Above & Beyond | Canada's Arctic Journal November - December 2014

CANADA’S ARCTIC JOURNAL

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014 • $ 5.95

Northwords Winners Spruce to Shore Plant Life in Canada’s Arctic

Photographer David Kilabuk Documenting the North

PM40050872

Students on Ice 2014

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Brock Friesen / XÇ4 K‰n8

Jobie Tukkiapik / JW bexW4

ᑐᕌᖅᑐᑦ ᐃᑭᒪᔪᓄᑦ,

Dear Guest, As the year 2014 draws nearer to a close, we are able to reflect on the many initiatives and milestones that proudly demonstrate First Air’s continued growth, support and commitment to the communities we serve.

Earlier in the year we introduced three new-to-the-fleet Boeing 737-400s — one dedicated to an all passenger role and two to serve as “combi” aircraft. The “combi(s)” offer more space in the cabin for enhanced in-flight comfort while offering more freight capacity allowing us to serve the dual roles better.

We are very proud too of the introduction of our AFIRS (Automated Flight Information Reporting System) — the first airline in the world to use this technology. AFIRS improves flight following and enhances our ability to react to airborne events and provide support to our crews. The entire First Air fleet is now equipped with this leading technology, so that we always know precisely where our aircraft are situated.

This summer saw First Air ranked as one of the world's top 40 airlines for on time performance. We are also proud to have received a special award from Aboriginal Sport Circle of the NWT. Our partnership with them has helped support the delivery of their programs Territory wide.

In affirmation of our continued support and dedication to the people and communities in the North, our team engaged in many events and conferences throughout the year as we've continued to grow our commitment to the success of northern cultural, sporting, business and youth programs.

To say thank you for your kind support throughout the year, First Air has added additional flights in December and will operate on our inter-community “Home for the Holidays” schedule to keep customers better connected with family and friends during this season.

From our family to yours, I wish you a healthy and prosperous festive season and Happy New Year! We all look forward to seeing you onboard again soon and thank you for flying First Air, The Airline of the North.

Brock Friesen First Air President & CEO

ᐅᑭᐅᖓ 2014 ᐃᓱᓕᑉᐸᓪᓕᐊᓕᖅᑎᓪᓗᒍ, ᑭᖑᒻᒧᑦ ᐃᖅᑲᐅᒪᒋᐊᕈᓐᓇᖅᓯᒐᑦᑕ ᐊᒥᓱᓂᒃ ᐱᓕᕆᐊᖑᓕᓚᐅᖅᑐᓂᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑎᑭᑕᐅᓯᒪᕝᕕᐅᓕᓚᐅᖅᑐᓂᒃ ᖁᕕᐊᒋᒻᒪᕆᒃᑐᒋᑦ ᓇᓗᓇᐃᖅᓯᔾᔪᑕᐅᓯᒪᓂᖏᓄᑦ ᕘᔅᑦ ᐃᐊᒃᑯᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᓕᕆᔨᖓᑕ ᐱᕈᖅᐸᓪᓕᐊᓂᖏᓂ ᑲᔪᓯᓪᓗᑎᒃ, ᐃᑲᔪᖅᓯᓂᖃᕐᓂᖏᓄᓪᓗ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐱᓕᕆᐊᒃᓴᖃᖅᑎᑕᐅᓂᖏᓄᑦ ᓄᓇᓕᒋᔭᐅᔪᓄᑦ ᐱᔨᑦᑎᕋᕐᕕᒋᔭᑦᑎᓐᓄᑦ.

ᐅᑭᐅᖅ ᐊᑐᓕᓵᖅᑎᓪᓗᒍ ᐊᑐᓕᖅᑎᑦᑎᓯᒪᓕᓚᐅᕋᑦᑕ ᓄᑖᖑᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᓂᒃ ᓱᐴᔫᓕᓐᓂᒃ ᐳᐃᖕ 737-400-ᓂᒃ — ᓯᕗᓪᓕᕐᒥᒃ ᑐᕌᖅᑎᑕᐅᓯᒪᔪᓂᒃ ᐊᑐᖅᑕᐅᕙᓐᓂᐊᕐᓂᖏᓄᑦ ᑕᒪᐃᓄᑦ ᐃᑭᒪᔪᓄᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑐᒡᓕᕆᔭᖓᓂᒃ ᐱᔨᑦᑎᕋᖅᑎᐅᕙᓐᓂᐊᕐᓂᖓᓄᑦ “ᑲᑎᑕᐅᓯᒪᓂᖃᖅᑑᓗᓂ” ᖃᖓᑕᓲᕆᔭᐅᓂᐊᕐᒪᑦ. "ᑲᑎᑕᐅᓯᒪᓂᓕᒃ"(ᓖᑦ) ᖃᖓᑕᓲᑦ ᐃᓂᖅᑯᕐᑐᓂᖅᓴᐅᕗᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖅᑏᑦ ᐊᖁᑎᖏᑕ ᐃᓗᐊᓂ ᐱᐅᓯᒋᐊᖅᑎᑕᐅᓯᒪᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᐃᑭᒪᑎᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐱᖁᑎᓄᑦ ᐅᓯᔨᐅᕙᓐᓂᖓ ᐊᖏᓂᖅᓴᐅᓕᖅᓯᒪᒋᓪᓗᓂ, ᑕᐃᒪᓐᓇ ᒪᕐᕈᐃᓕᖓᔫᑎᓪᓗᒍ ᐱᐅᓂᖅᓴᐅᔪᒃᑯᑦ ᐱᓕᕆᔨᐅᔪᓐᓇᖅᐸᓐᓂᐊᖅᖢᑕ.

ᖁᕕᐊᓱᓪᓚᕆᒍᑎᖃᕆᕗᒍᑦ ᐊᑐᓕᖅᑎᑦᑎᓯᒪᒋᐊᑦᑎᓐᓂᒃ AFIRS-ᓂᒃ (ᖃᕆᑕᐅᔭᑎᒎᖅᑐᓂᒃ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᒧᑦ ᑐᓴᐅᒪᖃᑦᑕᐅᑎᓕᕆᔾᔪᑎᓂᒃ) — ᓯᕗᓪᓕᖅᐹᕆᔭᐅᓪᓗᓂ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᓄᑦ ᓯᓚᕐᔪᐊᓕᒫᒥ ᐊᑐᖅᑕᐅᕙᓐᓂᐊᖅᑐᒥᒃ ᑖᒃᑯᓂᖓ ᖃᕆᑕᐅᔭᑎᒎᖅᑐᓂᒃ. AFIRS-ᓂᒃ ᑕᐃᔭᐅᔪᑦ ᓴᓇᕐᕈᑏᑦ ᐱᐅᓯᒋᐊᕈᑕᐅᒻᒪᑕ ᖃᖓᑕᓂᕆᔭᐅᕙᒃᑐᓂᒃ ᒪᓕᒃᑎᑕᐅᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐱᐅᓯᒋᐊᕈᑎᐅᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᐊᔪᖖᒋᓐᓂᕆᔭᑦᑎᓐᓄᑦ ᖃᓄᐃᓕᖓᓕᖅᓯᒪᓂᐅᔪᓄᑦ ᖃᓄᐃᑉᐸᓐᓂᕐᓂᒃ ᖃᖓᑕᑎᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᖅᑎᒋᔭᑦᑎᓐᓄᑦ ᐃᑲᔪᕈᑎᐅᕙᒃᑭᓪᓗᑎᒃ. ᑕᒪᕐᒥᒃ ᕘᔅᑦ ᐃᐊᒃᑯᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖏᑦ ᑕᐃᒪᓐᓇᐃᑦᑐᓂᒃ ᖃᕆᑕᐅᔭᑎᒎᖅᑐᓂᒃ ᓴᓇᕐᕈᑎᓂᒃ ᐃᓕᐅᖅᑲᐃᕝᕕᐅᓯᒪᓕᖅᐳᑦ, ᑕᐃᒪᓗ ᖃᐅᔨᒪᐃᓐᓇᕈᓐᓇᖅᐸᓐᓂᐊᓕᖅᐳᒍᑦ ᓇᓃᓕᕋᓗᐊᕐᒪᖔᑕ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖁᑎᒋᔭᕗᑦ. ᐊᐅᔭᐅᓚᐅᖅᑐᒥ ᕘᔅᑦ ᐃᐊᒃᑯᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖏᑦ ᓇᓗᓇᐃᖅᑕᐅᓯᒪᓕᓚᐅᕐᒪᑕ ᐃᓚᒋᔭᐅᖃᑕᐅᓂᖏᓐᓄᑦ ᓯᓚᕐᔪᐊᓕᒫᒥ 40-ᐅᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖑᔪᓂᑦ ᑭᖑᕙᖅᐸᖖᒋᑦᑐᑎᒃ ᑎᑭᑉᐸᒃᑐᓄᑦ. ᖁᕕᐊᓱᓪᓚᕆᒍᑎᖃᕆᕗᒍᑦ ᑐᓂᕐᕈᓯᐊᖅᑖᓚᐅᕐᓂᑦᑎᓐᓂᒃ ᐃᓕᑕᕆᔭᐅᔾᔪᑎᒥᒃ ᓄᓇᖃᖅᑳᖅᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᐱᖖᒍᐊᖅᑐᓕᕆᔨᒃᑯᖏᓂᑦ ᓄᓇᑦᓯᐊᕐᒥ. ᐱᓕᕆᐊᖃᖃᑎᖃᕐᓂᕗᑦ ᑖᒃᑯᐊ ᑎᒥᖁᑎᒋᔭᖏᓂᒃ ᐃᑲᔪᖅᓯᕈᑕᐅᓚᐅᕐᒪᑕ ᐱᓕᕆᐊᕆᔭᒥᓐᓂᒃ ᓴᖅᑮᓯᒪᓕᕈᓐᓇᕐᓂᖏᓄᑦ ᓄᓇᑦᓯᐊᓕᒫᒥ.

ᓇᓗᓇᐃᖅᓯᒋᐊᕈᑎᒋᓪᓗᒍ ᑲᔪᓯᓪᓗᑕ ᐃᑲᔪᖅᓯᓂᖃᕐᓂᑦᑎᓐᓄᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐱᓕᕆᔾᔪᑎᖃᖅᐸᓐᓂᑦᑎᓐᓄᑦ ᐃᓄᖏᓄᑦ ᓄᓇᓕᒋᔭᐅᔪᓄᓪᓗ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᒥ, ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᖅᑎᒋᔭᕗᑦ ᐃᓚᒋᔭᐅᖃᑕᐅᖃᑦᑕᓚᐅᖅᐳᑦ ᐊᒥᓱᓄᑦ ᖃᓄᐃᓕᐅᖅᑎᑦᑎᓂᐅᕙᒃᑐᓄᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑲᑎᒪᕕᒡᔪᐊᕐᓂᐅᕙᒃᑐᓄᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᖑᓚᐅᖅᑐᒥ ᐱᔾᔪᑎᒋᓪᓗᒍ ᑲᔪᓯᓪᓗᑕ ᐊᖏᓪᓕᕙᓪᓕᐊᑎᑦᑎᓯᒪᒐᑦᑕ ᐃᖏᕐᕋᑦᑎᐊᖅᑎᑕᐅᓂᖏᓂᒃ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᒥ ᐱᐅᓯᑐᖃᕆᔭᐅᔪᓄᑦ, ᐱᖖᒍᐊᕐᑎᑦᑎᓂᐅᕙᒃᑐᓄᑦ, ᐱᓕᕆᔭᖅᑐᕐᓂᐅᕙᒃᑐᓄᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᒪᒃᑯᒃᑐᓄᑦ ᐱᓕᕆᐊᖑᔪᓂ. ᖁᔭᓐᓇᒦᕈᑎᒋᔪᒪᓪᓗᑎᒍᑦ ᐱᑦᑎᐊᖅᑐᒻᒪᕆᐅᓪᓗᓯ ᐃᑲᔪᖅᓯᓯᒪᓂᑦᓯᓐᓄᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᓗᒃᑖᒥᒃ, ᕘᔅᑦ ᐃᐊᒃᑯᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᕙᓐᓂᕐᒥᓐᓂᒃ ᐊᒥᓱᖖᒍᕆᐊᖅᑎᑦᑎᓯᒪᓕᕐᓂᐊᖅᑐᑦ ᑎᓯᐱᕆᐅᑉ ᑕᖅᑭᖓ ᐊᑐᖅᑎᓪᓗᒍ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᐅᓚᑦᓯᓂᖃᕐᓂᐊᖅᑐᑕ ᓄᓇᓕᐅᔪᓕᒫᓂ “ᕼᐋᓕᑏᕐᓇᐅᑎᓪᓗᒍ ᐊᖏᕐᕋᖅᓯᒪᔪᓐᓇᖅᑎᑦᑎᓂᕐᒧᑦ” ᖃᖓᑕᔪᓐᓇᖅᑎᑦᑎᓗᑕ ᐃᑭᒪᕙᒃᑐᑦ ᐱᐅᓂᖅᓴᐅᔪᑎᒍᑦ ᐃᓚᒋᔭᒥᓐᓂᒃ ᐱᖃᑎᐊᓗᒋᔭᒥᓐᓂᒃᓗ ᐃᓅᖃᑎᖃᕆᐊᖅᓯᒪᔪᓐᓇᖁᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᖁᕕᐊᓱᓐᓇᐅᓂᖓᓂ.

ᐃᓚᒋᔭᑦᑎᓐᓂᑦ ᐃᓚᒋᔭᑦᓯᓐᓄᑦ, ᓈᒻᒪᑦᓯᐊᖅᑑᓗᓯ ᐊᒃᖢᐃᑦᑑᑦᑎᐊᕐᓗᓯᓗ ᖁᕕᐊᓱᓐᓇᖅᓯᐅᖁᓇᖅᐳᓯ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᕼᐋᐱ ᓂᐅ ᓂᐅᖅᐸᑦᓯ! ᓂᕆᐅᒋᓂᐊᖅᐸᑦᓯᒋᑦ ᐃᑭᒪᔪᒫᕐᓂᑦᓯᓐᓂᒃ ᕿᓚᒥᐅᔪᖅ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᖁᔭᓐᓇᒦᒃ ᕘᔅᑦ ᐃᐊᒃᑯᑎᒍᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖓᑎᒍᑦ ᐃᑭᒪᓚᐅᕐᓂᑦᓯᓐᓄᑦ, ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᒥᐅᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖁᑎᖓᑦ.

ᐸᕌᒃ ᕗᕇᓴᓐ ᕘᔅᑎᐊᒃᑯᓐᓄᑦ ᐊᖓᔪᖅᑳᖅ & ᐊᐅᓚᑦᑎᔨᒻᒪᕆᒃ

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 clients, L’année 2014 tire à sa fin et nous sommes fiers de faire un retour sur les nombreuses initiatives et étapes importantes qui font preuve de la croissance continue de First Air, en plus de notre appui et de notre engagement envers les collectivités que nous desservons.

Plus tôt cette année, nous avons intégré à la flotte trois nouveaux Boeing 737-400 — dont l’un est consacré entièrement aux passagers, tandis que les deux autres servent d’avions mixtes. Ces derniers offrent plus d’espace dans la cabine et par conséquent un vol plus confortable et une plus grande capacité de fret aérien, ce qui nous permet de mieux remplir les deux rôles.

Nous sommes très fiers aussi de la mise en place de notre système Communications contrôleur-pilote par liaison de données (CPDLC) — la première ligne aérienne au monde à utiliser cette technologie. Ce système améliore le contrôle en vol ainsi que notre capacité de réagir aux événements qui surviennent en vol et de fournir de l’appui à nos employés de bord. La totalité de la flotte aérienne de First Air est maintenant munie de cette technologie de pointe qui permet de savoir précisément et en tout temps où nos avions sont situés.

Cet été, First Air s’est classé parmi les 40 lignes aériennes les meilleures au monde pour sa ponctualité. Nous sommes fiers aussi d’avoir remporté un prix spécial du Cercle sportif autochtone des T.N.-O. Notre partenariat avec cette organisation l’a aidée à fournir ses programmes dans l’ensemble des Territoires.

Pour affirmer notre appui et notre dévouement continus à la population et aux collectivités du Nord, notre équipe a participé à de nombreux événements et conférences tout au long de l’année, poursuivant ainsi notre engagement envers le succès des programmes du Nord qui visent la culture, le sport, le commerce et la jeunesse.

Afin de vous remercier de votre appui tout au long de l’année, First Air a ajouté des vols supplémentaires en décembre, selon notre horaire intercommunautaire Home for the Holidays (à la maison pour les Fêtes) afin que nos clients puissent être avec leurs familles et leurs amis pendant cette saison.

De la part de notre famille à la vôtre, je vous souhaite une saison de festivités saine et prospère, et une bonne année!

Nous espérons bien vous revoir bientôt à bord, et merci d’avoir choisi First Air, la Ligne aérienne du Nord.

Brock Friesen Président-directeur général de First Air

ᐱᒻᒪᕆᐅᑎᑦᑕᕗᑦ ᐃᑲᔪᖅᑐᐃᓃᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᖁᔭᓐᓇᒦᒃ ᕘᔅᑎᐊ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᕐᒥᒃ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᓕᕆᔨᒻᒪᕆᐅᑎᒃᑲᕕᐅᒃ.

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.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Publisher & Editor Tom Koelbel Advertising Doris Ohlmann (Ottawa) 613-257-4999 Circulation Patt Hunter Design Robert Hoselton, Beat Studios email: editor@arcticjournal.ca Toll Free: 1 • 877 • 2ARCTIC Volume 26, No. 6

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8 Nunavut Photographer David Kilabuk: Documenting His Community They are moments in life never to be repeated. Every time we open our eyes we catch a fleeting glimpse of life. We need to look, we need to open our eyes, we need to understand and appreciate just what is in front of us at this precise moment — the moment a camera goes “click”. — David Reid

21 Students on Ice 2014 Three Parks Canada Arctic Explorer Champions share their reflections on the summer Students on Ice Program.

— Photos by Lee Narraway Northwords Winners Spruce to Shore

33 Spruce to Shore

Plant Life in Canada’s Arctic

Photographer David Kilabuk Documenting the North

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Students on Ice 2014

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A three-man botanical research team from the Canadian Museum of Nature document and collect all the plant species growing along the lower Coppermine River in Nunavut. — Paul C. Sokoloff

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SOI ARCTIC 2014 PARTICIPANTS, BRIANNA BROWN AND TAYLOR JACQUE, GRAB A DOUBLE SELFIE. © LEE NARRAWAY

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arcticjournal.ca Celebrating our 26th year as the popular In-flight magazine for First Air, The Airline of the North.

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13 LIVING ABOVE & BEYOND 19 RESOURCES 29 NORTHWORDS 38 SCIENCE Polar Bear Diets

By Jeremy Lant and David Smith 41 ARTS, CULTURE & EDUCATION Digging with Avataq

By Susan Lofthouse

45 Cadet Qajaq Trip

By Conor Goddard 48 NORTHERN BOOKSHELF 49 INUIT FORUM

By Terry Audla 50 EXOTICA Canadian, eh? Absolutely!

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Community Connections

© NAOMI TREMBLAY/JIMMY HIKOK ILIHAKVIK (3)

Enthusiastic Jimmy Hikok Ilihakvik Bullybusters (L to R): Mackenzie Demerah, Jordan Kukilukak, Tabitha Stirrett and Chelsea Havioyak serve up dinner.

John and Martha Ivarluk’s smiles of appreciation and enjoyment say it all.

T

hanksgiving just wouldn’t be Thanksgiving in Kugluktuk, Nunavut, without the annual First Air Elders and Students Thanksgiving Feast.

For the past five years, Jimmy Hikok Ilihakvik [School] has hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for its community elders and students prior to the Thanksgiving weekend. First Air provides all the food, while other local businesses (Northern and Kugluktuk Co-op) and community groups donate other necessities and labour. It’s truly a labour of love.

This year, Feast volunteers came from Arctic College students and staff, the Ilavut

errata The caption atop page 25 of our September/October 2014 issue, that accompanied the Parks Canada photo of Mercy Bay, incorrectly identified its location. Mercy Bay is, in fact, a body of water off Banks Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and part of Aulavik National Park, in the Northwest Territories.

November/December 2014

Centre, and two off-duty RCMP officers.

Kugluktuk High School donated its kitchen to cook up the large amounts of fixings while many staff of Jimmy Hikok Ilihakvik cooked turkeys.

Students volunteered as well. Focusing on the themes of elder appreciation and gratitude for elders, they made the decorations, placemats and poems that the elders took home after the event. Student Bullybusters (monitors), wearing pink T-shirts, were among the servers as well.

Preparations always begin weeks in advance, organized for many years by Lori Rudyk, a longtime staff member of Jimmy Hikok Ilihakvik.

On feast day, elders arrive around 1:30 pm, some on a school bus provided by the Kugluktuk District Education Authority and others assisted by the Kugluktuk Home Care team. Students join them at 1:45 pm. The feast begins with a prayer by an elder and then the school breaks into a Thanksgiving song.

Afterward, the food flows, delivered by Bullybusters and community volunteers.

Elder June Klengenberg, 100 years young, attended the community event accompanied by home care worker Alison Johnston.

Conversation and laughter can be heard everywhere. When it is over, Elders, all smiles, collect the decorations, poems, and food to take home.

This annual event is truly a community effort that celebrates what we are so thankful for: the relationship between elders and youth. The Feast remains one of the favourite days at Jimmy Hikok Ilihakvik, as it serves as our chance to give something back to those who have loved and supported us.

Naomi Tremblay Lori Rudyk

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A now retired Hawker aircraft on its landing approach into Pangnirtung, Nunavut.

NUNAVUT PHOTOGRAPHER DAVID KILABUK: Documenting His Community

By David Reid

THEY ARE MOMENTS IN LIFE NEVER TO BE REPEATED. Every time we open our eyes we catch a fleeting glimpse of life. We need to look, we need to open our eyes, we need to understand and appreciate just what is in front of us at this precise moment — the moment a camera goes “click”.

Photographs are historical documents in every imaginable way. They shed illuminating light on the past and at the same time

ations will be grateful. They preserve

© DAVID REID

create records for which future gener-

cease to be just photographs — they are so much more.

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© DAVID KILABUK

what needs to be appreciated. The great photographs

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© FIRST AIR

An artful photo of a carver in action by David Kilabuk was featured on the First Air corporate calendar in 2011.

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community and look to your left and the view will take you towards the once-famous whaling grounds of Cumberland Sound, home now to a productive turbot fishery.

Look to your right and the southern entrance to Auyuittuq National Park will hold your gaze and tempt you to venture into “The Land That Never Melts”.

David found himself at times at the community airport and always took notice of the tourists arriving from all over the world. What was one of the first things they’d do after stepping off the plane? Take a photograph!

© DAVID REID

What is a photographer? Is there such a thing? Perhaps, instead, there are storytellers. Stories that need, and should, be told. Like all great stories, they personify the simple essence of communication. Pangnirtung’s David Kilabuk is just such a storyteller.

Growing up in one of the Baffin region’s most scenic communities, his fascination with cameras and photography began in early childhood. He recalls clearly seeing photographs taken by Peter Pitseolak in another community, Cape Dorset. These were photographs taken 20 to 30 years before. They prompted David to imagine what it would be like to take images that people would be looking with as much fascination as he had, decades into the future.

David remembers how difficult it was to get film for cameras in the 1960s and ’70s in Pangnirtung. An especially fond memory from his childhood is of his father having a Polaroid camera that would produce finished photos as if by magic. For his 21st birthday, David’s sister Mary gave him his first 35mm camera and David hasn’t looked back since.

Anyone who has been to Pangnirtung knows how beautiful the scenery is around the community. Located on the east side of Pangnirtung Fiord, nearby Mount Duval provides a stark and imposing backdrop. Stand in the

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Born and raised in Pangnirtung, David realized that people from very far away were keen to take photographs of his community and what he knew best. At first he thought; “What are they taking photos of?” Now he sees things through the lens of his (several) cameras and rarely does a day go by when he doesn’t think about taking a photograph of his surroundings.

Well known in his community and beyond as a talented photographer, friends, colleagues and family don’t hesitate to call him (or just stop him in the street) to tell him of special or unusual events that are happening in the community or nearby. On one occasion, a (very lost) juvenile great blue heron was spotted outside the community. David was found and told; the resulting image a rarity in itself.

David tells a great story about “the one that got away”.

Recently a moondog had appeared in Pangnirtung’s vast night sky. A moondog is a relatively rare bright circular spot on a lunar halo caused by the refraction of moonlight by hexagonal-plate-shaped ice crystals. They tend to be rarer than the more common sundogs because the moon must be bright and full or near full for them to develop. David had heard of it when a group of local Elders went on the radio and talked about it.

No one had ever seen anything like it before and talked about how amazing it was and how excited they were. David thought long and hard about what it would have meant to the Elders if he had seen the lunar event and managed to photograph it so they could have enjoyed it long after the event itself. He is also aware enough to understand and appreciate that the Elders in the community will not be around forever. He does feel the need to document, not only their faces and characters but their lives and living in general.

He’s also witnessed change take place. Elders with grandkids hanging out together: the latter owning, what is quickly becoming ubiquitous, a cell phone and the subsequent “selfie”. David gets a kick out of seeing Elders take them.

Many photographs do exist of life decades ago in the Baffin communities. Travellers, RCMP, HBC, Government

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officials, etc. often brought cameras with them and while at the time the significance of taking photographs wasn’t perhaps fully appreciated, they remain today as treasured possessions of many Inuit. Through social media, David recently heard from a gentleman in England who, believe it or not, had a photograph of David’s parents on their wedding day. One event, on one day shared by his parents and friends, captured all those years ago. It is clearly one of David’s favourite photographs.

With a large family and a full time job in the community, David still finds the time nearly every day to take photographs. I recently had the chance to sit down with him and talk about what photography means to him and what he looks for when taking images. A quiet, polite and focused man, we sat and chatted at his kitchen table enjoying hot tea, Scottish shortbread and bannock (is there anything better?). I was curious to find out what draws or pulls him out in all weather and in all seasons to take photographs.

He was quick to mention that even his youngest children are aware of his passion and the factors that contribute to taking great photographs. If the light entering their house’s large front picture window is particularly striking, his young daughter will often remark upon it, in a way pushing David to make the effort, regardless of temperature, to gather his gear and clothing together and venture outside. He enjoys enormously taking scenic images but explains that the process of capturing “light” is a challenge, but one he relishes.

Opportunities also present themselves outside the community, whether it’s fishing, hunting and travelling with family and friends or being asked to be the official photographer during the bowhead hunt in Cumberland Sound. It was clear from the stories told that the capturing of the event in photographs was just as important to David as to the community as a whole. Photographers, like hunters, require patience.

They both know what they’re looking for and it takes time to be in the right place at the right time, it takes skill and experience.

That skill and experience has resulted in some of David’s work appearing in National Geographic and Canadian Geographic and this magazine. He’s in demand from government and Inuit organizations alike. David is the first to tell you that he’s still learning each and every time he goes out to take photos and that there is a process involved. He sees himself almost as a constant apprentice — the land and all that it holds being the teacher.

One thing is clear, David is very proud to be a Pangnirtungmiut. More than anything, he wants to share his beloved community and all that it has to offer with everyone. He’s keenly aware that there are Inuit all over the world, some with roots and family in Pangnirtung, who welcome the chance to see “home” and all that it is.

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LIVING ABOVE & BEYOND

Arctic Voices uses interactive experiences, photos, videos and real specimens to convey that the Arctic is more than just snow — it is land, water, and ice. It is home to people and a surprising diversity of wildlife. And it is a place of rapid change being studied and monitored by scientists.

Travelling exhibit opens December 5

© SCIENCE NORTH (3)

A cultural, environmental, and scientific perspective of the Arctic is the theme of a new, national travelling exhibition co-produced by the Canadian Museum of Nature and Science North in Sudbury.

Arctic Voices uses interactive experiences, photos, videos and real specimens to portray the diversity of Arctic wildlife, flora and fauna, the land and unique culture, the changing climate, archaeology, economic development and sustainability.

Arctic Voices features specimens from the Canadian Museum of Nature’s world-class natural history collections and introduces museum scientists and the research they are undertaking to understand the Arctic’s biodiversity.

For more information, visit nature.ca.

Visitors to Arctic Voices will learn about the flora and fauna of the Arctic, including long-extinct animals such as Puijila darwini, a 24-million-year-old ancestor of seals and walruses discovered on Devon Island by a Canadian Museum of Nature scientist.

Right: Visitors to Arctic Voices will be able to challenge their perceptions of the Arctic and discover a colourful land — come face to face with a polar bear, travel with scientists as they catch and tag Arctic whales, and then go on a “garden tour” to see how plants have adapted to survive and thrive.

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© CESRF, UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH

The Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business and Sodexo Canada have announced that Mary Simon is this year’s recipient of the Award for Excellence in Aboriginal Relations.

Simon is recognized for advancing “critical social, economic and human rights issues for Canadian Inuit regionally, nationally and internationally.”

Over the last four decades, she has held a number of senior leadership positions including L-R: Dean Johnson, Sodexo Canada; Barry Telford, president Sodexo Canada; president of Makivik Corp., Mary Simon; and JP Gladu, president and CEO of the Canadian Council for president of the Inuit Circum- Aboriginal Business. polar Council, Canadian Ambassador for Circumpolar Affairs, a lead negotiator for the creation of the Arctic Council, and former Canadian Ambassador to Denmark.

The Award is presented each year to a Canadian who has contributed to “building bridges between Aboriginal people and Canada’s business community,” as selected by a jury.

© PABLO SU

Inuit leader recognized with award

Lettuce grows in a prototype of the modular multilevel LED plant growing system for high-density food production in Northern communities.

Pilot project could aid food security in NWT An experimental modular farm station could soon be built in Hay River, Northwest Territories.

An AgNorth pilot project, run by researchers from the University of Guelph, would aim to ensure Northern communities have access to fresh, healthy produce at a reasonable cost.

The facility will be outfitted with stateof-the-art energy-efficient technology, like programmable LEDs, which are designed to make growing fruits and vegetables indoors in Arctic conditions possible, year-round.

A successful AgNorth program would improve food security and community health, 14

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lower food costs, and create businesses, skills and jobs for communities and aboriginal peoples across the NWT. The pilot project would grow a single crop to satisfy the consumption needs of about 3,500 people. The facility could be completed within a $2 million capital budget.

This project is currently in the pre-feasibility stage to assess the market and technological considerations of applying this technology in the NWT.

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LIVING ABOVE & BEYOND

Throat singer receives recognition Throat singer Tanya Tagaq has won best Canadian album of the past year.

Tagaq’s record, Animism, won the $30,000 Polaris Music Prize. She was one of only three first-time nominees for the Polaris this year, but she’s been producing records for over 10 years and has had two Juno nominations as well.

The prize, which goes to the best Canadian album of the year based on “artistic merit without regard to genre, sales history or label

of 11 music media professionals drawn from over 200 writers, editors, broadcasters, DJs

© PARKS CANADA/D. TAUKIE

and personalities from across the country.

© SIX SHOOTER RECORDS

affiliation,” was determined by a Grand Jury

Rapids on the Sila River, Ukkusiksalik National Park.

Nunavut Park receives protection Ukkusiksalik National Park in Nunavut’s Kivalliq region has been officially established under the Canada National Parks Act, resulting in greater ecological protection.

Ukkusiksalik’s 20,500-square kilometre Park is home to many species, including polar bear, snow geese, muskox, and the Arctic hare, as well as more than 500 archaeological sites.

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© HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN IN RIGHT OF CANADA (2009)

Royal Canadian Navy’s Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ships to honour wartime hero

A design rendering of the first Royal Canadian Navy’s Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ship.

The first Royal Canadian Navy’s (RCN) Arctic/

all three coasts, including in the Arctic. The

Offshore Patrol Ships (AOPS) has been named.

AOPS will also be used to support other units

Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship Harry DeWolf

of the Canadian Armed Forces in the conduct

honours a wartime Canadian naval hero.

of maritime-related operations and to support

The Arctic/Offshore Patrol Ships Class will be known as the Harry DeWolf Class, with Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship Harry DeWolf as the lead ship.

other government departments in carrying out their mandates, as required.

The AOPS will be built by Irving Shipbuilding Inc. in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The AOPS will conduct sovereignty and

© FISHERIES AND OCEANS CANADA J.-P. SYLVESTRE

surveillance operations in Canada’s waters on

NMRWB revises Nunavik’s beluga management zones Nunavik’s new beluga management system could change which beluga populations are hunted.

As part of the plan, a new pilot project will allow hunters from Kuujjuaraapik to harvest James Bay area beluga whales between December 1 and June 1 each year. Beluga whales hunted from that community between June 1 and November 30 will be considered under the eastern Hudson Bay quota.

Fall allocations are as follows: 10 for Puvirnituq, 15 for Akulivik, three for Ivujivik, three for Kangiqsujuaq and four for Kangiqsualujjuaq.

The new plan is not expected to change the overall total number of belugas hunted in the region, the Nunavik Marine Region Wildlife Board said.

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Š MAX FRIESEN

LIVING ABOVE & BEYOND

The cruciform house at Kuukpak, fully excavated, with the Mackenzie River in the background.

Archaeologists make discovery along the Mackenzie Delta A team of archeologists from the University of Toronto has found a complete Inuvialuit cruciform pit house along the Mackenzie Delta across from Tuktoyaktuk. The driftwood house, dating around 1400 to 1800 AD, is a rare find for researchers studying the North.

A cruciform house, named for its cross shape when viewed from above, was a popular style for Inuvialuit houses until the early 1900s. They are very large houses with a main room. On three sides of the main room, alcoves stick out and on the fourth side is a long, entrance tunnel.

The team has been working in the area, in partnership with the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre, for about two years. The goal of the long-term project is to understand and mitigate the destruction of archaeological sites in the region.

Climate change to be discussed at Arctic conference The International Arctic Change 2014 Conference will be held at the Ottawa Convention Centre from December 8 to 12.

Arctic Change 2014 welcomes the participation of international Arctic researchers, students, policy and decision makers, representatives of government and non-government organizations, the private sector,

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northern stakeholders and media to address the global challenges and opportunities arising from climate change and modernization in the circum-Arctic. Arctic Change 2014 will be one of the largest transsectoral international Arctic research conferences ever held in Canada.

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LIVING ABOVE & BEYOND

Protecting Nunavik’s cultural and wildlife areas The mining rights in part of the Kovik River basin, in the northwestern corner of Nunavik, have been temporarily suspended.

That means no exploration can happen within a 5,000 square kilometre area until the final boundaries are determined. The area is rich in cultural history and is an important wildlife habitat.

The Kovik River watershed is just one of 11 protected areas a Nunavik working group is hoping to secure permanent protection status. If they are successful, Nunavik’s protected areas will © KRG

become parks, biodiversity or aquatic reserves, which all prohibit industrial development.

Kovik river watershed area.

New coalition forms to support indigenous issues A new coalition made up of prominent politicians and aboriginal leaders

will achieve better living conditions, better education and more

has formed with the goal of rebuilding the country’s relationship with

economic opportunities for aboriginal groups across the country.

indigenous peoples.

The non-partisan group, called Canadians for a New Partnership,

Inuit leader and activist Mary Simon is co-chair of the group’s board of directors. The group’s two other Inuit directors include climate

will create a national dialogue on indigenous issues, by attending

change activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier and national Inuit Youth president

speaking events, conferences and lecture series. It is hoped their efforts

Thomas Anguti Johnston.

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RESOURCES

TMAC’s Doris North gold mine proposed amendments to the mine’s certificate has residents of Kugluktuk, Cambridge Bay and Taloyoak raising environmental concerns.

TMAC wants to increase the mine’s lifespan to up to six years, nearly triple the amount of ore the company will mine every year and create a tailings pond where waste can be treated and then returned to Robert’s Bay. During public consultations, Nunavut Impact Review Board staff collected feedback that included such questions as how would the water be protected, how would the water pipelines affect migration routes of land animals and how will the camp garbage be handled?

According to TMAC, water discharged into Robert’s Bay would be monitored.

© TMAC

TMAC proposes amendments to gold mine certificate

The site of the Doris North gold mine facilities.

Community members also expressed hope that subcontracting jobs would become available through the mine, as well as training and education opportunities for both youth and adults.

The Doris North Mine lies about 100 kilometres south of Cambridge Bay in western Nunavut and is part of the 80-km Hope Bay greenstone belt, believed to hold at least nine million ounces of gold.

Efforts to reduce fuel use at Nunavik mine site in the wind

Proposed mineral-rich mines in western Nunavut need help

© MMG

The Raglan nickel mine site in Nunavik runs on roughly 60 million litres of diesel a year. In efforts to reduce the amount of fuel needed to run the site, a new wind turbine has been constructed about seven kilometres from the mine site.

The three megawatt, 120-metre (393 foot) high wind turbine, with blades extending 40 metres from the turbine’s centre will be coupled with a 1.8 megawatt wind energy storage device — the first of its kind in Canada’s Arctic — in hopes that it will harness enough wind energy to cut back on 2.5 million litres of diesel at the mine site.

Glencore, owners of Raglan, hope this pilot project can benefit all of Nunavik, not just the mine site.

Ham Lake exploration camp near the Izok deposit.

MMG has plans to build a $6.5-billion network of lead, zinc and copper mines along the Izok Corridor in western Nunavut. However, the lack of regional infrastructure is hampering this project.

MMG has revised its Izok Corridor Mine feasibility plan. It wants to build a deep-water port and airport at Grays Bay, a 325-all-season road that would run to the coast, not far from Kugluktuk, and a microwave broadband network, but needs a partner to help finance it.

The mine, with a lifespan of 11 years, could be operational in eight years. It would add $5.1 billion to the gross domestic product of Nunavut. During its operations it could bring $1.5 billion in jobs to the territory.

The company plans to advise the Nunavut Impact Review Board by the end of the year whether or not to proceed.

Diamond mine receives water licence approval The Gahcho Kué diamond project has received approval for its Type A Water Licence by the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources of the Government of the Northwest Territories.

This marks another important milestone for Gahcho Kué.

Located at Kennady Lake, approximately 280 km northeast of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories, the Gahcho Kué Project is a joint venture between De Beers Canada Inc. and Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. November/December 2014

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LIFE IS AN ADVENTURE Just do it!

There are three words I hold near and dear to my heart: Just do it! These words branded in the back of my mind inspired me to embrace this summer’s Students on Ice (SOI) program as one of Parks Canada’s Arctic Explorer Champions.

A

fter sailing the Arctic waters from Labrador to Greenland this July with SOI, my sense of adventure has expanded exponentially and my eyes have been opened to the power of exploration, adventure and stepping out of my comfort zone. I finished the expedition with a more rambunctious and inquisitive sense of wonder in the world around me, craving to further explore the unknown.

The SOI program consisted of 88 students from around the world, 12 of whom were ambassadors like myself. Forty-five experts joined us, who brought light to the science, history and art we witnessed each day on our exploration. In many cases these experts also served as mentors.

One of the experts I admired most is renowned explorer and oceanographer Don Walsh. Upon seeing our eyes light up at new sights, he would proclaim, “You have the Explorers Gene.” He was right. I was fully entranced. He taught me that exploring is curiosity acted upon and a deeply satisfying activity.

Students relax on the deck in the warm sunshine as the ship sails on smooth seas through Torngat Mountains National Park as Geoff Green expands on SOI’s plans for the evening.

© LEE NARRAWAY

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This being my first Arctic expedition, I actively embraced each moment, excited for the next. I found myself often questioning: “What lay around the corner? What might I see? What will I smell? Will I remember everything? What adventure will I come across next?”

Thankfully, both the good and challenging experiences laid the foundation for extraordinary memories.

Our journey began upon boarding a First Air chartered flight to Kuujjuaq, Nunavik in Quebec. After a morning of wandering Kuujjuaq, playing Inuit games I had recently learned, I became uneasy wondering if I packed everything I would need for this expedition. However, I was confident to board our ship, the Sea Adventurer, no matter what! With adrenaline coursing through my veins and excitement in my heart, we boarded the ship, pulled anchor and set sail.

Finally aboard our ice-class vessel, and our new home for the next two weeks, I scurried to my room, as thrilled as a kid on Christmas morning. Throwing my bag to the ground, I whisked myself back out the door to explore the ship. Soon enough the expedition leader, Geoff Green, reeled us to the common area. We eagerly awaited our welcome like it was the first day of school. And that is exactly what it was: a floating classroom. Green described our daily workshops, landings, the necessity of organization, schedules and, above all else, flexibility. I learned that on such endeavours, and in life, one must never fear the unknown and should embrace flexibility largely because “Plan B” often goes above and beyond all expectations.

Our daily workshops had an excess of choices. We could dabble in Inuit print making and sewing, expand our knowledge and understanding of history and politics, try our hands at Inuit games, and gaze at the life of phytoplankton under microscopes.

Personally, the leadership, expedition and entrepreneurship workshops really peaked my interests. Learning from the experienced and insightful minds of the great modern-day explorers Don Walsh and David Fletcher was priceless. They taught me what it takes to be not only an explorer, but also a leader in life and harsh conditions. As Fletcher would say, “Right or wrong, a good leader always makes a decision. Indecision is the worst form of leadership”. I was deeply moved by Walsh and Fletcher, who often shared their words of wisdom about life and team building. They truly put my life into perspective. They evoked a great sense of motivation and eagerness, because their insights have been drawn from hands-on experience.

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© LEE NARRAWAY (4)

Arctic historian, David Gray, discusses how people once lived at this ancient site of a traditional Inuit sod house.

Mina Ching gets helpful advice from Pangnirtung artist and master printmaker Jolly Atagooyuk.

Some of my greatest moments of our trip include my frequent outings to the ship's bow. I would peer into the frigid Arctic water, and, in a tranquil state, reflect on my life — accomplishments, lessons learned, the future. My birthday was fast approaching during the expedition and I was feeling both lost and eager about my future, all the while I was on an adventure of a lifetime.

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Then one evening, a Canadian singersongwriter aboard named Kathleen Edwards really honed my emotions after she played an acoustic set. It tied my thoughts together, making sense of everything I was feeling – life is an adventure and it is what you make of it. I had photographed polar bears, seals, muskoxen, reeled in a number of Arctic char, and captured underwater GoPro footage of whales. I realized I was in the midst of my own life adventure. I shed tears of joy as Edwards strummed her guitar.

I ended up losing my GoPro camera in the water on my birthday. My heart sank to my stomach. I took it everywhere with me: bungee jumping in Switzerland, skydiving in Austria, literally everywhere as if it were another appendage. However, Green’s teachings of preparedness proved me well; I had ended up saving my footage just minutes before. Yes, there were some shots lost, but the stories are priceless.

Once I returned home I passed my passion and stories on to more young Canadians through Parks Canada outreach programs in Vancouver. I am confident that those I connected with will find their own way up North or at least appreciate the wonders that lie outside of our busy cities. Since

Addison Asuchak lies on a low roof to photograph the abandoned mining town of Ivittuut, Greenland.

memories are hard to share, I encourage everyone to see the world at their feet and boldly take steps to create their own adventures.

I give great thanks to Students on Ice, Danielle Koop, Grant Lahring, Missy Chareka, Mila Mezei, Justin Fisch, Parks Canada, my friends, and especially my family for having helped shape and prepare me for such memorable and endearing adventures. I bid you adieu, the best of luck, and bon voyage.

Lastly, here's my piece of wisdom: Just do it!

You will be glad you did.

Students explore a receding glacier in Tasermiut Fjord, Greenland.

Addison Asuchak November/December 2014

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SOI’s zodiacs cruise below the towering glaciers of awe-striking Evigsfjord, (Fiord of Eternity) Greenland.

REFLECTIONS ON MY SOI EXPERIENCE

I

come from Braemar in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, a small village in the mountains of the Cairngorms National Park. I am 17 years old and I have just left school. I have always had a fascination for the Arctic and love getting into wild places like the mountains around my home. I was really pleased to get the opportunity to visit the Arctic with Students on Ice as it fulfilled a lifelong ambition to see the landscape, observe the wildlife and see how both the communities and wildlife have adapted to the harsh conditions of living in the Arctic.

I especially enjoyed going ashore from the expedition ship in the zodiacs and spending time walking in the mountains. It reminded me of home, though the mountains in the Arctic were bigger than the mountains I am used to in Scotland. Also, whilst we have no glaciers in Scotland left now, in time with climate change, Greenland might start to look even more like a bigger version of Scotland. I was drawn to make comparisons between communities in the Arctic trying to sustain their future with small, remote communities like my own in Scotland. While there is a difference in scale, both rely on sustainable use of the natural resources they have and both are increasingly relying on income from visitors.

As far as the landscapes, there were so many places that were impressive, it’s hard to choose a favourite. I was really impressed by the size and scale of the glaciers in southern Greenland. I really enjoyed exploring them and imagining the forces that created them.

The scale of them made me feel very small and insignificant. I loved hearing the thunderous sound of the glacier calving into the fiord. It is interesting to think of the long journey the ice makes from the glacier as an iceberg until it melts into water so far away from where it was born. The pack ice was stunning and impressive too, but it made me sad to see it and think how its extent has declined markedly due to climate change over recent decades. It is a real worry to me that it might disappear altogether in my lifetime.

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Alistair Walker takes a break on a beach-stranded bergy bit in Torngat Mountains National Park.

I had heard before I went on the trip about the midnight sun and the spectacular sunrises and sunsets, but nothing had prepared me for how spectacular they were. It was well worth staying up through the early hours to experience these stunning lighting effects. When the light was at its darkest, the icebergs were silhouetted against a coffee coloured sky. With more light, the sky was a kaleidoscope of different shades of yellow, orange, pink, purple and blue.

This was especially impressive when the foreground was sea ice floating on the water.

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Two of the most special experiences of the trip for me were seeing my first polar bear and first Arctic fox in the wild. We woke up one morning on the ship, it was cold and fog hung on the fiord. We were in Nachvak Fiord in Ramah Bay. Here we saw our first polar bear from the ship. It was very far away and sadly by the time we landed it had been spooked by the scouting zodiac so had moved away. I wish I could have seen it closer. It was a momentous occasion for me. I have seen a polar bear in a wildlife park close to home

Alistair Walker

Š LEE NARRAWAY (4)

Paninnguaq Boassen creates a bracelet during a nautical knot-tying workshop.

but it was so special to see one in its natural surroundings. I could not believe our luck when we saw two more polar bears on this same day, including one that was swimming in the sea, close to the zodiacs when we were exploring the fiord.

A few days later we arrived in Torngat National Park Base Camp. After an introductory tour by the Park Rangers, we were given the opportunity to go on a hike. On the hike I saw an Arctic fox standing on a rock on the hillside. Shortly after, another fox joined it. Again, I have seen Arctic foxes in the wildlife park at home but it was a real privilege to see them in their own environment.

I had some really magical wildlife moments when we crossed the Labrador Sea. I stood on my own at the back of the boat when I was surprised by separate groups of fin whales and pilot whales swimming by. Shortly afterwards I saw some seals bobbing along beside the boat and later some otters played alongside the boat.

The communities we visited along the way were very welcoming and the residents happy to share their experiences with us. It was interesting to see how they maintained their life in such a harsh environment. It was good to meet the national park rangers who could explain to us about the special environment that they managed.

The staff and specialists on the ship came from a wide variety of backgrounds and led interesting discussions about the Arctic and its challenges, especially climate change and development pressures.

I particularly enjoyed the workshop on photography. I had an interest before I went on the expedition but I really got into it in a big way and developed my skill level with the help and guidance of the specialist photography mentors on board. They particularly helped me in composing landscape photographs in an atmospheric way and in creating successful wildlife shots. I was very pleased to get some understanding about how to take macro shots of Arctic flora, which in places was very prolific.

It is still only a few weeks since my return from the expedition. It will take time for the full impact of the experience to be realized. I am still remembering new memories every day. Summing up my experience in a few words, I would say that my Arctic expedition with Students on Ice was a once in a lifetime adventure in which I experienced some magical and unforgettable moments in a very special environment.

Karen Benoit and Melody Teddy lie on the tundra to sketch a tiny wildflower.

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CONNECTING WITH THE INUIT CULTURE

M

y name is Chaim Andersen. I am an Inuk girl from Nain, a little town inNewfoundland, Canada, of approximately 1,300 people. This summer was one of the best of my life because I applied for a job with Parks Canada that involved the Students on Ice Expedition 2014.

Just a couple days after submitting my application, I received a call from Gary Baikie, Visitor Experience Manager at Parks Canada. He told me the position required a passport, which I did not have. It would be hard to get because no one in Nain had the permits to take a passport photo. However, fortunately, we were able to finish the process of getting a passport for me by the month of June, and, once I had it, I was so excited I could not wait for the expedition to start. All I could think about was being in the Torngat Mountains National Park and Greenland, and meeting so many new people and learning so many different things.

When the time did come for the expedition I was in awe, just letting every good experience roll in and absorbing anything and everything. I was so happy being on the ship and out on the land and having so many good times with so many new friends. I was always in the moment; everything was so surreal, like a dream come true. It was so amazing and it had a huge impact on my life. I opened up my eyes more just to see that so many doors for opportunities had opened up for me.

There were so many things we did on the Students on Ice Expedition and, honestly, I absolutely loved every bit of the whole trip. I could never have asked for more than what I’ve gotten out of the trip.

After going home I felt really good about myself because I was one of two students from my hometown who had a chance to go on this amazing trip. Being able to go

from a little, isolated community on an experience so huge that you can’t really put into words, made me feel significant, like I could make a difference in my community.

I was happy to be home but I would go back to such an expedition in a heartbeat.

Yet, once I returned from the expedition, I had the opportunity to work with Parks Canada through their Youth Ambassador Program in the Torngat Mountains National Park (TMNP) and at the base camp. There I did some work with the Kangidluasuk Student Program that takes Inuit youth from Nunatsiavut and Nunavut to the Park for three weeks. I went on hikes, island tours, a couple of boat cruises, and shared some shore lunches with visitors and guests and the students at the park. We had some base camp days because the weather was bad but, trust me, base camp days are just as fun as going on outings.

Just like Students on Ice, it was an amazing experience.

TMNP is a place with a lot of culture that connects to the land, culture of our Inuit ancestors that is threaded through generation after generation. Elders came every week and told us stories about how they used to live off the land and how they were nomadic Inuit. They had stories of what they used to do as children, stories about their families, and

Loris Biancheri, holds up a water glass full of creatures captured during a zooplankton tow.

Instructor Daniele Bianchi identifies the catch while Patricia Pendon and Jasmine Canaviri-Laymon look on.

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sometimes they would tell us about their times of hardship.

They had the most touching words.

The land is so beautiful and the people are so beautiful.

I think it’s the most amazing place to be in the world, probably because I have a connection as an Inuit. But I think for anyone, it would not be hard to fall in love with the place.

The whole summer has been so fulfilling and my dreams are just coming to life. For me, I felt a huge impact being around Inuit from Nunavik, Nunavut and Greenland on the Students on Ice ship, and in base camp with Inuit from both Nunatsiavut and Nunavik. I learned so many more things about my culture and the way of life of the elders. I made a really strong connection with that, and it made me change the way I look at the world and the way I think about some of the things around me. Just being able to know about my culture is so important because here in Nunatsiavut we’ve almost lost all of our language and children aren’t learning our culture as much as in the past. Our culture is dying but I’m happy I had the chance to learn so much more about it.

Chaim Andersen November/December 2014

© LEE NARRAWAY (3)

Students experience the unforgettable thrill of having a massive Humpback surface mere metres away from their zodiac.

Chaim Andersen responds to the cheers of her fellow “expeditioners” as she prepares to throw her bottle into the sea as part of the ongoing Students on Ice ocean currents survey.

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NORTHWORDS

2014 Great Northern Canada Writing Contest Winners above&beyond, Canada’s Arctic Journal is proud to bring to our readers the two stories chosen as this year’s (2014) winners of the annual NorthWords Great Northern Canada Writing Contest. Both are from writers living in the Northwest Territories.

This year, Beatrice Lepine of Hay River receives the First Prize for her engaging tale titled, Fire and Fish: a poignant short story that relates the impact of wildfire on a favourite family fishing spot on Great Slave Lake.

Jim Martin of Fort McPherson has been awarded the Emerging Writer Prize for his very brave and honest account titled, Tough Times of the Past, in which he pays homage to an earlier time in the history of the Gwich’in territory of the Northwest Territories.

De Beers Group of Companies generously donated prizes of $500 and $250 respectively, with additional sponsor support to NorthWords coming from First Air, The Airline of the North and our publication.

We invite you to turn the page to read and enjoy these heartfelt and very worthy submissions to the contest.

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NORTHWORDS: WINNER

Fire and fish

By Beatrice Lepine, Hay River, Northwest Territories t’s almost all burned,” my brother Frank said on the phone that

One place that stays strong in my memory is the South Cranberry

evening. I was staring at a digital map on my computer, as we

“I

Island in Windy Bay. It had a long spit jutting out into the sheltered

spoke of the Birch complex forest fire, which was moving

bay where the gulls and terns would nest and we would come back to

rapidly toward the shoreline between Moraine Point and Windy Bay.

camp with baby birds in our hands and pockets; attacked by the birds

In his role overseeing forest fire management he had been busy this

as we ran to camp to show our mom. She would chase us back to

summer, but he also knew the connection the place had for us, so he

the spit, giving us hell for robbing the nests. We would then try to

called to let me know. We had spent much of our childhood commercial

remember where we found the young hatchlings and try to return

fishing with our family along that shore, so familiar to us and soon

them to the nests while overhead the terns would whirl and dive at

to be overrun by the forest fire.

Our family had fished along this shoreline since 1949 when

us, pecking us with their sharp beaks. You only did that kind of thing once a season.

Solomon and Vera Cardinal brought my mother Alvina there from

The place was bedlam during the day with the drama going on in

Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, to work in the Great Slave Lake fishery. They

the air over the sand spit and below along the rocky shores. Bird cries

started their first season at Moraine Point. They were Neyihaw, Cree

and the excited voices of many children at play could be heard all day;

from Alberta who had fished for McGinnis Fisheries on Lake

at nightfall when the water calmed and the sun sank low into the

Athabasca and moved with the company north to the big lake. The

misty green forests west of us, stillness crept in and you went to sleep

Fisheries Research Board had sampled Great Slave Lake in the late

with only the sounds of the gentle wind that rustled the tent canvas

1940s and set quotas that allowed the commercial exploitation of the

overhead.

fish stocks for the first time.

There were other special places there like Caribou Bay where

There were other families there from Fort Chipewyan too: Lepines,

blueberries grew in abundance and we harvested them for the sweet

Cardinals, Villebruns, Powders, Ladouceurs, and many more. All of

pies my mother made in her tiny camp stove oven. On the rocky

them part of an exodus from Fort Chipewyan when fishing on Lake

pebbled shore of John Point my brother James constructed little

Athabasca declined and leaving home was the only prospect for them

houses out of driftwood and we played for hours on the sun beaten

at the time. I had some disbelief as I enlarged the map to see where

shores.

the fire boundaries were.

I remember we viewed a total eclipse of the sun in 1963 on the

I said to him, “I know fire is a natural thing, but it is Windy Bay

spit. My dad had cautioned us not to look at the sun as we sat outside.

and I am just finding it hard to believe”. In my mind I was telling

He herded the younger kids into the tent and they were warned not

myself it was not important, one could never go back to what was,

to peek out. The air became cool and the sky darkened as the sunlight

but I knew somehow the acceptance of that natural act would be hard.

was blocked out. The birds quieted like it was nightfall and we sat and

In my western trained mind, I knew that fire was important to our

waited. When the sunlight returned, the kids came out of the tent and

forests. Without its annual cycling of decadent forests that had

told my dad what happened to the sun. He was amazed at what they

reached the limit of growth and life, we can have no renewal, no new

saw and they told him they peeked through tiny pinholes that years

forests. But I still felt like I had a heavy blanket around my heart.

of wear and tear had created in the canvas. The holes were tiny, so no

“I wonder if dad’s camp burnt yet?” I said. He replied, “no, not

damage occurred to their eyes. But they saw the whole thing. I don’t

yet but it probably will soon”. There had not been much left of the

think he knew whether to be mad at them or be amazed at what they

fishing and trapping camp after he had retired from trapping in 1981

described.

— just an old converted fishing caboose that over time had lost its

Now, looking back again to the map on my computer, I contem-

windows and door, looking like life had leached out of the place. I

plate the fire boundaries. I don’t know if I ever will accept it, but I

often felt a deep sadness when I thought about it.

know that the flames of this past summer may have scorched the land

The fishing industry on Great Slave Lake dominated our family’s lives for a long time and equally our memories of the life we lived on

but they can never diminish the power of memory; the remembrance of our lives there along that shoreline.

the lake each summer. I remember the places where we set up our summer camps, always near shallow waters where dad felt it was safe for us to swim, knowing we couldn’t stay out of the water.

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NORTHWORDS: EMERGING WRITER

Tough times of the past

By Jim Martin, Fort MacPherson, Northwest Territories am a Gwich’in descendant from Tetlit Zheh (Fort McPherson) in

I

the Northwest Territories.

In my research I discovered that Fort McPherson was originally known as The Peel River House when the Hudson’s Bay Company

I did not come from a proud nation as claimed by my aboriginal

established a trading post in 1840. It had to be relocated to high

political organization. Life is a challenge in two different worlds up

ground due to flood risk. The new Post was renamed in honour of

here in the North. As far as I am concerned, politics is another

HBC’s Chief Trader Murdoch McPherson.

emotional distraction in a vicious cycle. It’s about greed, money,

Before the 1880s the Peel River Post was actually a meat-

power, and control. A famous Chief once said, “My white brother is

provisioning post for the rest of the HBC Forts in the Mackenzie

more intelligent for he knows that you have little to offer.”

District. Meat was traded with the Gwich’in in exchange for their

I was born in 1946. It was during tough economic times. I learned

products.

about the Great Depression in early grades. It’s not easy talking about

One of my paternal grandmothers lived to be 106 years old before

difficult life experiences of the past because it brings back unpleasant

she passed on. She told a story about life in 1893. She said in the old

memories. Nobody likes to be reminded of tough times.

days the Gwich’in travelled long distances from their hunting grounds

We have long winters and short summer seasons. The favourite

in the Yukon to the Peel River Post. They travelled on the rivers in

times are during warmer temperatures. It’s wonderful to see beautiful

skin boats. The most difficult was going through “The Rapids of the

flowers blooming after a long frozen icy winter. It’s wonderful to hear

Drowned” and “The Devil’s Portage”. Former Gwich’in men drowned

songbirds singing. These are Gods’ little creatures that could boost

here. Only the men handled the boats through the swift rapids.

your self-esteem on a bad day.

Mother Nature can be beautiful and wicked. I had no alternative in

Women and children had to walk through portage trails. Once the men succeeded going through this dangerous channel, it was celebrated

finding out the tough way that I suffered from indigenous depression.

with joy. Then they continued on until they reached the Peel River

I am not alone. It is a heredity issue.

Post. She said for one bale of dry meat she received two cups of tea,

I received professional help for many years. I was told that my

two cups of flour, and one cup of sugar.

drinking is a symptom of deeper troubles. It took 43 years of living

It was not until after the 1880s that fine furs became an important

hell before I hit rock bottom. I almost died from this horror. I didn’t

part of the trade at the Peel River Post. The Muzzle Loader was the

like it so I had to do something to get my life back. But it’s easier said than

first gun introduced to the Gwich’in. If a hunter wanted to buy this

done. It became boring after a brief abstinence. No matter how hard

gun, he had to pile furs on the HBC Fur Press. Then it was pressed

I tried to heal broken spirits, there was always on-going distractions.

down hard until the pressed furs reached the top end of the gun. A

A traditional healer told me it is not alcohol that is the problem;

young Gwich’in told me by word of mouth that it was around 145

it’s coming from inside. So I left the alcohol alone then began dealing

beaver skins.

with my emotional problems. But there were no qualified resource

At the same period, the Siglit (Inuvialuit) tribes travelled from the

people in my community who could help me. We have the blind

coast to the Post in their qajait and umiat. It was a long trip paddling

leading the blind.

upstream against strong river currents of the mighty Mackenzie River.

I thank two wonderful RCMP members in Inuvik for saving my

Despite the consequences, they were still capable of reaching the

life in 2001. I thank Health Canada in Whitehorse for supporting

Peel River Post. I viewed an Inuvialuit program aired on the APTN

me to get help outside my community. This is the best thing that

TV Channel. I quote from this program that the Siglit traded ‘five

happened in my life.

white fox pelts for 10 pounds of flour.”

It is never easy going through a so-called healing process because it

Before the arrival of Europeans, the Tetlit Gwich’in lived in the

takes a lot of pain to change. The first step I had to do was develop coping

upper area of the Peel River in the Yukon. They did not stay in one

strategies to deal with my emotional issues. Old habits die hard.

place. They moved around in groups hunting and depended on edible

I bought a computer so I can learn to research from the Internet.

resources for survival. It was around this period when a bunch of

I had five years of college experience before relocating back to my

Gwich’in hunters came upon a camp where they found everybody

home community. I made a decision to upgrade my education at the

dead. They all starved to death except for this one little baby who was

local Adult Education Centre. I read books on the Gwich’in history.

still suckling to its dead mother’s shrivelled breast. That was my great

It was about difficult times of my ancestors. I established empathy in

great maternal grandfather.

identifying with similar consequences in the 1940s.

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S P R U C E

T O

S H O R E

Cataloguing treeline and tundra flora along the Coppermine River

By Paul C. Sokoloff, Research Assistant, Canadian Museum of Nature

It’s early morning on July 1, and Dr. Jeff Saarela, Roger Bull and I — a three-man botanical research team from the Canadian Museum of Nature — are waking to our first full day of fieldwork documenting and collecting all the plant species growing along the lower Coppermine River in Nunavut. Our team is in the biodiversity business; as systematic botanists we seek to enumerate and describe the entire breadth of plant life in Canada’s Arctic. By examining plants for differences in physical appearance, variations in macro- and microscopic features, and even divergence in their genome, we divide plants into coherent groups sharing a common evolutionary descent (they have no other closer ancestor than other members of the same group). We call these groupings “species”.

Perhaps you’ve heard of them?

PAUL C. SOKOLOFF © CANADIAN MUSEUM OF NATURE

Wild onions (Allium schoenoprasum) growing in crags above the Coppermine River.

Though known from the boreal forest, we were surprised to find this species growing in several places along the Coppermine, from below the treeline all the way to the river’s mouth at the Coronation Gulf.

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After 100 years of northern plant collecting, the herbarium serves as a good indicator of where we

ROGER D. BULL © CANADIAN MUSEUM OF NATURE

should go next: we plan trips to Arctic locations from which we have few to no collections. This was half the reason we decided that the Coppermine River would be the target of our 2014 expedition.

Western Birch (Betula occidentalis) was found at three locations along the Coppermine River, greatly extending its range into Nunavut’s Arctic tundra.

As the fundamental unit of biodiversity, scientists, policy makers, naturalists, and wilderness enthusiasts alike are often curious about the state of any given species.

Where can I find it? Is it rare? What does it look like? How can I tell it apart from other species? That’s where we come in. Botanists group and name species based on careful research. We then document the diversity and range of these species, in areas as small as a city and as large as a continent, and present these findings in comprehensive books called floras (essentially a wildflower field guide on steroids). Currently, our team at

the museum is in the midst of writing a new flora for the entire Arctic ecozone in North America, describing all the plant species north from the treeline from Nunavut to Alaska.

All of this research, and specifically our new Arctic Flora, are based on collections made by generations of botanists.

Housed in vast, systematically organized libraries called

Our research camp at the northernmost limit of the Treeline, Fockler Creek, Nunavut.

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herbaria, these specimens are evidence behind the naming of species, and the proof behind assertions that a particular plant was growing at a particular place at that particular time. Without specimens to compare new collections to, we would not be able to consistently apply the same scientific name to a group of species. Similarly, without a collection to consult and verify, it would be impossible to confirm where species occur in Canada — what if the original identifier of a specimen mistook the plant for a different species?

Without a specimen to check, we’d never know the mistake was made. Our desire to find and document plant life drives us to mount these collecting expeditions, continuing a centurylong tradition at the museum which has resulted in the largest collection of Canadian Arctic plants on the planet, residing in our very own National Herbarium of Canada.

After 100 years of northern plant collecting, the herbarium serves as a good indicator of where we should go next: we plan trips to Arctic locations from which we have few to no collections. This was half the reason we decided that the Coppermine River would be the target of our 2014 expedition. Aside from a few collections made by the Canadian Arctic Expedition (another museum-sponsored trip) 100 years ago, there are very few collections from the Coppermine in the National Herbarium of Canada.

However, another equally compelling reason to collect here is the fact that the sheltered Coppermine valley harbours November/December 2014

PAUL C. SOKOLOFF © CANADIAN MUSEUM OF NATURE (3)

Expedition leader Dr. Jeff Saarela collects cottongrass (Eriophorum scheuchzeri) near Kugluktuk, Nunavut.

Like many Arctic wildflowers, the Northern sawwort (Saussurea angustifolia) best displays its intricate beauty to a good macro lens.

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PAUL C. SOKOLOFF © CANADIAN MUSEUM OF NATURE (2)

Alpine sweetvetch (Hedysarum americanum) carpets the valley above the Coppermine River at Kugluk/Bloody Falls Territorial Park.

the northernmost extent of the treeline in Nunavut. This zone, where the trees gradually taper from closely-packed forest to open tundra, harbours plant species from both ecozones and is expected to be the “front line” of climate change — one of the regions expected to be amongst the first affected. A complete inventory of the plant life here will establish a baseline allowing future work to measure changes in the ranges, community composition, and biodiversity of treeline plant species, giving an urgent edge to our botanical exploration.

Back on the Coppermine, our month-long expedition began when a helicopter dispatched from the Polar Continental Shelf Program (PCSP) ferried us and our 700odd pounds of gear from Kugluktuk to our first camp — a large white pine stand a few kilometres away from the Coppermine.

A typical day in our camp would see us up around 8 a.m. and stumbling towards the kitchen tent for our morning cup of coffee (AKA science fuel). Mornings were spent in our lab tent processing the plants we collected the day before. Each of us focussed on a specific task. Jeff would transcribe his field notes into the collection notebook, duly filling in pertinent habitat, location, and physical description details for each recorded plant. Roger took a sample of leaf tissue from each specimen and placed it in silica gel (the same you find in a box of new shoes), preserving the DNA locked within for later extraction and sequencing. I set

A lone caribou inspects a botanical interloper along the Richardson River, northwest of Kugluktuk.

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ROGER D. BULL © CANADIAN MUSEUM OF NATURE

about preserving the plants using the same technique botanists have been using for centuries — squashing the plants in a press. Once dry and two-dimensional, these specimens will last almost indefinitely in the protective cabinets of the herbarium.

After a morning hunched over our work inside a 10-foot wide nylon dome, the freedom of the open tundra beckons, and we would lace on our hiking boots and head out on the land. The Arctic, and especially the treeline, is tessellated with numerous microhabitats: marshes, meadows, rocky outcrops, willow groves and the like, each harbouring a different array of small, easily missed plant species. To collect them all, we spend a lot of time hiking between different habitats while looking down at our feet.

Even walking at a botanist’s methodical pace, we can quickly cover a lot of ground, and run the risk of becoming bored if we collect everything within walking distance. So, after a week at the treeline, we called into PCSP and they sent another helicopter for us. I admit, I always feel like I’m in an action movie when I get out the sat phone and call in for a chopper. After a few fine days exploring western Nunavut by air, we moved our camp to Kugluk/Bloody Falls Territorial Park, to repeat the explore-collect-press cycle.

The beautiful weather and natural beauty found at the park belies its ominous past (Samuel Hearne named the Falls after a massacre he witnessed there in 1771), but provided a scenic backdrop to our work.

Only 13 kilometres outside of Kugluktuk, Bloody Falls also re-introduced us to the idea of having neighbours — notably the friendly local parks staff (Gerry, Junior, and Gustin, thanks for all your help!), and Martin Anablak, who often stopped by for a cup of tea or to share the delicious fish he caught in the river. We were sad to leave such a friendly group, and such a beautiful place behind, but after 10 days at Bloody Falls it was time to pack up our gear into a jet-boat and move our collecting to the big city itself: Kugluktuk.

All of this shuffling, helicoptering, and boating across the landscape paid off, and this year we returned home with

The expedition team wraps up pressing on our last day in Kugluktuk. From left to right: Roger Bull, Dr. Jeff Saarela, and Paul Sokoloff. In the centre is one of the largest plant presses we have ever used.

nearly 1,400 specimens for the herbarium, including species that have never (or only once) before been reported in Nunavut. Some of our most intriguing finds from the expedition include chives (Allium schoenoprasum), and western birch (Betula occidentalis). While both species are common in southern Canada, our collections radically extend their known range North, where we found these species growing on the open tundra and on protected south-facing slopes respectively.

The thrill of discovering new finds is exactly what motivates us to keep exploring and collecting these critical contributions to our knowledge on the biodiversity of Canada’s largest, and most imperilled ecosystem. For us, there’s no greater moment of wonder than stumbling across a new plant and thinking, “That’s weird. No, that’s new!

I need to tell the world about this”.

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www.northernimages.ca November/December 2014

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SCIENCE

Adapting to a fast-food diet How did the polar bears do it?

The researchers found that polar bears have an extra sticky version of Apo B grip tape, allowing them to dispose of their bad cholesterol more effectively than other animals.

Future studies of polar bear Apo B might give scientists a better understanding of our own fat-slam-dunking proteins, its shortcomings, and why instances of heart disease are so high in humans.

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T

he world’s population is becoming more and more obese. In the age of McDonald’s drive-thrus, the infamous KFC Double Down sandwich, and Krispy Kreme donuts, it is easy to overindulge. But it tastes so darn good!

Of course it does: our bodies are evolutionarily hardwired to crave calorie-rich food — an adaptation from a time when food was scarce. How can we reconcile our modern diet with these ancient cravings?

How can we moderate our fast-food intake, and the heart disease that accompanies it?

Insights into these questions and how animals adapt to gluttony have come from a recent genetic study of one of the world’s most proficient and prodigious fat eaters: the polar bear.

An international team of researchers compared the genome sequences of polar bears to brown bears and found that the two

types of bear shared a common ancestor much more recently than previously thought.

Differences in their DNA sequences suggest that the polar bear and brown bear lineages diverged from one another around 350,000– 500,000 years ago. That might seem like an exceptionally long time ago, but in evolutionary terms, it is surprisingly short, especially when considering that polar bears have an average generation time of 11 years. The scientists also discovered that certain polar bear genes are tailored to life in the High Arctic, and the blubbery foods that are found there.

Polar bears consume an astounding amount of fat and cholesterol. Their diet consists primarily of seal and whale blubber.

What’s more, polar bear mothers produce milk that is 30 per cent fat, which is equivalent to feeding whipping cream to a newborn!

But nobody is calling child services on polar bear moms. This is because all the fat and cholesterol doesn’t harm the baby. Polar bears have evolved unique cardiovascular and fatty November/December 2014

© DAVE REID (2)

SCIENCE

acid metabolic systems that allow them to survive on extremely fat- and cholesterol-rich food. To understand how such a system arose, and so quickly, we need to travel back in time.

The setting is Greenland, 400,000 years ago, and the formation of a new species — Ursus maritimus (or polar bear) — is underway.

This is an interglacial period, a time between ice ages when Arctic ice has retreated significantly from the land and sea. (In some ways, this reflects the contemporary Arctic landscape, although the ice retreat that the ancestors of polar bears witnessed was much slower than the human-accelerated version occurring today.) The melting of land ice in ancient Greenland permitted brown bears to move further north, into regions with copious amounts of food and unsuspecting prey — an all-youcan-eat Arctic buffet. The feast would have

November/December 2014

been easy pickings for the migrating brown bears, but would have also included new food sources. Typically used to fish and berries, bears inhabiting these northerly regions had to adapt to dining on animals with thick layers of blubber, such as seals.

This change in diet and environment would have introduced a range of “selective pressures” on the bears, including the pressures to survive a blubbery, high cholesterol diet. Bears that could flourish under such a diet would have had a greater chance of passing down their genes than those that died prematurely of heart disease, for example.

Over thousands of years, fat-adapted genes became fixed in the bear population. The researchers believe that some of these adaptations involved changes to the way bears dispose of dangerous cholesterol.

There are two main types of cholesterol in animals: high-density lipoprotein, which is good, and low-density lipoprotein (LDL), which is bad. The latter exists in the blood like big slippery basketballs, which can build up over time, causing clogging and cardiovascular disease. Cells lining the blood vessels dispose of these fatty basketballs using specialized arm-like molecular machines, which grab the lipoprotein balls and slam-dunk them inside the cell where they are safely decomposed.

Because LDL basketballs are slippery, cells label them with a special “grip-tape” protein, called Apo B, which helps the arm-like molecules grab hold of them.

The researchers found that polar bears have an extra sticky version of Apo B grip tape, allowing them to dispose of their bad cholesterol more effectively than other animals. Future studies of polar bear Apo B might give scientists a better understanding of our own fat-slam-dunking proteins, their shortcomings, and why instances of heart disease are so high in humans. Ultimately, polar bear genes could provide a framework for scientists to engineer or modify our own genes, making heart disease a thing of the past. Ethics aside, it might allow us to gorge on Big Macs without feeling too guilty. Now wouldn’t the head honchos at McDonalds like that?

Jeremy Lant and David Smith Jeremy Lant is a third-year undergraduate student studying Medical Sciences at Western University, and is a volunteer science writer in David Smith’s Lab, Biology Department. David Smith is an assistant professor in the Biology Department at Western University. You can find him online at www.arrogantgenome.com.

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ARTS, CULTURE & EDUCATION

Digging with Avataq Youth learn about archaeology and cultural heritage vataq Cultural Institute was established in 1980 as a non-profit organization charged with protecting and promoting the language and culture of Nunavimmiut; it receives its mandate directly from the Inuit of Nunavik at the Nunavik Elder’s conferences, which are held every two years. Ever since the Department of Archaeology was created in 1985, Avataq’s archaeologists have been conducting field schools with high school students in Nunavik.

This has helped to introduce generations of young Nunavimmiut to archaeology and their cultural heritage.

While working in an archaeological field school, students learn basic excavation techniques: how to use a trowel to dig, how to sift through dirt using a screen to detect smaller artefacts, and how to measure finds and place them within a grid so that their location can be recreated. In the field laboratory, they learn

November/December 2014

techniques for the preservation of artefacts and sort through excavated dirt for artefacts that have been missed. As each field camp includes at least two hunter-guides, there are

often opportunities for students to take turns assisting with hunting and fishing. Each field season culminates with an exhibit, in which students and archaeologists can show

Avataq archaeologist Tommy Weetaluktuk at work near Killiniq in 1988.

© AVATAQ CULTURAL INSTITUTE (2)

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ARTS, CULTURE & EDUCATION Levina Kanarjuak takes notes during a field school in 2009 near Ivujivik.

members of the community the most interesting finds of that summer and answer questions.

Beginning in 2008, a follow-up to the field training was developed, in which students are invited to Montreal during the following spring. ‘Archaeology Week’ is generally timed to coincide with March Break, so that no school is missed. During Archaeology Week, students learn what happens after the fieldwork when the artefacts are cleaned, catalogued and analyzed in the laboratory. They are also

exposed to other aspects of Avataq Cultural Institute and visit the archives and library of the Documentation Centre, meet Avataq’s genealogist who provides them with their family tree, visit the Department of Publications, and view the database and maps produced through the Nunatop place-names project.They also visit the Institute’s collections repository at the Museum Collection Centre of Montréal, which houses the ethnographic and art collections, as well as the archaeological collections. Additionally, they receive guided

tours of the McCord Museum and Redpath Museum in Montreal, the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, the archaeology labs at McGill University, and two colleges in Montréal which have post-secondary programs for young Nunavimmiut.

Archaeology Week has been undertaken with the financial support from Makivik Corporation, who has provided significantly subsidized airfare to the students; and Kativik School Board, who have supplied teacher chaperones for the trips. These Archaeology Weeks were designed as a way of rewarding students who had remained for the duration of the field season, and to show them some of the possibilities that are available to them after completing high school.

Avataq archaeologists have undertaken frequent collaborations with southern universities and, as a result, many of the field schools have also included university students from the south. These collaborations have allowed students to gain exposure to various affiliated specialities such as geomorphology (study of formation of landforms), dendrochronology (identification and dating of wood), lithic studies (stone tools and sourcing of their raw material) and zooarchaeology (study of animal bones).

Through collaboration with Professor Irène Rahm (Department of Education, Université of

© AVATAQ CULTURAL INSTITUTE (4)

Simionie Damon Qinuajuaq learns how to take measurements and map points with a theodolite during a field school near Akulivik in 2013.

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November/December 2014

ARTS, CULTURE & EDUCATION

Allie Aculiaq checks out hunting equipment in the collections of the McCord Museum, Montréal, during Archaeology Week 2009.

Despite that, many want to come back for more! Archaeological field schools provide a unique experience for young people to spend time on the land together, learning more of their shared cultural heritage.

Susan Lofthouse Susan Lofthouse is an Archaeologist with the Avataq Cultural Institute.

Conservator Jessica Kotierk (Canadian Conservation Institute) shows Louisa Aullaluk how she conserves artefacts in the field lab during the 2013 field school near Akulivik.

Montréal), an additional project was organized in 2013-2014 with the Tukisiniarivik High School of Akulivik: during and following the 2013 field season, students took photographs and with the help of their teachers made a selection and composed captions for an exhibit held at Montreal’s McCord Museum. This exhibit was timed so that it opened while the students were in Montreal for Archaeology Week 2014, and was entitled Sivunitsatinnut ilinniapunga (For Our future, I Go To School). This project also included a visit to the high school by Avataq archaeologists Pierre Desrosiers and Tommy Weetaluktuk, who gave lectures on Arctic culture history to the school in English, French and Inuktitut.

Avataq’s archaeologists have been conducting field schools in Nunavik for almost thirty years. They provide a venue for students to get cold, hot, rained on, and bitten by bugs.

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November/December 2014

ARTS, CULTURE & EDUCATION

Cadet Qajaq Trip Exploring, hunting and connecting with qajait

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s we approached yet another almost dry streambed, Thomas Gordon yelled, “Nirlik! Can I get it?!”

He swiftly paddled off as if he hadn’t been a greenhorn only a few weeks ago and dropped the goose mid flight with a .22. After he took another bird later in the day, we knew that the pre-planned dehydrated meal for the night was pretty much off the menu. The youngest Cadet in the program had fed the group for the night.

This all took place on the first evening of a multi-day qajaq trip to the coast.

© CONOR GODDARD

The author’s self-portrait, taken with a GoPro camera on the paddle shaft.

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© CONOR GODDARD (5)

ARTS, CULTURE & EDUCATION

Michael Petagumskum trains on Georgian Bay in Arctic conditions.

Davidee, Thomas, Saimmajualy and Tukai.

The training began in May when there was still no liquid water in the region except for the dangerous unfrozen tidal section of the Kuujjuaq River between the land fast river ice in front of town and the pack ice of Ungava Bay. This water is much too dangerous to consider any training on, so we had to head south to Georgian Bay, Ontario, where White Squall Paddling Centre is located.

As coordinator of the qajaq program, I wanted to go south to challenge a higher instructor level as well as become an instructor trainer. This would enable us to become more autonomous with our programming. The ultimate goal would be for Cadets to eventually teach their peers how to qajaq following the standards of an internationally recognized certifying body, Paddle Canada. In order to do all this in our limited time frame, it made sense for me to bring some Cadets along that were willing to act as guinea pigs while I first tried (under strict supervision) to teach an

instructor trainer class. After spending a week at White Squall, in Arctic like conditions, we all walked away successful in attaining the certifications each of us had challenged.

Once back in Kuujjuaq we waited patiently as ice still choked the lakes and river. The time was spent registering Paddle Canada courses for the summer and planning the logistics of the annual weeklong, year-end qajaq trip.

Any Cadet who has successfully completed any level of the Paddle Canada Sea Kayak curriculum is eligible to go on the trip. As much as this is a way of managing risk (all students who pass know how to do rescues, communicate on water, etc.) it is also an opportunity for Cadets who have never paddled a qajaq to find out if they really like it enough to do it for a week straight.

This year, for the first time, Michael Petagumskum taught a qajaq course to fellow Cadets. I was on the course with Mike, but chose to take the back seat and let him run with it.

Up until this point I hadn’t even considered that it might be the first time a Paddle Canada course has been taught in Inuktitut, a powerful moment indeed. Life being cyclical as opposed to linear, like the boom and bust of caribou herds I couldn’t help but wonder if this was the qajaq being reclaimed. This has happened in Greenland where rolling competitions bring international competitors and press. Maybe those thoughts are too grandiose though.What I surely was witnessing was a knowledgeable and proud individual sharing a positive and happy experience in a qajaq on the water in his most comfortable tongue, simple as that.

The week prior to our scheduled trip departure we had the fortune of being visited

by Iqaluit’s Sarah McNair-Landry and Erik Boomer.

Sarah and Erik are two of a four-member team who built skin-on-frame traditional Baffin design qajait last summer and paddled them from Qikiqtarjuaq to Cape Dorset. Their powerful presentation inspired our group of

Breaking camp.

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ARTS, CULTURE & EDUCATION

Mark Scriver helps with the goose cooking.

young paddlers right before we headed out for a much smaller, though equally important, trip. The goal of their expedition was to encourage Inuit youth to get out in qajait to explore, hunt and connect with the qajaq — an Inuit invention that has been embraced by the world.

The morning of our trip departure (just hours before Thomas brought down the goose for supper) was spent packing boats on a sunny warm day at Tasialuk, the first in a chain of lakes connected by creeks that lead to the coast. This is the typical winter-spring route that is usually travelled by skidoo or dog team, so we were taking a risk paddling into the unknown with regard to water levels in the creeks. It was in the first chain of creeks and ponds between Tasialuk and Tasikallak that Thomas found dinner. Not long after that,

November/December 2014

the last creek section we had to navigate was bone dry. This forced us to drag our heavily laden qajait over the hummocky ground for about eight hundred metres.

Tasikallak, as the name implies, is a short fat lake and was an easy paddle. The creek system connecting it and Tasirlak was a different story. A higher volume of water at a

steeper gradient meant full-blown rapids, too boulder choked to be at all navigable. Tricky, though deliberate, footwork and teamwork got us though it. The risk levels increased as the day wore on and as people grew tired.

This combined with the nature of what we were doing meant it was time to get off the water (and rocks) and make camp.

Two days later we were camped at the north end of Tasirlak on a small island. I kept hearing “amisualluit!” as the Cadets found massive patches of aqpiks that they gorged themselves on. It was a fitting end to a satisfying trip.

The image of Thomas bent over his bow, rifle in hand with intense focus is one that will stick with me forever. If it weren’t for the bright red polyethylene boat or the blue nylon lifejacket, it could have been an image from the past. Or one from the future.

Conor Goddard Conor Goddard is a Kativik Regional Police Force Cadet technician and Blackfeather Wilderness Guide who lives in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik. Qajaqkuujjuaq.blogspot.com Instagram: qajaqconor Conor Goddard teaches a surf clinic.

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NORTHERN BOOKSHELF

The Voyage of Erasmus Volume 1: Ottawa to the Arctic Helga & David Zimmerly arctickayaks.com June 2014 The Voyage of Erasmus is an eBook that tells the story of a trip from Ottawa along the Labrador coast to Baffin Island to Greenland in the mid 1980s. Helga and David Zimmerly spent ten years on Erasmus, a 35’ aluminum cutter-rigged sailboat, cruising halfway around the world. Their journey in the middle of the ocean was filled with beauty, terror, contentment, awe and unending surprises as well as warm welcomes whenever they came ashore and the awesome scenery of the rugged coastline as they travelled further north. It is more than 170 pages and has over 90 photos and charts, some hyperlinks and video.

You can see a table of contents, a sample chapter, pricing and instructions for purchase at arctickayaks.com.

A Children’s Guide to Arctic Birds Written by Mia Pelletier Illustrated by Danny Christopher Inhabit Media May 2014 Written by Mia Pelletier, A Children’s Guide to Arctic Birds, introduces young readers to 12 birds that call the Arctic home, either for all or part of the year. This beautiful book, illustrated by Danny Christopher, includes fun and useful facts, such as where to look for eggs and nests during the short Arctic summer and how to recognize each bird’s call on the wind.

The Walrus Who Escaped Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley Illustrated by Anthony Brennan Inhabit Media May 2014 This fun, dynamic animal tale pits two of the Arctic’s most popular animal characters, the walrus and the raven, against each other in a cheeky and amusing battle of wits. When Raven comes across Walrus expertly diving for clams, he becomes jealous. So, as Walrus is about to surface with a tasty mouthful of clams, Raven casts a spell on the ocean, freezing Walrus in place! Walrus’s curly, twisting tusks become frozen in the enchanted ice. But Raven soon discovers that his magic is no match for Walrus’s great physical strength. Walrus escapes, but his tusks will never be the same! The Walrus Who Escaped is suitable to read to preschoolers and appeals to school-aged children as well.

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November/December 2014

INUIT FORUM

With friends like these rom the tone of many of their comments recently, you could be forgiven for thinking that some of the biggest anti-sealing organizations in the world have become our new BFFs. Actually, they would have you believe that they’ve been our friends all along, taking a hate-theseal-hunt, love-the-seal-hunter attitude to the Inuit way of life.

“We’ve never campaigned against the indigenous hunt,” said a “surprised” People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) after Tanya Tagaq called out the organization in her Polaris Prize acceptance speech in September.

PETA’s defensive posturing was short-lived; in the same four-sentence statement, the organization instructed Tagaq to “stop posing her baby with a dead seal and read more.”

That last line refers to the heap of scorn unleashed on Tagaq earlier this year after she posted a #sealfie of her infant daughter during a family hunting trip. Tweeters called her “heartless” and “mindless” and threatened to have her child put in care. PETA links itself to this hateful outburst while at the same time claiming a “hands-off” policy toward Inuit hunters. Disingenuous is putting it mildly.

This past October, Humane Society International (HSI) joined the love-in by applauding a joint statement by Canada and the European Union (EU) to enable access of Inuit seal products to European markets.

“We have never campaigned against Inuit subsistence sealing, which occurs in a different part of the country [than the East Coast hunt], at a much smaller scale, for different reasons,” said Rebecca Aldworth, of HSI. Further down in the celebratory statement, HSI is triumphant that “global markets for commercial seal products are closing fast,” hailing the EU, the United States, Mexico, Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Taiwan for ending trade in seal products.

© ITK ARCHIVES

© ITK

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A Nunavut Sivuniksavut student shows his support for Inuit livelihoods through sealing during a demonstration on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in March 2014.

Aldworth’s romanticized definition of subsistence doesn’t seem to include feeding and clothing children if she thinks that Inuit can make a living through the trade of seal products in markets that organizations like hers have destroyed and are still actively campaigning to destroy.

In The Huffington Post, Sheryl Fink of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) made the point more clearly:“Pretty much no one is campaigning against Inuit sealing.… Inuit have a constitutional right to hunt and eat seals and no one is asking them to give it up,” Fink wrote last year. “Unlike Inuit sealing, the commercial hunt is a hunt primarily for fur, which is used to make unnecessary luxury products for export that few people can afford.”

So let me get this straight: Inuit can eat seals, but only if we keep the skins to ourselves?

And we can’t engage in any activity that might be deemed “commercial,” like, say, participating in the 21st century economy, because that might open us up to the ire of our so-called friends who thus far have restrained themselves from campaigning against us?

And even if we were to attempt to rebuild an international market that has been decimated by decades of misinformation and misplaced morality judgements, we would most likely fail because the products that we produce are both unnecessary and unaffordable?

What I find perhaps most reprehensible about this line of thinking is that there is a network of organizations criss-crossing the globe that would seek to define what subsistence means for Inuit or, in fact, what it means to be an Inuk in the modern economy.

Groups such as PETA, HSI and IFAW can claim that their campaigns have never been directed at Inuit. But they cannot claim that their campaigns have not harmed us. They cannot claim to be ignorant of the impacts that their actions have had on Inuit livelihoods for generations. They cannot claim to be oblivious to market dynamics. But if they do, then we are here to help them understand.

That’s what friends are for.

Terry Audla

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami 75 Albert Street, Suite 1101 Ottawa, ON K1P 5E7 t. (613) 238.8181

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arctic exotica

Š DWIGHT REIMER

Canadian, eh? Absolutely!

What could be more Canadian than an impromptu game of pick-up hockey on the sea-ice at the North Pole, no less?

Crewmembers from CCGS Louis S. St. Laurent and CCGS Terry Fox (out of frame) take a break from this summer’s Fisheries and Oceans Canada sonar imaging mission of the Arctic seabed to drop the puck at 90 North.

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