinking and researching, I answered Peter’s question with a wry, “Yeah, sure, I guess” and soon we were en route.

Our trip began with a drive from Whitehorse, Yukon, to Tok, Alaska. As we got onto the Alaska Highway, I remember thinking, “A total of nine hours travel, just for some crummy caribou?’

After about seven hours of driving, only stopping to eat and use the bathroom, we arrived in the empty-looking town of Tok. Tok is a small junction that separates the two highways between Fairbanks and Anchorage.

We then checked in with the pilots who were taking us to the caribou. They were ready to go. Peter would be flying in a separate plane, because they were only two-person airplanes.

They also had the huge cartoon-like wheels, which made me smile even when I was nervous about getting on the plane without Peter.

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Top: Bulls, cows and calves cross a small river in Alaska during their annual migration.

Bottom: Twelve-year-old Maya Cairns-Locke feeling a bit unsettled for her flight back to civilization.

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Once in the air and heading into the abyss of mountains, I realized three things. It was freezing in the plane; I was feeling queasy; and those planes reminded me so much of the Snoopy and Red Baron cartoons, I found myself laughing.

The mountains looked like the clay-models of topographical maps that you make in art class. Some of the mountains looked like they were moving because they had so many caribou on them! I tried to take it all in; it was quite the view. I had already seen more caribou in 30 minutes than I had in my entire life and we had barely begun our adventure!

After 50 minutes of flying, we were finally set to land. I searched for the landing strip… a safe, flat, paved road that would guide me to the welcoming safety of the ground. There was none to be seen. At about 10 feet above the ground and after some long moments of curiously sticking my head out the window in search of safety, I realized our little plane would be landing on… a boulder-strewn gravel bar?

After a bumpy, terrifying landing I met up with Peter, who had arrived just before me. He ran up to me exclaiming, “Dude! We had to fake our landing four times to scare all the caribou off the strip!” I believed this story because while we were mere inches above the ground preparing to land, caribou were still scattering on our so-called “runway.” Peter was obviously as excited as a kid who got a puppy for Christmas.

After about an hour of unpacking and setting up the tent, we walked along the riverbank to set up Peter’s camera traps. Our camp site was on an open and welcoming part of the riverbank. There were no bushes or shrubs, and we had set up all our stuff next to a small, fallen tree that we used as a bench. I found a small patch of sand to set the tent up on so I wasn’t sleeping on the hot rocks.

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Peter set up his Nikons all over the river beds, strapped them to tripods, and made a small effort to camouflage his contraption with branches and leaves. He put the camera on a very interesting setting, so that when the trap senses motion, whether a caribou or a fish jumping, it takes a picture. I thought that was cool. Peter explained that it would save him a lot of time, so he wasn’t spending hours crouched in the woods, waiting for any sign of caribou.

We headed upriver to see if we could get close to all the caribou as they swam the river. There were a few bugs. Eventually we stopped hiking and saw around 200 caribou cross the river. They would emerge from the bushes along the river, sniff around for a while, and then skittishly swim across. Some groups of caribou noticed us, and they nervously ran down the bank and crossed at a different area, hence the multiple camera traps we had set up. The enormous herd eventually regrouped at the top of a small hill, which was located just above our tent, then five minutes later another 200 would cross. The caribou kept that pattern all day. They looked exhausted; I would be too if I spent an entire summer migrating with thousands of caribou.

Quite a few calves were crossing as well. The babies looked very eager and excited, as if to say, “Mom, can I please climb up the hill with the adult caribou? Or can I at least cross the river on my own?” It was quite surreal seeing all those caribou at once.

It occurred to me that there are so many things humans should be paying attention to. Going out into the bush for even three days can be quite the eye-opener. In a way, I felt like I was intruding on a tradition, being rude, but when I saw the first animal cross the river, the way they looked at us was welcoming. It was as if the caribou was in my head saying, “It’s okay, you two can stay.” It was quite the experience. Some people just don't realize what they are missing.

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Top: An aerial view of the Forty Mile caribou cow and calves migrating from their calving grounds in central Alaska.

Bottom: Young bulls spar during the early rut. The larger bulls will soon be fighting for the right to breed with the cows.

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Top: A snowshoe hare jumps out of the willows startling a group of Forty Mile caribou on the Blackstone River in the Yukon Territory.

Bottom: Bulls from the Forty Mile caribou herd in a confused panic while crossing a small river in their Alaskan range.

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I was tired. It had been a long day of adventure and excitement so I made my way back to the tent and fell asleep even though it was the middle of the afternoon. Around two hours later, Peter woke me up to eat dinner and it was so hot outside! At least 23 degrees, which is really hot for the Yukon-Alaska area. I ate and watched another 500 or more caribou climb up the hill next to the riverbank. Soon it was time for bed.

The next day, I woke up roasting. I put on shorts and a tank top and went outside to meet Peter for breakfast. He told me that he had already gotten enough good photos and that the caribou were going to move on in the next day or two so we could leave tomorrow. I was disappointed yet a bit relieved that we didn’t have to spend five days in the heat. I spent the rest of the day in leisure: reading, dunking my head in the river, walking around with Peter, napping, eating, and watching thousands of Forty Mile caribou cross the river and make their way up the hill.

At one point, I was relaxing in the tent reading, when suddenly around 20 caribou passed about five feet away from my head. I thought all the noise was a bear coming to maul me. I was very relieved to peer out the screen to find some harmless woodland creatures. The caribou looked as if they did not have a care in the world. Some of them looked me dead in the eye. I personally thought they were thinking of charging me, but they just strutted away. I don’t recall seeing too many antlers on the caribou, but boy, did they ever look scrawny! Perhaps the heat was getting to them too. I had grabbed the bear spray, but they appeared to be the happiest beings in the world.

Finally, it was evening and was so much cooler outside. As I prepared for bed, I dreaded having to get up early to catch our planes. However, in the morning, I was sad, probably because I had spent three days in the middle of nowhere and had become a little emotionally attached to the caribou. As my plane took off, I said goodbye to the caribou and prayed that this would be a safe place for them for a long time.

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Nancy Karetak-Lindell has not only worked hard as a politician, but has raised a family, including her grandson Nipi Bo. © Hinaani Design

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Leading the Way at the Inuit Circumpolar Council – Canada

Nancy Karetak-Lindell, ICC-Canada President

By Mieke Coppes

In an unassuming office space in downtown Ottawa, Nancy Karetak-Lindell, the new president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) Canada, reflects on the importance that International Politics can have on the role of Inuit in Canada.

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ancy Karetak-Lindell was appointed the leader of the Inuit Circumpolar Council-Canada in April 2016 and will hold the position until July 2018. I sat down to speak with her on her first day in the Ottawa office, May 28, 2016. This initial discussion revolved around the importance of setting a path for future generations, as well as the important role that she can now play, both as the head of the ICC-Canada and as a member of the international executive council of the ICC. We spoke again in October, after her first summer and fall working for the ICC. This discussion focused on the important outcomes that the ICC can have and how to ensure this is felt on a community level.

Her Past

Karetak-Lindell’s past has played a lasting role in the leader she has become. She grew up in Arviat, Nunavut, in a family with a strong mother as a female role model and a supportive father, allowing her from an early age to learn that helping others was crucial. As a young woman, she was never taught she couldn’t do anything. Her five sisters, along with herself, watched as their mother attended meetings in a maledominated world, including hamlet-council and working with the church. Above all, the lesson of her youth which can be traced through every career she has chosen and potentially even every decision she has made, is that you cannot wait for others to solve your problems, but you must deal with issues head on, both for yourself and for those who do not have a voice. Her father, an RCMP officer, exposed young Nancy to a world of community members who needed help, of people in pain, and people needing someone to be that voice.

As a teenager she, like many Inuit children, was sent to residential school. But at the age of 16, she was brought to Ottawa by her uncle, Tagak Curley, who was the first President of the Inuit organization now known as Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), to finish her education in a more academically challenging environment. At this time, she saw the movement of Inuit fighting for their rights on a national scale.

Although she explained that at that young age she didn’t know all the names and A B OV E & B E YO N D — C A N A DA’ S A RC T I C J O U R N A L

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Nancy Karetak-Lindell has worked with and inspired northern youth throughout her life, both in large groups and in one-on-one situations. © The Gordon Foundation

faces, nor all the issues being dealt with, this experience helped shape her as an Inuit leader.

She contemplated university, but a call to be back home beckoned. She headed back North and started a life involving marriage, children and family. But the lessons of her youth were strong, and when a mentor recommended finishing a term for someone who resigned on the education council, she accepted. Her desire to help with overall community development could not be ignored. This led to becoming a council member, as well as a member of boards, and finally a Member of Parliament. She has worked her way through many different levels of government, from local to national and now finds herself on the international stage. But, although the scope of the work may be different, the passion remains the same: the desire to be the voice for people who can’t or won’t or are too timid to voice their concerns.

The Role of ICC in the World

Karetak-Lindell had a busy first summer and fall as the president of ICC-Canada, travelling across Canada, as well as heading to Greenland and the U.S. The opportunities presented gave her a further understanding of the ICC in Canada, but also the ICC and the role it plays in the international field.

Nancy Karetak-Lindell spent several weeks travelling this summer, including a trip to Iceland to meet with other members of the Inuit Circumpolar Council. © Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada

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The ultimate lesson learned throughout the summer was that Inuit people have a plethora of opportunities to participate, but not always the funds. As Karetak-Lindell explains, “There is a real opportunity for Inuit to be fully engaged, but unfortunately, we don’t have the resources to be actively involved in every file, and the manpower, because we need a lot of technical help with some of the working group projects because it is all very scientific. We do have excellent staff at ICC-Canada and wish that we could do more.”

This was a lesson that Duane Smith, Karetak-Lindell’s predecessor, also experienced and passed on, “She will have to prioritize certain issues, because you can’t cover everything that is expected. That is what I found when I was there. You have to try and juggle them as best you can.”

The Importance of Being a Role Model

Karetak-Lindell’s role as the president of the ICC-Canada has placed her once again in a position where she is a role model to youth across the country. She has had experience mentoring northern youth through her role as the first director of the Jane Glassco Northern Fellowship Program (2009-2012), a public policy-oriented leadership program for emerging northern leaders run by The Gordon Foundation.

As the Foundation’s director of operations, Megan Lorius, says, “Nancy’s knowledge and experience, combined with her encouragement and warmth, established the Fellowship as a supportive, mutual-learning environment of respect.” For Karetak-Lindell, the importance of being a mentor cannot be overstated. She believes that giving back to people and the community is fundamental in her career. Above all, she wants youth who look up to her to remember to, “Believe in yourself, don’t underestimate what you can do as a person, and never forget where you come from.”

Throughout her experiences, and the lessons she has learned so far as the head of the ICC-Canada, she has recognized the potential and importance of engaging youth,

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and if possible, bringing Inuit youth to the table. Although she recognizes the wonderful Inuit youth who already participate and engage, she believes there is room for more.

Bringing a young Inuit to the Arctic Council meetings, for example, was something that struck a chord with her. Not only to allow the youth to learn about the international engagement and some of the important files that the ICC participates in, but to see Inuit at the negotiating table, participating in discussions, and being listened to on an international scale. This is what Karetak-Lindell wants to show the next generation: that Inuit people are being heard, that the opportunities for Inuit to make decisions that directly impact their lives are available. It is the job of the next generation to follow through on the work of past generations and take advantage of these opportunities.

Although she has only been in her position for less than a year, many believe her passion and experience will lead her to success. As Duane Smith says, “Inuit had faith in her being an MP for a number of years so she has demonstrated her skill and experience and now they have tasked her with being the representative for Inuit of Canada internationally and so far, she has done a good job of it.”

Nancy Karetak-Lindell worked as the first Director of the Jane Glassco Northern Fellowship Program. Here, she speaks to the first group of cohorts during one of their sessions in the Northwest Territories. © The Gordon Foundation

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E D U C AT I O N

Preserving a disappearing culture through words “I’ll show you something really stunning. It doesn’t exist anywhere else.” Norman Hallendy types inua into his computer. Within seconds a list of words and expressions file down the left side of his screen – 378 references to inua, an Inuktitut word for life force.

He then types ‘shaman.’ The database comes up with 569 records for shaman. This is Hallendy’s Inuktitut Language Semantic Field.1 It contains 1,543 words, with five searchable fields in English or Inuktitut. The database has been compiled over 20 years from the collection

of words and expressions that Hallendy learned from the elders of South Baffin, living mainly in the Kinngait/Cape Dorset area. The 84-year-old first visited Kinngait in 1958 and developed close friendships with the people who live there.

He became familiar with Inuktitut, travelling and visiting the elders in their homes in the community and out at their camps on the land.

He became fascinated with the meaning of places and things embodied in Inuktitut words.

“All the elders I knew when I went to the Arctic in the early 1960s are dead. With their dying, died many words and experiences,” says Hallendy. “These are the words, and thoughts that shaped, as elders would say, taututtara avatinniituq – ‘reality, how I experience everything around me’.”

Hallendy recognized that the elders’ words often contained the essence of what they described. Their words were part of the knowledge of a way of life on the land that was disappearing. Their words were incredible cultural insights into the framework of how the old people thought. Hallendy says he saw these words as artifacts, and began to collect them.

During the Inuit Language Commission held in Inukjuak in May 1984, Elder Davidee Niviaxie said, “The most urgent thing where action must be taken immediately is to save our disappearing language.” Niviaxie went on to say that 1,034 words were no longer used in everyday language because they didn’t describe the contemporary reality of people’s daily life, and had disappeared.

Like Niviaxie, Hallendy realized how important these vanishing words are. With assistance from several young women in Cape Dorset and other communities, Hallendy recorded the Above left: Hallendy with Osuitok Ipeelie, his mentor of 40 years.

Courtesy of Norman Hallendy

Bottom left: Hallendy with friend and mentor of 42 years, Simeonie Quppapik.

Courtesy of Norman Hallendy

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1 A semantic field is a set of words grouped by meaning that refers to a specific subject.

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E D U C AT I O N Hallendy with his early interpreter, Leetia Parr, 1970.

Courtesy of Norman Hallendy

An Intimate Wilderness: Arctic Voices in a Land of Vast Horizons, Hallendy’s latest book is a memoir of his travels North, and a tribute to the elders whose words and knowledge he has immortalized in his semantic field.

words and expressions the elders used to describe the world around them. The women transcribed the words in Inuktitut and English, using the Roman alphabet and syllabics.

Hallendy input this information into his data-

base, which has become an in-depth Inuktitut semantic field.

“It’s unique,” says Dr. William Fitzhugh, Curator of Archaeology and Director of the Arctic Studies Center, at the Smithsonian

National Museum of Natural History, about Hallendy’s semantic field. “No one else has gathered this kind of data.” He says, “Ethnologists, going back to Franz Boas2 didn’t collect this stuff. Norman did a great service by recording those things, the names of sites and so forth, and mapping them over the landscape.”

One of the important aspects of what Hallendy learned through the elders was about the Inuksuit (Inukshuk — singular), now considered icons of the North that were built around the south Baffin region. From the elders, he gleaned an understanding of what they meant, what they were built for, and how they were used.

Fitzhugh says, “With the Inuksuit, archaeologists said, ‘maybe they’re markers or directional pieces.’ But nobody asked or bothered to find out. The archaeologists were running around looking for tools or settlements.” By talking to the Inuit about these mysterious rock structures, Fitzhugh says Hallendy reveals the importance of the language and is a “pioneer” in an area that no one else had bothered to explore.

Hallendy calls it invisible archaeology.

“How can you look at Inuksuit, stones set in formation, and understand them? You can’t know what they were for if you don’t know the language,” says Hallendy. His learning the Inuktitut language intimately was key to understanding the Inuit elders’ culture.

An Intimate Wilderness: Arctic Voices in a Land of Vast Horizons, Hallendy’s latest book is a memoir of his travels North, and a tribute to the elders whose words and knowledge he has immortalized in his semantic field.

Season Osborne

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2 Franz Boas was a German ethnologist who studied the Inuit of Baffin Island in the late 1880s.

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E D U C AT I O N At work entering lists of archaic words and expressions into his semantic field database.

Courtesy of Norman Hallendy

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YOUTH

Reflecting on the Jane Glassco Northern Fellowship In 2015, I completed the Jane Glassco Northern Fellowship and received my certificate of completion in my hometown of Iqaluit, Nunavut, where our last gathering was hosted in the spring. The Fellowship made a difference in my life and my certificate of completion hangs on my wall right beside my bachelor’s degree.

The Gordon Foundation administers the fellowship program and “is a private, philanthropic foundation based in Toronto, Ontario.

The Foundation undertakes research, leadership development and public dialogue so that public policies in Canada reflect a commitment to collaborative stewardship of our freshwater

Fellows in Iqaluit at the last gathering. L to R: Itoah Scott-Enns, Moses Hernandez, Nina Larsson, Mitchell White and myself, in front. © The Gordon Foundation

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resources and to a people-driven, equitable and evolving North.”

I initially applied to the first fellowship cohort when I was in my second year of journalism studies at Carleton University. The program intrigued me immediately upon learning of it. I was not accepted to the first round of

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YOUTH During the Fellowship graduation day in Iqaluit, I add moss to the qulliq that will soon be lit.

Mitchell White of Nunatsiavut is behind me. © The Gordon Foundation

applications, which was a disappointment for me.

However, when I completed university in 2013, I applied again and I got in. I still remember receiving the call from the program manager, Holly Mackenzie, and the sheer feeling of excitement. She told me that it was going to be a lot of work, but that was something I was quite used to and ready for. The lesson here is: don’t give up and always be determined to achieve what you desire. If your heart is in the right place, then the stars will align for you.

The president of The Gordon Foundation during my cohort, 2013-2015, Tom Axworthy, was a guiding force for what I learned while in the Fellowship. He was principal secretary to the

late Pierre Elliott Trudeau, former prime minister of Canada in the 1970s and 80s. I remember during our first gathering just outside of Yellowknife at Blachford Lake Lodge, he taught the 10 of us Fellows the term syzygy, an ancient Greek term for when planets are aligned. I interpret this to mean that opportunities have a way of presenting themselves when you follow your goals and dreams. I found that since learning this, when I work hard, things tend to line themselves up.

The Fellowship is an amazing program where you learn more about the different Indigenous cultures of the North. For our cohort, we learned about the cultures of the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. It was

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YOUTH

Tom Axworthy and I wait to board the aircraft, leaving the successful first gathering at Blachford Lake Lodge. © Teevi Mackay

increased self-esteem and confidence. This paper can also be found on the Foundation’s website.

Going into the program I wanted to learn more about public policy. I learned that guiding public policy entails the formula of research, communication, strong public opinion and interest and, of course, political will. Overall the Fellowship gave me more than just the steps toward the development of public policy. It also provided me with increased knowledge in other areas of public life. As well, it provided me with a network of Northern Fellows, mentors, and those who work for The Gordon Foundation, connections you cannot find in the textbooks of libraries.

Jane Glassco Northern Fellowship Alumni Program

special for me to complete the program in my hometown of Iqaluit. It was gratifying to see the other Fellows learn more about Inuit through igloo-building, the lighting of the qulliq and just being able to experience the culture and show them the town where I spent most of my formative years.

Research and public policy

My individial research goal in the Fellowship was to discover firsthand how the University of Greenland, Ilisimatusarfik, was created. This experience was educational and my final paper can be found on the Foundation’s website: 40

www.gordonfoundation.ca. I travelled to Nuuk to interview the founders of the university, the founding and current students, and Inuit professors. It was an inspiring research journey, showing how capable we are as Inuit, as we have always been.

The second component to the formal submission of writing was the group paper.

Mitchell White of Nunatsiavut and Kluane Ademak of the Yukon and I wrote a paper on Integrating Traditional Practices Into Inuit Mental Wellness Programs. We found that generally Inuit who practice their culture, speak their language and spend time on the land have

Since completing the Fellowship I have utilized the alumni program funding. I was able to support a community-driven program in Kangiqsujuaq, Nunavik, with a $5,000 grant.

This money was used for a youth mental health through photography workshop. Youth learned more about photography and participated in mental health discussions. It was a fitting program that I felt I had an affinity with, as a big part of my work today involves photography.

I felt a great deal of gratitude to The Gordon Foundation as I was able to channel money into a meaningful program that involves mental wellness and photography – photography being an artform that I love and practice almost daily.

Calling for the fourth cohort of Fellows

The current third cohort of Fellows are set to complete the program in the spring of 2017 and applications for the fourth cohort will also be accepted during this time. I highly recommend anyone interested to apply to the program.

(Applications will be available at www.gordonfoundation.ca). If accepted, you will not regret it, as there will be much to learn as there is always space to grow and develop.

Teevi Mackay

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SCIENCE

Canadian High Arctic Research Station prepares for opening in 2017

Copper-toned sheets of metal are installed on exterior sections of the Main Research Building.

(September 2016) © INAC

As construction of the Canadian High Arctic Research Station (CHARS) progresses in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, plans are underway for the Station’s grand opening in the fall of 2017.

In 2007, the Government of Canada announced plans to establish a “world-class” research

station in the Arctic that would be on the global cutting edge of science and technology research in the North. Now in its final year of construction, CHARS is on track to be a hub for innovation, both in research and design.

The amount of planning to get to this point has been tremendous. As the federal

department leading this construction project, Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) has worked diligently over the past few years to ensure CHARS will live up to its “world-class” mandate.

In designing the Station, consultations were held with Indigenous organizations, northerners, academics, industry, and territorial governments with the goal of creating a state of the art campus that will be a big part of the Cambridge Bay community.

The result is an innovative campus, consisting of a Main Research Building, a Field and Maintenance Building, and two Triplex accommodation buildings, with a sophisticated, sustainable and environmentally-friendly design.

INAC has registered CHARS with the internationally renowned Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) system. The goal is to make CHARS the most northern structure in the world to achieve the LEED gold certification of excellence in green building. The goal is

Lead architect Alain Fournier consults with elders from Cambridge Bay on the CHARS design. (2013) © INAC

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ambitious, as building a large-scale project in the North comes with unique challenges.

“Unlike a typical project in southern Canada where contractors can plan a project assuming they will work year-round, scheduling is not always under control in the North. There are a lot of factors to consider, like climate, the distance to ship materials, and the time it takes to get to Cambridge Bay,” says Matthew Hough, Chief Engineer of the CHARS construction project.

INAC has also worked with architect Alain Fournier’s Montreal-based firm, EVOQ (formally known as Fournier, Gersovitz, Moss, Drolet et associés architects, or FGMDA), in a joint venture with NFOE Architects, to incorporate traditional Inuit culture and technology into the design of CHARS. The firms have hosted several community consultations in Cambridge Bay to

ensure CHARS reflects the vibrant culture of Inuit in Cambridge Bay. The feedback from the consultations, particularly from the community’s elders, led Fournier to focus his design on the history of Inuit in Cambridge Bay, along with Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ), which articulates the pillars of traditional knowledge: Piliriqatigiingniq (collaborative relationships), Avatimik kamattiarniq (environmental stewardship), Qanuqtuurungarniq (resourcefulness and problem-solving), and Pilimmaksarniq (skills and knowledge acquisition).

Measuring approximately 52,000 square feet, the Main Research Building uses coppertoned accents to reference the Copper Inuit, the ancestors of current Inuit in Cambridge Bay. The Copper Inuit created innovative tools for hunting, and passed their knowledge of the

land from generation to generation — a practice that is reflected in the communal Knowledge Sharing Centre for information sharing between scientists and community members. The curved exterior shape of the building draws inspiration from the qaqqig, the traditional communal igloo at the heart of an igloo cluster.

“What is rewarding is that, when we’ve presented our plans, Inuit of Cambridge Bay have immediately understood these references, reassuring us that we have been able to apply IQ principles and values in practice,” says Fournier.

Once complete, CHARS will be the headquarters of Polar Knowledge Canada (POLAR), the federal organization that works with Northerners to strengthen Canada's position internationally as a leader in polar science and technology. POLAR has already welcomed

Cambridge Bay residents look at the model for the proposed CHARS site. (2013) © INAC

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SCIENCE

visiting researchers who have used the CHARS triplex accommodations during their visits.

“The Triplex units are an ideal facility for visiting scientists. They enable an extremely comfortable and equipped location from which to conduct Arctic science,” says Lucianne Marshall, a Master of Science student from the University of Victoria. Marshall visited Cambridge Bay to conduct field research on the progression of phytoplankton blooms over the sea-ice melt season in the Arctic coastal region, in partnership with the university’s Varela Lab, Ocean Networks Canada and POLAR. “By living on campus I was able to integrate both with the POLAR team but also had easy access to the local town for all my necessities where many friendly faces also welcomed me.

It not only made my research possible, it also made it far more enjoyable.”

The entire CHARS campus is set to become operational in time for Canada’s 150th anniversary in 2017.

Submitted by Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada.

Lucianne Marshall (University of Victoria) collects samples in the field. (2016) © Polar Knowledge Canada

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C U LT U R E Knife shown is a Gromann D.H. Russell Canadian Belt Knife, great for fish and game animals. The Arctic char were on the way to the ocean for the summer from Josephine River, between Rankin Inlet and Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut. © Cedric Autut

Diving and dancing

Tales of the hunter’s knife

I think more so then anywhere else in the world knives hold a great fascination for Inuit. The hunters all have their preference and they are quite attached to their knives as much as they are to their other half. They take care of them as much as they do their little ones.

My family was no different. Having several brothers, I learned very quickly not to play with their knives.

My dad always put his away safely but it quickly came out when his peers came to sit, chat or when they would bring him a bite of tuktu or some other country food, most often frozen and served on cardboard on the floor.

Usually they’d converse about how bad the other person’s knife was: not sharp enough, too short, too pointy. And they’d back up all those statements like men talk in a barber shop. I wasn’t invited to sit in the circle but Pops cut up pieces on the side and didn’t look at me but I knew that quietly and without too much attention, I could have some lunch too.

It’s not that I wasn’t allowed to talk, but it was just different. When one of the men asked me a question, usually something about who has 44

the best knife — hands in the air my Pops — then I could speak and converse.

One day, My Bro Dan asked me to hold his new knife. We were in a 22-ft Moose Head Canoe with an Outboard Sprite 75 top end probably 30 miles per hour. We stopped in the middle of the ocean to have tea. Dan made the executive call on this as he was the oldest. Dan gave me his knife to hold, brand spanking new out of the box! I put the shiny, new unused knife in my jean jacket breast pocket and looked at him as I tapped my pocket and said it was safe. He smiled.

The boat had wooden seats every couple of feet. I sat up front looking for seals and playing with the rifle, pretending to shoot eiders flying by. It was a beautiful day, and when the tea was ready, Dan muttered, “Pete! Your tea.”

Excited, as I was getting up I leaned over the boat and the shiny knife jumped out of my pocket into the deep ocean. When it plunged in the water, it was at least a 9.5 score!

But my brother still to this day won’t agree with me. I was already motioning to grab my cup of tea as he poured it into the ocean

looking at me and sat back down. I poured myself a cup of tea.

My brother Paul saw this and told my brother, “here, take my knife.” I think he meant, here take this knife and don’t throw Pete over board!

I got my tea and bannock and went back to my seat, wishing I was really, really, far away from this boat that now capsulated me with a really, unhappy brother and no parents to save my butt! There was no yelling but if you can cut tension in the air, that knife that just jumped into the ocean was probably the knife that would have done that. I know somewhere in the deeps of Chester waters sits a knife that never cut tuktu or anything else for that matter.

It did, however, perform an Olympic standard dive. I always consider that some kind of feat.

Several years later, I topped that performance with Bro Paul’s knife. This one had a leather string at the end and again, it was new and loved just out of the box. It was a blustery day. Bro Paul shot a tuktu and we got off the boat to butcher the caribou. I had Paul’s new knife as I was walking and playing with the shiny new steel. I was holding the leather string at the end of the handle and swinging it, making the knife dance. I don’t know, maybe the knife got excited? The string untied, the knife did a superman into the air and rocketed at least 30 feet forward. It was perfect, aerodynamic, all the curves in the right places. Bro Paul was behind me. If this show was on for everyone to watch, he had a front row seat.

It’s a funny thing when you get scared for your life. Life slows down and at that moment, my life literally slowed down. I can remember hoping the knife would land safely on a soft rock. We were walking in all rock by the shore of Hudson Bay. In that moment, I had time to pray for forgiveness if the knife did break out here in the middle of nowhere or maybe it would just bounce and be okay and the worst would be that it would have to be re-sharpened. All these thoughts passed through my head as I was alone with Paul, my older brother who if I didn’t score a goal in a hockey game would yell at me: “shoot to score, don’t shoot to shoot!”

After what seemed like forever, the knife did bounce off the rock; at least one of my wishes came true. But when it bounced, several other knives within it decided to come out as well.

I can only say that steel is very strong but no match for the rock that day. If you have

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C U LT U R E

My brother, Paul Autut, with his favourite knife. © Peter Autut

ever seen glass shatter, that sums up what happened.

Well, since there was still the matter of the caribou, he just said go get a knife from the boat. Luckily there was old Rambo, the rusty knife. That day for once I didn’t enjoy helping my brother butcher the caribou. It was a wonder I didn’t get left on the land.

My Pops said one time, “I don’t care where you are, always have a knife with you for tuktu or some other unexpected uninvited time to eat. At the very least, have one to hand to someone who wants to eat.” I’ve always tried to keep a knife on me but sometimes it’s not easy. I tend to forget.

My Pops likes the wooden handle knives because they don’t burn the hand when it’s minus 30 or lower. I’ve seen custom designed knives and knives made for the North. I’ve had really appealing knives but the metal on the handle stings you and you have no time for that when you want to travel back home and there’s so little daylight or in some places none at all.

Hunters always have one knife but if you ask any of them if they have a spare one, there’s

usually a bag of old knives that have been sharpened too often and lost their steel but they are kept for emergency. You never know when they’re going to jump out or fly away from you!

There are many stories about Inuit who returned to that place where they butchered their kill, travelling 300 km by snowmobile to retrieve a forgotten knife. If you walk on the tundra and come across tuktu heads, take a minute and walk the surrounding area to see if there’s a fancy knife. In my lifetime, I’ve come across two. I left them there hoping the owners would go back for them as I didn’t know whose they were. It’s usually minus 40 when Inuit butcher

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their kill and amid packing all the harvest, they sometimes forget about the precious knife and leave a souvenir on the land.

If you ever go North and want to start up a conversation in one of the smaller communities and you meet up with a hunter, ask him if he has a good knife. You may have a really good conversation and maybe several great stories.

Maybe you’ll even meet a new friend.

Peter Autut

Peter Autut grew up in the community of Chesterfield Inlet, located on the western shore of Hudson Bay in the Kivalliq Region, in Nunavut. Population 405.

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BOOKSHELF

Finding Franklin

The Untold Story of a 165-Year Search

By Russell A. Potter McGill-Queen’s University Press September 2016

Finding Franklin outlines the larger story and the cast of detectives from every walk of life that led to the discovery of the wreck of the HMS Erebus, the flagship of Sir John Franklin’s lost expedition to find the Northwest Passage. In compelling prose, Russell Potter details his decades of work alongside key figures in the era of modern searches for the expedition and elucidates how shared research and ideas have led to a fuller understanding of the Franklin crew’s final months. Illustrated with numerous images and maps from the last two centuries, Finding Franklin recounts the more than 50 searches for traces of his ships and crew, and the dedicated, often obsessive, men and women who embarked on them. Potter discusses the crucial role that Inuit oral accounts, often cited but rarely understood, played in these searches, and continue to play to this day, and offers historical and cultural context to the contemporary debates over the significance of Franklin’s achievement.

Crow Never Dies

Life on the Great Hunt Larry Frolick The University of Alberta Press July 2016

Inuit Elders Observe Climate Change Edited by José Gérin-Lajoie, Alain Cuerrier, and Laura Siegwart Collier Nunavut Arctic College June 2016

Melting permafrost, changing wildlife migration patterns, and new species of flora and fauna threaten to forever change the landscape and lives of the North. In The Caribou Taste Different Now, Inuit Elders and knowledge holders from eight Canadian Arctic communities—Kugluktuk, Baker Lake, Pangnirtung, and Pond Inlet in Nunavut; Umiujaq, Kangiqsujuaq, and Kangiqsualujjuaq in Nunavik; and Nain in Nunatsiavut — share their observations of climate change, including how it is affecting traditional ways of life. Their personal knowledge and experience on the land lends unique insight to the discussion on climate change, alongside scientific analysis and research findings.

For over 50,000 years, the Great Hunt has shaped human existence, creating a vital spiritual reality where people, animals, and the land share intimate bonds. In Crow Never Dies, author Larry Frolick takes the reader deep into one of the last refuges of hunting societies: Canada’s far North.

Based on his experiences travelling with First Nations Elders in remote communities across the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut, this vivid narrative combines accounts of daily life, unpublished archival records, First Nations stories and traditional knowledge with personal observation to illuminate the northern wilderness, its people, and the complex relationships that exist among them.

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The Caribou Taste Different Now

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It takes a region to save a life For many years, we have heard and seen the slogan, “It takes a community to raise a child” and many awareness programs and projects have mobilized communities to take on this task all around the world.

For regions such as Nunavik, this has proven to be a challenge as many children continue to be in the foster care system and despite best efforts of concerned organizations and individuals, it is not easy to mobilize communities for the wellbeing of children.

That being said, we are seeing more and more stress amongst the youth and their fragile mental state.

Following the 2007 Human Rights Commission and Youth Protection Report, many initiatives were put in place in Nunavik to address the recommendations concerning children and youth. The Regional Partnership Committee which was created following a Kativik School Board Symposium “Leading the Way for Our Children” in 2005 brought together all major organizations to work on mobilizing local and regional leaders to take on this important task collectively.

In 2010, the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services (NRBHSS) initiated the Clinical Project, now known as Ilusilirinirmi Pigutjiutinik Qimirruniq IPQ (Reviewing health

services), by inviting partners from all sectors to sit on three advisory committees to address the issues of mental health, addictions and Youth in Difficulty. These three committees, led and chaired by Inuit, had the task of making recommendations to the Board of the NRBHSS, which were approved in December of 2013.

The implementation of these recommendations are now ongoing and funding has been attached to them allowing the service establishments to hire more resources to address needs of Nunavimmiut.

The Advisory Committee on Mental Health focussed on suicide prevention to be a top priority. One of their recommendations was to create a permanent Regional Suicide Prevention Committee, which now exists today. This committee ensures that other recommendations are addressed in a timely fashion and it is also responsible for implementing one of the major recommendations which called for the creation of an Annual Suicide Prevention and Healing Conference specific to Nunavik.

In 2015, the Puttautiit (meaning flotation device in Inuktitut) Annual Suicide Prevention and Healing Conference was launched in Puvirnituq, Quebec. This week-long event was attended by over one hundred Nunavimmiut who took part in different workshops focussing on developing

Participants at an evening activity during the Puttautiit Conference.

The activity was suvalik making and story-telling. © NRBHSS

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GUEST EDITORIAL

skills to be more willing, prepared and able to intervene with someone at risk, gaining a better understanding of the effects of how traumatic history has affected Inuit, and to have access to tools and space for healing.

Puttautiit 2016 took place in Kuujjuaq, Quebec, last October. Over 70 participants from Nunavik took part in workshops dealing with Decolonization, Honouring our Grief, Safe Talk, Addictions, Sexual Abuse and Healing.

Nunavik has a reason to be proud of this accomplishment. This six-day event was organized and facilitated by Inuit for Inuit, with all workshops conducted only in Inuktitut. People came away from this conference with renewed hope, knowing they have strength in numbers.

Changes take time. It takes a vision and planning to reach a goal. This is only one of many goals that we had set out to attain. There are yet many more that we have to achieve. We can do this collectively, by not dwelling on what has been done to us but by focussing on what we can do for us.

For more information on the IPQ, visit: www.ipqnunavik.com.

Minnie Grey

Executive Director Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services

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INUIT FORUM

There is space for us all

© Letia Obed

I was in the audience when Tanya Tagaq, an Inuk from Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, performed at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa in late November. As her voice filled the hall, I was full of admiration for the way she has carved out a dynamic place in the world as an artist and advocate. Unfortunately, she has done so in the face of enormous criticism for the way she exercises her right to personal expression, much of it from us, the Inuit community.

As individuals, we are often our own worst critics. Regrettably, we all too often are the worst critics of our fellow Inuit. Tearing each other down for who we are, how we live, how we express ourselves, or what we aspire to be is too common in our tight-knit communities and rips at the fabric of our society. If we are to realize our true potential in this rapidly changing world, we must embrace our culture and society as a dynamic and evolving foundation that encourages excellence and accepts innovation.

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If we are to realize our true potential in this rapidly changing world, we must embrace our culture and society as a dynamic and evolving foundation that encourages excellence and accepts innovation. © ITK

When we allow ourselves and our fellow Inuit the freedom to step outside our comfort zones — to reimagine centuries-old art forms like throat singing or drum dancing, to work towards a unified Inuktut writing system, or sew garments that build upon traditional designs – we are signalling to the world that ours is a living, thriving culture, and we are signalling to each other that a healthy society allows us to be ourselves.

In pushing boundaries, Tanya is creating a new space for Inuit. She is not only challenging our own concepts of Inuit cultural expression, she is challenging non-Inuit expectations and assumptions about Inuit too. In this context, what she is doing is similar in principle to what our 1970s “radical” young leaders accomplished in challenging the Canadian and Inuit societal status quo by demanding and claiming a new political space.

In light of centuries of colonization and disrespect for our human rights, we are very protective of what we have retained as a people, particularly when it comes to our language, culture and way of life. But we are alive today

because of Inuit solidarity. This solidarity is still evident in our communities when we come together to support Inuit who are experiencing hardship or loss. We know how to hold each other up in the most difficult times.

We have no shortage of challenges upon which to unleash this potential today. It is incumbent on all of us to harness this power in service to our greatest needs, such as protecting our children, reducing suicide and ensuring that everyone has enough to eat. We also need to accept each other for who we are — even if we choose new paths — and not allow our society to be filled with anger and hate, instead of acceptance, support, and love.

The way we individually express the complexities and wonder of our land, our people, and our culture will always be personal. Inuit solidarity and unity, and our willingness to accept each other, are not lofty ideals. They are cultural hallmarks that have allowed us to flourish in Inuit Nunangat and that have ensured our political survival.

Natan Obed

President, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami

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