Above & Beyond | Canada's Arctic Journal Mar-Apr 2013

CANADA’S ARCTIC JOURNAL

MARCH/APRIL 2013 • $ 5.95

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MAÏNA

Call of the Wolves

2013

Arctic Herders Traditional Life in the Arctic

Bound for the Barrens 1912 Canoe Voyage to Hudson Bay

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Exploring Nunavut’s Parks

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Jobie Tukkiapik / JW bexW4 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

Thank you for flying First Air I am pleased to share some exciting updates that set the stage for enhanced customer service, performance reliability, and a very positive outlook for First Air, The Airline of the North.

We continue our fleet renewal strategy with our eye on modernization as we acquire two Boeing 737-400 aircraft. We plan to convert these Boeing 737-400’s to combi aircraft with 4 pallet, 72 seat fixed combi configuration. These aircraft offer more fuel efficiency, higher payload and as newer aircraft, offer better maintenance reliability.

With these first steps in Jet fleet renewal, we begin the process of retiring the 737-200 workhorse from our fleet.

This is a continuation of our fleet renewal that has seen us replace the Hawker with the ATR42 and ATR72 aircraft. With the introduction of the ATR72 with large cargo door this past winter, we’ve completed the modernization and renewal of the turboprop fleet and begin the process of Jet fleet renewal.

This commitment with First Air is done with a strategic focus on continuously improving our services and reliability for our customers, positioning us firmly as The Airline of the North. Thank you for your support.

ᕗᔅ ᐃᐊᒃᑯᓐᓂ ᖃᖓᑕᒐᕕᑦ ᖁᔭᒋᕙᑦᑎᒋᑦ

ᖁᕕᐊᓱᒻᒪᕆᑉᐳᖓ ᑐᓴᖅᑕᐅᑎᑦᓯᒋᐊᑦᓴᖅ ᖁᕕᐊᓇᒻᒪᕆᑦᑐᓂᒃ

Merci d’avoir choisi First Air

Je suis heureux de partager avec vous quelques mises à jour intéressantes qui ouvrent la voie à ᑐᓴᕋᑦᓴᓂᒃ ᐊᖅᑮᒍᑕᐅᓯᒪᔪᓂᒃ ᐱᕚᓪᓕᖅᓯᒪᔪᓄᑦ ᓂᐅᕕᖅl’amélioration du service à la clientèle et de la ᑎᓄᑦ ᐱᔨᑦᓯᕋᐅᑎᓂᒃ, ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᖅᑏᑦ ᓱᖏᖅᑑᑕᐅᓂᖏᓐᓂᒃ, fiabilité de la performance, offrant ainsi des ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑕᑯᒥᓇᑦᓯᐊᖅᑐᒥᒃ ᓂᕆᐅᓇᖅᑐᒥᒃ ᕘᔅᑦ ᐃᐊᒃᑯᓐᓄᑦ, perspectives très positives pour First Air, la Ligne aérienne du Nord. ᖃᖓᑕᔫᕆᔭᐅᔪᖅ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᒥ. ᑲᔪᓯᓯᒪᐃᓐᓇᖅᑐᒍᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᔫᑦᑎᓐᓂᒃ ᓄᑖᕈᖅᑎᕆᓂᕐᒧᑦ ᐅᐸ-

Nous poursuivons notre stratégie de renouvellement de notre flotte en veillant à sa modernisation ᓗᖓᐃᔭᐅᑎᓂᒃ ᑕᑯᓐᓇᖅᓱᑕ ᐅᓪᓗᒥᓯᐅᑕᐅᓂᖅᓴᓂ ᐱᑦᓱᑕ par l’achat de deux Boeing 737-400. Nous ᒪᕐᕉᓐᓂᒃ 737-400 ᖃᖓᑕᔫᓐᓂᒃ. ᐸᕐᓇᓯᒪᔪᒍᑦ ᐊᓯᔾᔨᕆcomptons les transformer en aéronefs mixtes ᐊᕆᐊᖏᑦ ᑖᒃᑯᐊ 737-400 ᐃᒪᒍᑦᓯᐅᔾᔨᓗᑕ ᖃᖓᑕᔫᒧᑦ dont la configuration comprendra 4 palettes et ᐅᓯᕕᓐᓂᒃ ᓯᑕᒪᓂᒃ, 72-ᓂᒃ ᐃᑦᓯᕙᐅᑕᕐᓂᒃ ᑕᐃᒫᒃ ᐋᖅᑭᑦᓯ- 72 sièges fixes. Ces aéronefs offrent une meilleure ᒪᓂᐊᖅᑎᓪᓗᒍ. ᑖᒃᑯᐊ ᖃᖓᑕᔫᒃ ᐅᖅᓱᐊᓗᑦᑐᖏᓐᓂᖅᓵᒃ, efficience énergétique, une charge utile plus importante et, comme il s’agit d’appareils plus ᐅᓯᒍᓐᓇᓂᖅᓴᐅᑦᓱᑎᒃ ᓄᑖᖑᓂᖅᓴᐅᒐᒥᒃ, ᒪᓂᒪᑎᑦᓯᑦᓱᑎᓪᓗ neufs, une meilleure fiabilité de l’entretien. Ces ᓴᓇᒋᐊᑭᓐᓂᖅᓴᓄᑦ ᓱᖏᖅᑑᑎᑦᓴᐅᔪᓂᒃ. ᑖᒃᑯᐊ ᐊᐅᓚᔾᔭᒋpremières étapes de renouvellement de la flotte ᐊᕆᐊᓐᖓᕈᑕᐅᑎᓱᑎᒃ ᓄᑖᕈᕆᐊᕆᓂᕐᒧᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᔫᓂᒃ, d’avions à réaction nous permettent d’entreᓄᖅᑲᖅᑎᐸᓪᓕᐊᓂᐊᓕᖅᑕᕗᑦ 737-200 ᖃᖓᑕᔫᑦ ᖃᖓ- prendre la mise hors service de nos véritables bourreaux de travail, les 737-200. ᑕᔫᖁᑎᑦᑎᓐᓂ. ᑕᒪᓐᓇ ᑲᔪᓯᓂᑐᐃᓐᓇᐅᔪᖅ ᖃᖓᑕᔫᑎᓐᓂᒃ ᓄᑖᕈᖅᑎᕆᓂᕐᒧᑦ

ᐊᓯᔾᔨᖅᓯᒪᓕᖅᓱᑎᒍᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᔫᖅᑖᖅᑲᐅᖑᓕᖅᓱᑕ ATR42 ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ATR72ᖃᖓᑕᔫᑦ. ᐊᑐᓕᖅᑎᓪᓗᒍ ATR72ᐊᖏᓂᖅ-

ᓴᓂᒃ ᐅᑦᓯᕕᖏᑦ ᐹᖃᖅᓱᑎᒃ ᑕᕝᕙᓂ ᐅᑭᐅᕐᒥ, ᓄᑖᕈᕆᐊᕇᖅᓯᒪᓕᖅᑕᕗᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓄᑖᕈᕆᐊᖅᑕᐅᓂᖏᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᔫᑦ ᒫᓐᓇᓗ ᓱᐴᔫᕐᓂᒃ ᐊᔾᔨᖅᑐᐃᕙᓪᓕᐊᓕᖅᑐᒍᑦ.

ᑕᒪᓐᓇ ᑐᓂᒪᓂᕆᔭᖓ ᕘᔅᑦ ᐃᐊᒃᑯᑦ ᐊᑑᑎᕙᑉᐳᖅ ᐅᐸᓗᖓᐃᔭᐅᑎᓂᒃ

ᑐᕌᒐᕋᑦᓱᑕ

ᑲᔪᓯᔪᒥᒃ

ᐱᕚᓪᓕᖅᑎᐸᓪ-

ᓕᐊᖏᓐᓇᖅᓱᒍ ᐱᔨᑦᓯᕋᐅᑎᕗᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓱᖏᖅᑑᑎᒋᔭᐅᒍᓐᓇᕐᓂᕗᑦ ᓂᐅᕕᖅᑎᓄᑦ,ᐃᓂᖃᕈᑎᒋᓕᖅᓱᑎᒍ ᖃᖓᑕᔫᖓᑦ

ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑑᑉ. ᖁᔭᓐᓇᒦᒃ ᐃᑲᔪᖅᑐᐸᒃᑲᑦᓯ.

Ce processus de renouvellement a permis le remplacement du Hawker par les ATR 42 et ATR 72. Avec l’entrée en fonction l’hiver dernier des ATR 72 dotés d’une large porte pour le fret, nous avons terminé la modernisation et le renouvellement de la flotte de turbopropulseurs, et entrepris le processus de renouvellement des avions à réaction.

L’engagement de First Air est orienté stratégiquement vers l’amélioration continue de ses services et de la fiabilité envers sa clientèle, tout en se positionnant de manière ferme comme la Ligne aérienne du Nord. Nous vous remercions de votre appui.

ᐱᒻᒪᕿᐅᑎᑦᑕᕗᑦ ᐃᑲᔪᖃᑦᑕᕐᓂᓯ ᐊᒻᒪ ᖁᔭᓐᓇᒦᖅᑐᒍᑦ ᕘᔅᑦ ᐃᐅᒃᑯᑦ, ᖃᖓᑕᔫᖁᑎᖓᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒥᑦ.

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.

ᕗᔅ ᑎᐊᒃᑯᓐᓂ ᑕᑯᒋᐊᕐᓂᖅ

First Air Focus ᐱᒃᑯᒋᔭᖃᓪᓚᕆᑦᓱᑕ ᐃᑲᔪᖅᓯᔪᒍᑦ ᒪᒃᑯᑦᑐᓂᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓄᓇᓕᓐᓂ ᐱᓐᖑᐊᕐᓂᕐᒨᖓᔪᓂᒃ ᐱᔨᑦᓯᖅᑕᑎᓐᓂ.

Proudly supporting youth and local sporting events in the communities we serve. irst Air is a proud sponsor and long standing partner of Jamie Koe and his team, the Northwest Territories men's curling champions. Jamie and his teammates Tom Naugler, Brad Chorostowski and Rob Borden, all from Yellowknife, won the Northwest Territories/Yukon playdowns in January, earning them a spot at the national Brier from March 1-10 in Edmonton.

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This will be Koe's seventh Brier; Koe's team finished fourth at last year's Brier in Saskatoon, the first time a team from Canada's North had ever made the playoffs since the format was introduced in 1980.

From your friends at First Air… Go team Koe!

n January, First Air announced the launch of the Northern Hockey Challenge (NHC), a pan northern hockey series showcasing the best in men’s hockey in the Arctic.

I

With seven teams divided into Western and Eastern divisions (Iqaluit, Kuujjuaq, Repulse Bay, & Rankin Inlet representing the East; Hay River, Inuvik and Yellowknife representing the West), the NHC will cover eight consecutive weekends in a best-of-five-games series, reaching a division champion. Later in March, the Eastern and Western division champions will face off in another best-of-five series with the top two teams in each division advancing to the playoffs to vie for the First Air Northern Hockey Challenge Cup. First Air is proud to be the primary sponsor of this event and many other sport tournaments this season. Without First Air’s support, many of these events would not be possible.

Updates for the Northern Hockey Challenge can be found at northernhockeychallenge.ca and the First Air Facebook Page.

ᖃᓄᐃᑉᐸᓪᓕᐊᓂᖏᓄᑦ ᐅᓂᒃᑳᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑑᑉ ᕼᐋᑭᖅᑎᑦ ᓵᓪᓚᔅᓴᕋᓱᓐᓂᖏᓐᓄᑦ ᐱᔭᔅᓴᐅᒋᕗᑦ ᖃᕋᓴᐅᔭᒃᑯᑦ ᐅᐸᒍᑎᓗᑎᑦ ᐅᕗᖓ northernhockeychallenge.ca ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᕗᔅ ᐃᐊᒃᑯᑦ ᖃᕋᓴᐅᔭᒃᑯᑦ ᕕᐊᔅᐳᒃ ᐳᓚᕋᕝᕕᐊᓄᑦ.

Jamie Koe has said, "Gotta love travelling on First Air and experiencing northern hospitality at its finest." ᔭᐃᒥ ᑰ ᐅᖃᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᕗᖅ,“ᖁᕕᐊᒋᓪᓚᕆᑦᑕᕋᓕ ᖃᖓᑕᓪᓗᓂ ᕘᔅᑎᐅᒃᑯᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᑐᖅᑐᒍ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᒥᐅᑦ ᑐᓐᖓᓇᕐᓂᖓ.”

ᕗᔅ ᐃᐊᒃᑯᑦ ᐅᐱᒪᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᐃᑲᔪᖅᑐᐃᕗᑦ ᐊᑯᓂᒻᒪᕆᓪᓗ ᐃᓚᖃᖅᓯᒪᓕᖅᖢᑎᒃ ᔭᐃᒥ ᑰᒥᒃ ᐃᓚᒋᔭᖏᓐᓂᓪᓗ, ᓄᓇᑦᓯᐊᒥ ᓴᖑᐃᔭᖅᑏᑦ ᓵᓚᖃᓐᓂᑯᖏᑦ. ᔭᐃᒥ

ᐃᓚᒋᔭᖏᓪᓗ ᑖᒻ ᓇᐅᒡᓗ, ᐳᕌᑦ ᓱᕈᔅᑕᐅᔅᑭ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᕌᑉ ᐳᐊᑕᓐ, ᑕᒪᐃᓐᓂ ᔭᓗᓇᐃᕝᒥᐅᑕᐃᑦ, ᓵᓚᖃᓚᐅᖅᑐᑦ ᓵᓐᖓᔭᒥᓂᒃ ᓄᓇᑦᓯᐊᖅ/ᔫᑳᓐ ᓴᖑᐃᔭᖅᑕᓐ-

ᓂᖏᒍᑦ ᔮᓐᓄᐊᕆᒥ, ᑖᒃᑯᐊ ᐃᓂᑖᖅᖢᑎᒃ ᑲᓇᑕᐅᑉ ᐱᓐᖑᐊᕕᔾᔪᐊᖏᓐᓂᒃ ᑲᔪᓯᒋᐊᓐᓂᐊᖅᑐᑦ ᐅᐱᓐᖓᔅᓵᖅ ᒪᔾᔨ 1-ᒥ 10-ᒧᑦ ᐃᐊᑦᒪᓐᑕᓐᒥ.

ᑖᓐᓇ ᑰᑉ ᐊᕝᕕᓂᓕᖅ ᐊᑕᐅᓯᓪᓗ ᐅᐸᓐᓂᕆᓂᐊᓕᒻᒪᒍ ᑲᓇᑕᐅᑉ ᐱᓐᖑ-

ᐊᕕᔾᔪᐊᖏᓄᑦ ᐳᕋᐃᔪᒧᑦᓗ ᑰ ᐊᕐᕌᓂ ᓴᔅᑳᑦᑐᕚᓐᒥ ᑎᓴᒪᒋᔭᐅᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ,

ᓯᕗᓪᓕᖅᐹᑦᑎᐊᒥ ᑲᓇᑕᐅᑉ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᖓᓂ ᐱᓐᖑᐊᖅᑏᑦ ᐃᓚᐅᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᑭᖑᓂᕆᔭᖏᓐᓄᑦ ᐱᓐᖑᐊᕕᔾᔪᐊᓐᓂᐅᔪᓄᑦ ᑕᐃᒪᓐᖓᑦ ᐱᒋᐊᕋᒥᒃ ᐊᕐᕌᒍᖓᓂ 1980.

ᐱᖃᓐᓇᕆᔭᓐᓂᑦ ᐅᑯᓇᓐᖓᑦ ᕗᔅ ᐃᐊᒃᑯᑦ… ᑲᔪᓯᓂᖃᑦᑎᐊᕆᑦᑎ ᑰ ᐃᓚᒋᔭᖏᑦ!

First Air’s Chairman of the Board and the President of Makivvik, Jobie Tukkiapik performed the ceremonial puck drop for the Kuujjuaq opening game against Iqaluit on January 25th. ᐊᔾᔨᓐᖑᐊᑉ ᐊᑎᖓᓃᑦᑐᒧᑦ ᑎᑎᖅᑲᑦ: ᕗᔅ ᐃᐊᒃᑯᑦ ᑲᑎᒪᔨᖏᑕ ᐃᒃᓯᕙᐅᑕᖓ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᖓᔪᖅᑳᖓᑦ ᒪᑭᕕᒃᑯᑦ,ᔪᐱ ᑐᒃᑭᐊᐱᒃ ᓯᕗᓪᓕᖅᐹᒥᒃ ᐱᓐᖑᐊᓯᒋᐊᖅᑐᓄᑦ ᐊᖅᓴᖓᓐᓂᒃ ᑲᑕᐃᔪᖅ ᑰᔾᔪᐊᖅ ᕼᐋᑭᖃᑎᖃᖅᑎᓪᓗᒍ ᐃᖃᓗᓐᓂᑦ ᔮᓐᓄᐊᕆ 25-ᖑᑎᓪᓗᒍ.

ᔮᓐᓄᐊᕆᒥ, ᕗᔅ ᐃᐅᒃᑯᑦ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᖃᓚᐅᖅᑐᑦ ᐱᒋᐊᖅᑎᑦᑎᓂᒥᓂᒃ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑐᖅᑐᒥ ᕼᐋᑭᖅᑎᓄᑦ ᓵᓚᖃᕋᓲᑎᐅᔪᒥᒃ (NHC), ᑕᒪᐃᓐᓄᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᒦᑦᑐᓄᑦ ᕼᐋᑭᖅᑎᓄᑦ ᐱᓐᖑᐊᖃᑎᒌᓐᓂᖅ ᑕᑯᔅᓴᕈᐃᔪᖅ ᐱᐅᓂᖅᐹᖏᓐᓂᒃ ᐊᔪᓐᖏᓛᖁᑎᖏᓂᓪᓗ ᐊᖑᑏᑦ ᕼᐋᑭᓱᖏᓐᓂ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᒥ.

ᐊᕝᕕᓂᓖᑦ ᐊᑕᐅᓯᓪᓗ ᕼᐋᑭᖅᑏᑦ ᐃᓚᒌᒃᑐᖅᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᐊᒡᒍᖅᑕᐅᓯᒪᕗᑦ ᐅᐊᓕᓂᒻᒧᑦ ᑲᓇᓐᓇᒧᓪᓗ ᑲᑎᓐᖓᔪᓄᑦ (ᐃᖃᓗᐃᑦ,ᑰᔾᔪᐊᖅ,ᓇᐅᔮᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑲᖏᖅᖠᓂᖅ ᑭᒡᒐᖅᑐᐃᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᑲᓇᓐᓇᒻᒥ;ᕼᐊᐃ ᑰᔾᔪᐊᖓ,ᐃᓅᕕᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᔭᓗᓇᐃᕝ ᐅᐊᓕᓂᒻᒥᒃ ᑭᒡᒐᖅᑐᐃᓪᓗᑎᒃ), ᑖᓐᓇ ᐱᓐᖑᐊᓐᓂᖅ NHC ᐱᒋᐊᓐᓂᖃᓛᖅᑐᖅ ᐱᓇᓱᐊᕈᓰᑦ ᑎᓴᒪᐅᔪᖅᑐᑦ ᑲᔪᓯᓗᑎᒃ ᕼᐋᑭᑲᑕᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᓵᓚᔅᓴᖅᑐᖅ ᐱᖓᓱᓂᒃ-ᑕᓪᓕᒪᐅᔪᓐᓇᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᐱᓐᖑᐊᓐᓃᑦ ᐊᑐᓪᓗᓂᒋᑦ, ᑎᑭᓪᓗᒍ ᐊᒡᒍᖅᓯᒪᓂᐊᑕ ᓯᕗᓕᖅᑎᒋᓗᕈᓂᐅᒃ.ᑭᖑᓂᐊᒍᑦ ᒪᔾᔨᒥ,ᑲᓇᓐᓇᒻᒥ ᐅᐊᓕᓂᒻᒥᓪᓗ ᓯᕗᓕᖅᑎᖏᑦ ᓵᓚᔅᓴᕋᓱᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᐱᓐᖑᐊᖃᑎᒌᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᓵᓚᖃᕋᓱᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᐱᖓᓱᐊᖅᑎᖅ-ᑕᓪᓕᒪᓂᒃ ᕼᐋᑭᓐᓂᐅᔪᓂᒃ ᑭᖑᓂᐊᒍᑦ ᓯᕗᓪᓕᐅᔫᒃ ᒪᕐᕉᒃ ᕼᐋᑭᖅᑎᑦ ᐃᓚᒌᖏᑦ ᐃᓚᐅᖃᑕᐅᓕᒻᒥᓗᑎᒃ ᕗᔅ ᐃᐊᒃᑯᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᐊᓂ ᕼᐋᑭᓐᓂᒻᒧᑦ ᓵᓚᔅᓴᒐᔅᓴᖓᓄᑦ ᐃᓐᖑᓯᒻᒧᑦ.

ᕗᔅ ᐃᐊᒃᑯᑦ ᐅᐱᒪᕗᑦ ᓯᕗᓪᓕᖅᐹᖑᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᑕᑯᔅᓴᕈᐃᑎᑦᑎᒐᒥᒃ ᐱᓐᖑᐊᓂᐅᔪᒥᒃ ᐊᓯᖏᓄᓪᓗ ᐱᓐᖑᐊᕈᑎᓄᑦ ᑲᑎᓐᓂᐅᓲᖑᔪᓄᑦ ᑕᒪᑐᒪᓂ ᐊᕐᕌᒎᔪᒥᒃ. ᐃᑲᔪᖅᑕᐅᓐᖏᒃᑯᑎᒃ ᕗᔅ ᐃᐊᒃᑯᓐᓄᑦ, ᐅᓄᖅᑐᒻᒪᕇᑦ ᐱᓐᖑᐊᓐᓃᑦ ᑲᔪᓯᖃᑦᑕᕋᔭᓐᖏᓚᑦ ᐊᑭᑐᓗᐊᓐᓂᖏᓐᓄᑦ.

First Air was pleased to support these programs with air transportation requirements and we look forward to continuing our community initiatives.

ᕘᔅᑦ ᐃᐊᒃᑯᑦ ᖁᕕᐊᓱᓪᓚᕆᑦᓯᒪᕗᑦ ᐃᑲᔪᖅᑐᕆᐊᑦᓴᖅ ᑕᒪᒃᑯᓂᖓ ᐊᐅᓚᓂᐅᔪᓂᒃ ᐃᖏᕐᕋᔾᔪᑎᖃᖅᑎᑦᓯᓂᒃᑯᑦ ᓂᕆᐅᓐᓂᖃᑦᓯ-ᐊᖅᐳᒍᓪᓗ ᑲᔪᓯᑎᑦᓯᓂᕐᒥᒃ ᓄᓇᓕᓐᓂ ᐊᐅᓚᔾᔭᒋᐊᕈᑎᓂᒃ.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

13 Arctic Herders Traditional Life in the Arctic Publisher & Editor Tom Koelbel Contributing Editor Teevi Mackay Advertising Doris Ohlmann (Ottawa) 613-257-4999 Circulation Patt Hunter Design Robert Hoselton, Beat Studios Inuktitut Translations Innirvik Support Services email: editor@arcticjournal.ca Toll Free: 877-2ARCTIC (227-2842) PO Box 683, Mahone Bay, NS B0J 2E0 Volume 25, No. 2

March/April 2013

CANADA’S ARCTIC JOURNAL

MARCH/APRIL 2013 • $ 5.95

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2013

According to the traditional belief of the Nenets people in Siberia, the god Num created reindeer first, then made man to look after them. It’s surprising that any deer can survive in areas of tundra with sparse vegetation and low winter temperatures, but reindeer are well suited to the Arctic. Herding is practised on a much larger scale in the Russian north — by at least ten native peoples.

— Text and photos by Bryan and Cherry Alexander

33 Journey alongside Maïna Maïna, the soon to be released (October 2013) feature film now in production is based on the book by the same name. The novel, by prolific Quebec author Dominique Demers, was first published in French and tells the fascinating story of a young Innu woman taken on an epic journey from her homeland on the North Shore of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, far away to a land of ice, Nunavik’s Ungava Peninsula.

— Text and photos by Isabelle Dubois

39 Bound for the Barrens Journal of the Ernest Oberholtzer & Billy Magee 2,000-mile Canoe Voyage to Hudson Bay in 1912 — Jean Sanford Replinger (ed.)

Arctic Herders

MAÏNA

Traditional Life in the Arctic

Bound for the Barrens

Call of the Wolves

1912 Canoe Voyage to Hudson Bay

Ernest Oberholtzer, an American in his mid-20s, having discovered the joys of canoe travel in the Rainy Lake border district, allowed his imagination to be fuelled by reading accounts of the Far North, principal among them the writings of J.B. Tyrrell, a geologist who was among the earliest white men to travel in the barrenlands. Oberholtzer dreamed of emulating his hero. — A Review Essay by David F. Pelly

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Exploring Nunavut’s Parks

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ETUA MARK MUNICK (FOREGROUND) AND QULLIQ ANGNATUK IN SCENE FROM MAЇNA. © ISABELLE DUBOIS

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arcticjournal.ca Celebrating our 25th year as the popular In-flight magazine for First Air, The Airline of the North.

March/April 2013

9 Circumpolar World 10 NORTHERN YOUTH Focus on Identity

by Teevi Mackay 20 LIVING ABOVE & BEYOND

27 Exploring Nunavut’s Parks 45 ENVIRONMENT Sequencing the Arctic

by David Smith 46 ARTS & CULTURE Kenojuak Ashevak

by Pascale Dion

51 NORTHERN BOOKSHELF 53 INUIT FORUM I’ll Have My Caribou Rare and My Char Tartare

by Terry Audla 54 EXOTICA Mica

by Lee Narraway

PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40050872 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO: CIRCULATION/ABOVE&BEYOND P.O. BOX 683 MAHONE BAY, NS B0J 2E0 Email: info@arcticjournal.ca

above & beyond

7

(Kangiqliniq)

© LAUREN MCKENNITT

RANKIN INLET cq6Oi6 Rankin Inlet, or Kangiqliniq (“deep bay/inlet” in Inuktitut), is one of the largest communities in Nunavut. It is the business and transportation hub of the Kivalliq region and the gateway to Nunavut from Central and Western Canada. Due to the large volume of traffic through the area, as well as a history of regional government, mining and exploration, Rankin Inlet has developed a strong taskforce of entrepreneurs. Freight expediters, equipment suppliers and outfitters provide tourists and businesses in the area with a wide variety of services.

© LAUREN MCKENNITT

The Iqalugaarjuup Nunanga Territorial Historic Park is a favourite spot for hiking, fishing and bird watching. Archaeological sites, such as the European whaler shipwreck near Marble Island and the Thule site in the Ijiraliq River area offer an historical perspective. Come take a Walking Tour and you will see where an ancient past borders on a vibrant present.

The community includes various recreational facilities such as a hockey arena, curling arena, baseball diamond, recreational volleyball, basketball, soccer, badminton and hockey, an outdoor beach volleyball court and soccer field, an 18-hole golf course, and playgrounds. A variety of events are planned throughout the year such as arts and crafts shows, square dances, bingo, Pakalluk Time (town festival), Avataq Hockey Tournament, Christmas activities and many more.

© LAUREN MCKENNITT (2)

With the welcoming attitude of the people, mining development, hotel construction, and opening of the Wellness Facility in 2013, Rankin Inlet is a great place to live, visit, work or start a business.

Rankin Inlet is a growing community with great potential.

867-645-2895

info@rankininlet.ca

www.rankininlet.ca

© MARCEL MASON (5)

CIRCuMPOLAR WORLD

2013 Year of the Polar Bear anada’s management autonomy over its own polar bear populations is under international scrutiny. Spearheading the ever-growing worldwide lobby to protect the species is the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

To promote support for their polar bear protection agenda and engage the public, the WWF used the National Capital Region’s 2013 Winterlude festivities in February as the backdrop to highlight 2013 as the Year of the Polar Bear in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the five nation 1973 Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears.

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Engaging social media tracking of five ice-carved polar bear renderings from each of the range countries (Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States) the WWF ran a contest to locate or phone tag the bears distributed throughout the region’s Winterlude festivities core.

Inuit and many northerners in the know, including government ministers responsible for wildlife in Nunavut, do not agree with the WWF on the current risks to polar bear populations and how they should be managed.

Fabulous Creations by the Artisans of Nunavik

Kuujjuaq, QC Box 729 J0M 1C0 CANADA | Tel: 819-964-1848 Fax: 819-964-1950 | e-mail: info@nunavikcreations.com | online shopping: www.nunavikcreations.com

March/April 2013

above & beyond

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NORTHERN YOuTH here is no doubt that the Nunavut Sivuniksavut (NS) Training Program changed my life. The dedication and heart of the coordinators and instructors really made the difference for me when I took the program in 2008-2009. I learned about Inuit history, which was crucial for me to see the timeline of where Inuit came from, what they were capable of and how they changed the map of Canada forever. I was and still am in awe of Inuit and how they adapted to living in the Arctic. Subsequent learning of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement and Inuit government relations showed me how Inuit were capable of adapting to changing times, in order to benefit the people of Nunavut.

The cultural learning components of NS included learning Inuktitut, gaining skills in making Inuit forms of art (drum making, ulu making, and sewing), and cultural performances. I embraced learning songs in Inuktitut and also throat singing. I had such a hard time at first

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ᓗᓇᓐᖏᑦᑐᖅ ᓄᓇᕗᑦ ᓯᕗᓂᒃᓴᕗᑦ ᐃᓕᓯᐃᓂᐅᔪᖅ (NS) ᐊᓯᔾᔩᓯᒪᒻᒪᑦ ᐃᓅᓯᕆᔭᕐᓂᒃ. ᑐᑭᒧᐊᖅᑏᑦ ᐃᓕᓴᐃᔩᓪᓗ ᐊᒃᓱᕈᓪᓚᕆᓐᓂᖏᓐᓄᑦ ᐊᔪᐃᓐᓈᕐᓂᖏᓐᓄᓪᓗ ᐱᕚᓪᓕᕈᑎᒋᓯᒪᓪᓚᕆᑦᑕᕋ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕈᑎᒋᓕᕋᒃᑲ 2008-2009-ᒥ. ᐃᓕᓚᐅᖅᐳᖓ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᐱᕙᓪᓕᐊᓯᒪᓂᖏᓐᓂᑦ, ᑕᑯᒍᓐᓇᖅᓯᓪᓗᖓᓗ ᓇᑭᓐᖔᓐᓂᕐᒪᖔᑕ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ, ᖃᓄᐃᓘᕈᓐᓇᕐᒪᖔᑕ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᖃᓄᖅ ᐊᓯᔾᔩᓯᒪᒻᒪᖔᑕ ᑲᓇᑕᐅᑉ ᑕᐅᑦᑐᖓᓂᒃ. ᑕᐸᐃᑦᑎᐊᓚᐅᖅᐳᖓ ᑕᐸᐃᖅᓯᒪᕗᖓᓗ ᓱᓕ ᐃᓄᓐᓂᑦ ᖃᓄᕐᓗ ᐱᓕᕆᔪᓐᓇᖅᓯᓯᒪᓂᖏᓐᓂᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᒥ. ᑭᖑᓂᐊᒍᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕋᒃᑯ ᓄᓇᕗᒻᒥ ᓄᓇᑖᕈᑎᒧᑦ ᐊᖏᖃᑎᒌᒍᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᒐᕙᒪᐅᒍᓯᖏᑦ ᖃᐅᔨᔾᔪᑎᒋᓚᐅᖅᐸᕋ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᐊᓯᔾᔨᕆᐊᕈᓐᓇᕐᓂᖏᓐᓄᑦ ᐃᑲᔫᑕᐅᔪᒥᒃ ᓄᓇᕗᒥᐅᓄᑦ. ᐃᓕᖅᑯᓯᓕᕆᓂᐅᓂᖓ NS ᐱᖃᓯᐅᑎᕗᖅ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᕐᒥᒃ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᓂᕐᒥᒃ, ᐊᔪᓐᖏᔾᔪᑎᓂᑦ ᐃᓄᒃᓯᐅᑎᓂᑦ (ᕿᓚᐅᔾᔭᓕᐅᕐᓂᖅ, ᐅᓗᓕᐅᕐᓂᖅ ᒥᖅᓱᖃᑦᑕᕐᓂᕐᓗ), ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑭᐱᓐᖑᐃᔭᐅᑏᑦ. ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ ᐃᓐᖏᕈᓯᕐᓂᑦ ᑲᑕᔾᔭᓂᕐᒥᓪᓗ ᐃᓕᓚᐅᖅᐳᖓ. ᕿᓚᐅᔾᔭᓂᕐᒥᒃ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᓯᒋᐊᕋᒪ ᐊᔪᑦᑎᐊᓚᐅᖅᑕᕋ, ᓱᓇᐅᕝᕙᓕ ᓴᐅᒥᐅᓐᓂᕋᒪ ᐆᑦᑐᖁᔭᐅᓪᓗᖓ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᖃᑎᒻᒪ ᐃᓚᖓᓄᑦ ᕿᓚᐅᔾᔭᒍᓐᓇᖅᓯᓕᓚᐅᖅᐳᖓ. NS-ᒥ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᖅᑐᖅ ᐊᖏᑦᑎᐊᕈᓂ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᓂᕐᒧᑦ,ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᑦᑎᐊᓂᖅᓴᐅᔪᓐᓇᖅᓯᓕᖅᐸᑉᐳᑦ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔮᖅᑖᕈᓐᓇᖅᓯᓪᓗᑎᓪᓗ ᓄᓇᕗᒻᒥ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑐᑭᓯᐊᑦᑎᐊᓂᖅᑖᕐᓗᓂ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᐱᕙᓪᓕᐊᓯᒪᓂᖏᓐᓂᑦ ᐃᓕᖅᑯᓯᖓᓐᓂᓪᓗ.

IDENTITY ᑭᓇᐅᓂᕐᒧᑦ ᑐᕌᖓᓂᑦ

learning how to drum dance which was very frustrating, but I was unaware that I am actually a left-handed drum dancer until a classmate told me to try it that way. If an NS student fully embraces the program, then they allow themselves to become better students, hirable in Nunavut, and also gives them the opportunity to embrace and appreciate Inuit history and culture.

A memorable experience during NS was when I learned how to throat sing. I performed at Ottawa’s Winterlude celebrations and I felt very connected to my Inuit heritage. The art of throat singing requires a great deal of focus and skill and it allows you to connect with your culture in a way that is near indescribable. I feel fortunate to have this as part of my Inuit heritage and I’m thankful that NS gave me the opportunity to explore this part of who I am.

I felt most proud of being Inuk when I shared my culture with the Maori of New Zealand. The cultural performing exchange ceremonies with the Maori were incredible and life changing. It was great to see such a strong, rich and vibrant Maori culture and honestly it really inspired me and made me want to learn from other Aboriginals around the world.

Currently, the Maori are experiencing their own language revival and I believe that is important to see, especially for the strengthening of the use of Inuktitut in the North. There is so much we can share and learn from other Indigenous peoples and by doing so you allow yourself to reflect upon your own culture and where it stands in comparison to other Indigenous cultures on an international level.

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© iPHONE PHOTO, COURTESY COLLEEN MACKAY

Focus on ᑎᑎᕋᖅᑐᖅ ᑏᕙᐃ ᒪᑲᐃ

by Teevi Mackay

ᐳᐃᒍᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔾᔮᓐᖏᑕᕋ NS-ᒦᑎᓪᓗᖓ ᑲᑕᔾᔭᓂᕐᒥᒃ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕐᓂᕆᓚᐅᖅᑕᕋ. ᑲᑕᔾᔭᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᕗᖓ ᐋᑐᐊᒥ ᐅᑭᐅᒃᑯᑦ ᐱᕕᔾᔪᐊᖅᑎᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᐃᑉᐱᒍᓱᒻᒪᕆᓚᐅᖅᐳᖓᓗ ᐃᓅᓂᕐᓂᒃ. ᑲᑕᔾᔭᕐᓂᖅ ᐊᒃᓱᕈᕆᐊᖃᓐᓇᐅᕗᖅ ᐃᓱᒪᒃᑯᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᑕᓯᒪᒃᑲᓐᓂᕈᑎᒋᔪᓐᓇᖅᑐᒍ ᐃᓅᓂᕐᓂᑦ ᐃᒫᒃ ᐅᖃᕋᔅᓴᐅᑲᓴᓐᖏᑦᑎᐊᖅᑐᓂ.ᐱᒃᑯᒍᓱᑉᐳᖓ ᑕᒪᓐᓇ ᐃᓅᓂᕐᓄᑦ ᐃᓚᓕᐅᑎᓯᒪᒻᒪᑦ ᖁᔭᓕᕗᖓᓗ NS-ᑯᓐᓄᑦ ᑕᒪᑐᒥᖓ ᖃᐅᔨᔪᓐᓇᖅᓯᓕᓚᐅᕋᒪ ᑭᓇᐅᓂᕐᓂᒃ. ᐱᒃᑯᒍᓱᕕᔾᔪᐊᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᕗᖓ ᐃᓅᓂᕐᓂᒃ ᑕᑯᑎᑦᑎᔨᐊᖅᑐᖅᓯᒪᓪᓗᖓ ᒪᐅᕆᓂᑦ ᓂᐅᔩᓚᓐᑎᒥᐅᑦ ᓄᓇᖃᖅᑳᖅᑐᖁᑎᖏᓐᓂᒃ. ᑕᑯᑎᑦᑎᖃᑕᐅᑎᓂᕆᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔭᕗᑦ ᑖᒃᑯᐊ ᒪᐅᕇᑦ ᐊᓕᐊᓇᐃᕕᔾᔪᐊᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᕗᖅ ᐊᓯᔾᔨᓇᖅᑐᓂᓗ ᐃᓅᓯᕐᒧᑦ. ᖁᕕᐊᓇᒻᒪᕆᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᑕᑯᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᒪᐅᕇᑦ ᐃᓕᖅᑯᓯᖃᕐᓂᖏᑦ ᓴᓐᖏᔪᐊᓗᒻᒥᒃ ᐅᕙᖓ ᐊᓪᓛᑦ ᐱᔪᒥᓇᓕᕆᐊᕈᑎᒋᒃᑲᓐᓂᓚᐅᖅᐸᕋ ᐃᓕᒍᒪᒃᑲᓂᖅᑐᖓᓗ ᐊᓯᑦᑎᓐᓂᑦ ᓄᓇᖃᖅᑳᖅᑑᔪᓂᑦ ᓯᓚᕐᔪᐊᒥ. ᒫᓐᓇᐅᔪᖅ ᒪᐅᕇᑦ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᑐᖃᒥᓂᒃ ᐅᑎᖅᑎᑦᑎᕙᓪᓕᐊᓯᕗᑦ ᑕᒪᓐᓇᓗ ᑕᑯᔭᕆᐊᖃᓪᓚᕆᒐᓱᒋᔭᕋ, ᐱᓗᐊᖅᑐᒥ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᖓᑦ ᐊᑐᖅᑕᐅᓂᕆᔭᖓ ᓴᓐᖏᑦᑎᒋᐊᕐᓂᐊᕐᓂᖓᓄᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᒥ. ᐊᒥᓱᓂᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᖃᑎᒌᒍᓐᓇᖅᐳᒍᑦ ᐊᓯᑦᑎᓐᓂᑦ ᓄᓇᖃᖅᑳᖅᑑᔪᓂᑦ ᑕᒪᑐᒨᓇᓗ ᐃᓱᒪᑖᒃᑲᓐᓂᕋᔭᖅᐳᑎᑦ ᐃᓕᖅᑯᓯᕆᔭᕐᓂᒃ ᖃᓄᐃᓕᖓᓕᕐᒪᖔᕐᓗ ᐊᓯᑦᑕ ᓄᓇᖃᖅᑳᖅᑑᖃᑎᑦᑕ ᓯᓚᕐᔪᐊᒥ ᓴᓂᐊᒍᑦ. ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕐᓂᕋ ᐃᓅᓪᓗᑕ ᐃᓕᖅᑯᓯᑦᑎᓐᓂᒃ ᐱᔾᔪᐊᒻᒪᕆᒋᓚᐅᖅᐸᕋ. ᐱᒻᒪᕆᐅᒃᑲᓐᓂᓚᐅᖅᐳᖅ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕋᒪ ᐊᑦᑏᕈᓯᒋᔭᐅᔪᑐᖃᕐᒥᒃ ᐃᓄᓐᓄᑦ ᓱᓕᓗ ᐊᑐᖅᑕᐅᕙᒃᑐᓂ.ᐊᑦᑎᖅᑕᐅᓯᒪᕗᖓ ᑏᕙᐊᒥᒃ (ᐊᖓᔪᖅᑳᑯᒃᑲ ᐊᓪᓚᑦᑐᐃᔪᒪᓚᐅᖅᐸᖓ ᑏᕖᒥᒃ) ᓂᖏᐅᒃᑲᓐᓂᒥᓂᕐᓂᒃ ᑎᒍᐊᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᐊᑖᑕᑦᑎᐊᕐᓂᒃ, ᐊᐃᒧ ᒪᑉᐸᓗᒻᒥᒃ ᒫᓐᓇ ᐃᖃᓗᒻᒥᐅᑕᐅᓕᖅᑐᖅ. ᑏᕙᐃ ᑎᒍᐊᖅᓯᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᕗᖅ ᐊᓈᓇᖓ ᐃᓅᔪᓐᓃᕐᒪᑦ ᐃᕐᓂᐊᕆᒐᓱᐊᖅᑐᓂᐅᒃ. ᐊᑖᑕᑦᑎᐊᒪ ᐊᓈᓇᓪᓚᕆᒥᓂᐊ ᖃᓂᒪᖃᑦᑕᓚᐅᕐᒪᑦ ᓄᑦᑎᓚᐅᖅᑎᓐᓇᒍ ᐃᒃᐱᐊᕐᔪᒻᒧᒃ ᑭᓐᖓᕐᓂᒃ — ᓯᕗᓂᐊᓂᓗ ᓄᑦᑎᕐᓂᑰᓪᓗᓂ ᐃᑦᑐᒃᑲᓐᓂᕋᓗ ᓄᓇᕕᒻᒥᒃ. ᑕᐃᔅᓱᒪᓂ ᐃᒃᐱᐊᕐᔪᒻᒥ ᐱᒡᒐᓇᖅᑐᖅᓯᐅᕐᓇᕕᔾᔪᐊᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᕗᖅ (ᐅᑭᐅᖅ ᐊᑕᐅᓯᕐᒥ ᑐᐱᕐᒦᑦᑐᑎᑦ) ᐃᕐᓂᓯᒐᒥ ᐊᑖᑕᑦᑎᐊᕐᓂᒃ ᐃᓅᔪᓐᓃᓚᕿᓕᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔪᖅ. ᑏᕙᐃ ᑎᒍᓕᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᕙᐅᒃ ᐊᑖᑕᑦᑎᐊᕋ. ᑏᕙᐃ ᐃᕐᓂᔪᓐᓇᓚᐅᓐᖏᒻᒪᑦ ᑎᒍᐊᖅᑖᖅᓯᒪᓪᓗᓂᓗ ᑕᓪᓕᒪᓂᑦ. ᑕᐃᒪᓕ ᐅᐃᖓ ᑕᐅᑐᒍᓐᓃᓕᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᒻᒪᑦ ᐆᒪᔪᖅᓯᐅᖃᑦᑕᕆᐊᖃᓕᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᐃᒡᓗᕕᒐᓕᐅᖃᑦᑕᕐᓗᓂᓗ. ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᐅᑉᐱᕈᓱᒃᐳᑦ

March/April 2013

NORTHERN YOuTH Learning about my culture as an Inuk meant the world to me. It was especially very important for me to learn about the powerful and very strong naming tradition that Inuit have practiced and continue to practice. I’m named after Tiivai (My parents wanted it spelled Teevi) after my great-grandmother who adopted my grandfather, Aimo Muckpaloo, who lives in Iqaluit today. Tiivai adopted my grandfather after his mother died after giving birth to him. My grandfather’s biological mother had been unwell before being relocated to Arctic Bay from Cape Dorset – before that she and my great grandfather had been relocated from Northern Quebec.

The living conditions in Arctic Bay were so dire at that time (during one winter they lived in a tent) that when she gave birth to my grandfather, she passed away. Tiivai then adopted my grandfather. Tiivai was unable to have children of her own and adopted a total of five children.

At one point her husband became blind and she had to do all the hunting and shelter building herself. Inuit believe that you take on the traits of the person you are named after, so I definitely gain strength knowing that I am named after such an exceptional person. This is just a mere glimpse of what I learned about myself and my culture while studying at NS. NS was such a special experience. It not only helped me build the necessary academic tools to excel in university, but it also provided the avenues to explore my identity as an Inuk from Nunavut. I believe in the importance of knowing yourself, your strengths, your qualities and who you are as an individual, which includes knowing your roots. NS is such a great bridging program to higher levels of education. Its benefits are rich in helping you realize your identity and to move forward in life with a strong foundation. Obviously I am Inuk, but I didn’t truly know what that meant until this program helped me discover it meant.

I also feel a strong connection to my Scottish heritage. My father moved to Arctic Bay from Glasgow, Scotland, when he was 17 to work for the Hudson’s Bay Company. In 2007, I brought my father’s ashes to Scotland, in order to lay him to rest in his homeland. Since then I have visited Glasgow twice to spend time with my grandmother, Isabelle, (my daughter is named after her) and my uncles.

My uncle, Nigel, works in radio in Scotland and it’s evident to me that he and I share an interest in this field. Last August I also learned that my grandmother wrote for newspapers when my father and his brothers were growing up. This encourages me, because now I know that my journalism studies come from a generational interest. I never met my Scottish grandfather, Donald Mackay, but I do know that he was incredibly brilliant, a member of Mensa — the international high IQ society — and was an impressive historian and professor.

It has been important to me to learn about my Scottish roots, so much so that I have made every effort to visit whenever possible. I have been given strength through gaining knowledge of both sides of my heritage. Both my Scottish grandparents were strong believers in attaining higher levels of education and when I visited my grandmother I have been encouraged by her to earn a degree, which has made all the difference for me.

I cannot stress the importance of learning about your own identity.

Knowing yourself and where you come from is fundamental in gaining confidence in who you are. If you don’t have a full grasp of your identity then I believe it is difficult to move forward in your life. I know that I have more to learn, but at this point I feel comfortable with what I’ve learned about my heritage and I look forward to learning and embracing more of who I am.

March/April 2013

ᐃᓕᖅᑯᓯᖅᑖᖅᑐᖃᓲᖑᓂᖓᓂᒃ ᐊᑦᑎᕐᕕᐅᓯᒪᔪᒥᒃ, ᑕᐃᒪᐃᓐᓂᖓᓄᑦ ᓴᓐᖏᑦᑎᒃᑲᓐᓂᓚᐅᖅᐳᖓ ᖃᐅᔨᒐᒪ ᐊᑦᑎᖅᑕᐅᓯᒪᓂᕐᓂᒃ ᑕᐃᒪᓐᓇᒃ ᐊᔪᓐᖏᑦᑐᒻᒪᕆᐊᓗᒻᒥᒃ. ᑖᓐᓇ ᐃᓚᑯᓗᑐᐃᓐᓇᕆᔭᖓ ᐃᓕᑉᐹᓪᓕᕈᑎᒋᓚᐅᖅᑕᕐᓂᒃ ᑭᓇᐅᓂᕐᓂᒃ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᖅᑐᖓ NS-ᒥ.

NS ᐊᔾᔨᐅᖏᒋᕕᔾᔪᐊᓚᐅᖅᑕᕋ. ᐃᑲᔪᑐᐃᓐᓇᓚᐅᓐᖏᑦᑐᖅ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᖅᑐᖓ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕕᔾᔪᐊᒧᑦ ᑲᔪᓯᑦᑎᐊᕈᑎᒋᔪᓐᓇᖅᑕᑐᐃᓐᓇᐅᖏᑦᑐᖅ, ᐊᖅᑯᑎᑖᕈᑎᒋᓚᐅᖅᐸᕋᑦᑕᐅᖅ ᐃᓅᔾᔪᓯᕐᓄᑦ ᓄᓇᕗᒥᐅᑕᐅᓪᓗᖓ. ᐅᑉᐱᕈᓱᒃᐳᖓ ᓇᒻᒥᓂᖅ ᖃᐅᔨᔭᕆᐊᖃᓐᓂᕐᒥᒃ, ᓴᓐᖏᓂᕆᔭᓐᓂᒃ, ᐃᓕᖅᑯᓯᕆᔭᓐᓂᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑭᓇᐅᓂᕐᓂᒃ, ᖃᐅᔨᖃᓯᐅᑎᓗᒍ ᓇᑭᓐᖔᕐᒪᖔᖅᐱᑦ. NS ᐃᑳᕈᑎᒃᓴᑦᑎᐊᕙᐅᕗᖅ ᖁᑦᑎᓂᖅᓴᒧᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕐᓂᕐᒧᑦ. ᐃᑲᔫᑎᖏᑦ ᐱᑕᖃᐅᒻᒪᕆᑉᐳᑦ ᖃᐅᔨᓂᕐᒧᑦ ᑭᓇᐅᓂᕐᓄᑦ ᓯᕗᒧᐊᕈᓐᓇᖅᓯᓗᑎᓪᓗ ᑐᓐᖓᕕᖃᑦᑎᐊᕐᓗᑎᑦ. ᓇᓗᓇᓐᖏᑦᑐᖅ ᐃᓅᔪᖓ, ᑭᓯᐊᓂᓕ ᑐᑭᓯᒻᒪᕆᓚᐅᓐᖏᑕᕋ ᖃᓄᖅ ᑐᑭᖃᒻᒪᖔᖅ ᑕᒪᓐᓇᐅᓚᐅᖅᑎᓐᓇᒍ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕐᓂᖅ. ᐃᑉᐱᒋᑦᑎᐊᕐᒥᔭᕋᑦᑕᖅ ᓯᑳᑦᓚᒻᒥᐅᑕᐅᓂᕆᔭᕐᓂᒃ. ᐊᑖᑕᒐ ᐃᒃᐱᐊᕐᔪᒻᒪᑦ ᓅᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᕗᖅ ᒋᓛᔅᑲᐅ, ᓯᑳᑦᓚᒥ 17-ᓂᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᖃᖅᑎᓪᓗᒍ ᓂᐅᕕᖅᑎᒃᑯᓐᓄᑦ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᕆᐊᖅᑎᑕᐅᓪᓗᓂ. 2007-ᖑᑎᓪᓗᒍ

I felt most proud of being Inuk when I shared my culture with the Maori of New Zealand. The cultural performing exchange ceremonies with the Maori were incredible and life changing. It was great to see such a strong, rich and vibrant Maori culture and honestly it really inspired me and made me want to learn from other Aboriginals around the world.

ᒫᓐᓇᐅᔪᖅ ᒪᐅᕇᑦ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᑐᖃᒥᓂᒃ ᐅᑎᖅᑎᑦᑎᕙᓪᓕᐊᓯᕗᑦ ᑕᒪᓐᓇᓗ

ᑕᑯᔭᕆᐊᖃᓪᓚᕆᒐᓱᒋᔭᕋ, ᐱᓗᐊᖅᑐᒥ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᖓᑦ ᐊᑐᖅᑕᐅᓂ-

ᕆᔭᖓ ᓴᓐᖏᑦᑎᒋᐊᕐᓂᐊᕐᓂᖓᓄᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᒥ. ᐊᒥᓱᓂᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᖃᑎᒌᒍᓐᓇᖅᐳᒍᑦ ᐊᓯᑦᑎᓐᓂᑦ ᓄᓇᖃᖅᑳᖅᑑᔪᓂᑦ ᑕᒪᑐᒨᓇᓗ ᐃᓱᒪᑖᒃ-

ᑲᓐᓂᕋᔭᖅᐳᑎᑦ ᐃᓕᖅᑯᓯᕆᔭᕐᓂᒃ ᖃᓄᐃᓕᖓᓕᕐᒪᖔᕐᓗ ᐊᓯᑦᑕ ᓄᓇ-

ᖃᖅᑳᖅᑑᖃᑎᑦᑕ ᓯᓚᕐᔪᐊᒥ ᓴᓂᐊᒍᑦ.

ᑎᒥᖓᑕ ᐊᖅᓴᑰᖏᑦ ᓇᒃᓯᐅᔾᔨᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᕙᒃᑲ ᓯᑳᑦᓚᒧᑦ ᓄᓇᑐᖃᒻᒥᓂ ᐃᓗᕕᖅᑕᐅᓂᐊᕐᒪᑦ. ᑕᐃᒪᓐᖓᓂᒃ ᒋᓛᔅᑲᐅᓕᐊᖅᓯᒪᕗᖓ ᒪᕐᕈᐊᑎᖅᑐᖓ ᐊᓈᓇᑦᑎᐊᕋ ᐃᓴᐱᐊᓪ ᐱᖃᑎᒋᔪᒪᓪᓗᒍ (ᐸᓂᒐ ᐊᑎᖓᓂᒃ ᐊᑎᖃᖅᑐᖅ) ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᒃᑲᑯᒃᑲ. ᐊᒃᑲᕋ ᓇᐃᔾᔪᓪ ᓈᓚᐅᑎᒃᑰᖅᐸᑉᐳᖅ ᓯᑳᓪᓚᒥ ᖃᐅᔨᓇᖅᑐᓂᓗ ᐅᕙᒍᒃ ᑕᒪᑐᒪᓂ ᐊᓕᐊᓇᐃᒋᔭᖃᕋᓐᓄ. ᐋᒍᓯᐅᓚᐅᖅᑐᒥ ᐃᓕᓚᐅᕐᒥᔪᖓ ᐊᓈᓇᑦᑎᐊᕋ ᐅᖃᓕᒫᒐᓐᓂᑦ ᑎᑎᕋᖃᑦᑕᓚᐅᕐᒪᑦ ᐊᑖᑕᒐ ᐊᖓᔪᖏᓪᓗ ᓄᑲᖏᓪᓗ ᐱᕈᖅᓴᑎᓪᓗᒋᑦ. ᑕᒪᓐᓇ ᐱᔪᒪᓕᕈᑎᒋᒃᑲᓐᓂᓚᐅᖅᐸᕋ, ᖃᐅᔨᒪᓕᕋᒪ ᐱᕙᓪᓕᐊᔪᓯᐅᑎᓂᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕐᓂᕆᔭᕋ ᑭᖑᕚᕆᔭᐅᓂᕐᓃᖔᕐᒪᑦ. ᓯᑳᓪᓚᒥ ᐊᑖᑕᑦᑎᐊᕋ, ᑖᓄᑦ ᒪᑲᐃ, ᑕᑯᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᓐᖏᑕᕋᓗᐊᕋ ᑭᓯᐊᓂᓕ ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔪᖓ ᓯᓚᑐᔪᒻᒪᕆᐊᓘᓚᐅᕐᒪᑦ, ᐃᓚᒋᔭᐅᓪᓗᓂ Mensaᑯᓐᓄᑦ — ᓯᓚᕐᔪᐊᒥ ᓯᓚᑐᔪᓄᑦ ᑲᑐᔾᔨᖃᑎᒌᑦ — ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐱᔪᒥᓂᕐᓂᑦ ᑎᑎᕋᖅᑎᑦᑎᐊᕙᐅᓪᓗᓂ ᐃᓕᓯᒪᑑᖑᓚᐅᖅᑐᓂᓗ. ᐱᒻᒪᕆᐅᒋᓯᒪᕙᕋ ᐃᓕᒋᐊᒃᓴᖅ ᓯᑳᓪᓚᒥᐅᑕᐅᔾᔪᓯᕐᓂᒃ,ᐊᓪᓛᒃ ᖃᓄᓕᒫᖃᑦᑕᖅᓯᒪᓪᓗᖓ ᐳᓚᕋᕆᐊᒃᓴᖅ ᐊᔪᕐᓇᓐᖏᑐᐊᕌᖓᑦ. ᓴᓐᖏᓂᖅᑖᖅᑎᑕᐅᓯᒪᕗᖓ ᖃᐅᔨᑎᑕᐅᓂᕐᒥᒃ ᑲᒪᒡᒌᓐᓂᒃ ᓇᑭᓐᖔᕐᓂᕆᔭᕐᓂᒃ. ᑖᒃᑯᐊ ᓯᑳᓪᓚᒥ ᐃᑦᑐᕆᔭᒃᑲ ᐅᑉᐱᕆᔭᖃᖅᑐᒻᒪᕆᐅᓚᐅᖅᐴᒃ ᖁᑦᑎᓂᖅᓴᒥᒃ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᓂᖅᑖᕆᐊᒃᓴᖅ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᓈᓇᑦᑎᐊᕋ ᐳᓛᓕᕋᐃᒐᒃᑯ ᐊᔭᐅᕆᓯᒪᕚᖓ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᓂᕐᒧᑦ ᐸᐃᑉᐹᖅᑖᖁᓪᓗᖓ, ᑕᒻᒪᓇᓗ ᐃᑲᔪᕐᓂᖃᕐᕕᒋᓯᒪᓪᓚᕆᑦᑐᒍ. ᖃᓄᒃᑲᓐᓂᖅ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᕆᒃᑲᓐᓂᕈᓐᓇᓐᖏᑕᕋ ᑭᓇᐅᓂᕆᔭᕐᓄᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᓂᖅ. ᓇᒻᒥᓂᖅ ᖃᐅᔨᒪᓕᕐᓗᑎᑦ ᓇᑭᓐᖔᕐᒪᖔᖅᐱᓪᓗ ᑐᓐᖓᕕᒋᔪᓐᓇᖅᐸᐃᑦ ᓇᓗᖅᑯᑎᒍᓐᓃᓂᕐᒥᒃ ᑭᓇᐅᓂᕆᔭᓐᓄᑦ. ᑐᑭᓯᐊᑦᑎᐊᖏᒃᑯᕕᑦ ᑭᓇᐅᓂᕐᓂᑦ ᓯᕗᒧᐊᕆᐊᒃᓴᖅ ᐱᔭᕐᓂᖏᑐᐃᓐᓇᕐᓂᐊᖅᑐᖅ. ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔪᖓ ᓱᓕ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᒐᒃᓴᖃᕋᒪ, ᑭᓯᐊᓂ ᒫᓐᓇᐅᔪᖅ ᓈᒻᒪᒍᓱᑉᐳᖓ ᐃᓕᓯᒪᔭᕐᓂᒃ ᓇᑭᓐᖔᕐᓂᕆᔭᕐᓂᒃ ᓂᕆᐅᑉᐳᖓᓗ ᐃᓕᒃᑲᓐᓂᕐᓂᐊᕆᐊᒃᓴᖅ ᑭᓇᐅᓂᕆᔭᕐᓂᒃ.

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A thousand reindeer are driven across the tundra in Khanty Mansiysk, northwest Siberia, 2000.

Arctic Herders Traditional Life in the Arctic Text and photos by Bryan and Cherry Alexander

A

Herders in winter It’s wonderful to see The reindeer come down From the forest, And start pouring north over the white tundra.

Inuit elder, early 20th century

March/April 2013

ccording to the traditional belief of the Nenets people in Siberia, the god Num created reindeer first, then made man to look after them. It’s surprising that any deer can survive in areas of tundra with sparse vegetation and low winter temperatures, but reindeer are well suited to the Arctic. Their key defence against the cold is an exceptional winter coat with fine underfur plus long, hollow guard hairs that contain thousands of tiny, insulating air cells. These creatures also have a broad muzzle that acts as a heat exchanger, warming cold air before it reaches the lungs and cooling exhaled air to restrict heat and water loss. Adult bulls can weigh over 100 kg, but their compact body, combined with small ears and short tail, reduces their overall surface area, limiting heat loss. Also, compared with other deer, they have broad and flexible feet, which help them walk on snow and ice, and act as paddles when they swim. A unique feature of reindeer is that females as well as males have antlers.

Scientists believe that the first reindeer were domesticated about 7,000 years ago in southern Siberia, near Lake Baikal. Initially, tamed animals were used by hunters as decoys; later, they played a crucial role in allowing people to survive in the Arctic. In the west, the Scandinavian Saami are the best-known reindeer herders, but herding is practised on a much larger scale in the Russian north — by at least ten native peoples. The Nenets in western Siberia are the main group, but there are others like the Chukchi, Dolgan, Khanty, Komy, Evenk, Even, Koryak and Selkup. Some of these reindeer cultures were very successful; the Evenki, for example, occupied a vast area of Siberia from the Yenisey River to the Sea of Okhotsk. Equally impressive are the Nenets, who have the largest population (around 40,000) of Siberia’s northern natives, and whose territory extends from just east of above & beyond

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Nenets reindeer herders wait out a winter storm. Yamal Peninsula, northwest Siberia, 2008.

At mealtime, Grisha and Natasha share a bowl of hot reindeer stew.

Chukotskiy Peninsula, Siberia, 2010.

Chukchi man driving a herd of reindeer. Chukotskiy Peninsula, Siberia, 2010.

Nenets reindeer herder Leonid at winter pastures near Tambey, Yamal, northwest Siberia, 2011.

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March/April 2013

Archangel all the way to the Taymyr Peninsula. The Nenets system of reindeer breeding has been adopted by several other Siberian peoples.

For herders like the Nenets, reindeer provide almost everything they need — food, warm clothing, hides to make tents, and transportation, as well as essential tools and other articles. Many of these Arctic peoples are so intrinsically linked with reindeer that their culture would die without them — several Nenets names for calendar months relate to reindeer, as does their religion. Most Nenets herding families spend the entire year out with their reindeer, and the relationship between them is very close — even with a thousand animals, most herders recognize individual reindeer and know their name.

In most Arctic areas, herders spend the winter below the tree line, where the forest offers shelter and there is plentiful firewood. This is usually a relaxed time, but they have to keep watch for predators like wolves and wolverines, and move occasionally to new areas of lichen pasture. Having a ready supply of wood not only makes life more comfortable for the herders, it also enables them to repair old sleds and build new ones for the spring migration.

For the Nenets above the tree line in the north of the Yamal, who spend the entire year on open tundra, winters can be particularly hard. Storms are frequent and firewood scarce, making it difficult to keep warm inside the tents. When I spent time at Nenets winter tundra camps, I found conditions particularly tough. Even with temperatures around minus 30°C, the tent stove was normally lit only three times a day — to boil kettles for tea and to cook one hot meal. The rest of the time it was freezing, and everyone wore thick reindeer-skin clothes. The tents, however, made from two layers of reindeer skin, did offer protection from the bitter and unrelenting tundra winds. Most families I visited were poor, with only small herds of around 100-200. All year round, in an attempt to increase these numbers, these Nenets ate fish rather than reindeer meat.

Five thousand kilometres east of the Yamal, on the Siberian side of the Bering Strait, live a group of herders who, like the Nenets, spend the year on open tundra. These people, called Chukchi (the name comes from chauchu meaning ‘rich in reindeer’), also

Nadia, a Nganasan woman, Taymyr Peninsula, northern Siberia, 2004.

Vitya, a Chukchi reindeer herder, stands by his yaranga. Chukotskiy Peninsula, northeast Siberia, 2010.

March/April 2013

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Nenets mother and daughter dressed up for a reindeer herders’ festival. Yamal, northwest Siberia, 2006.

live in skin tents, called yarangas — these are yurt shaped, rather than the tepee style used by the Nenets.

In 2010, I visited one of these groups in a remote part of the Chukotka Peninsula — from the main regional town of Anadyr, it took me almost a month to reach the camp. There were eleven adults there and a few young children, living in three yarangas; I stayed with Grisha and Natasha, a couple in their early 40s. From the outset I was surprised at the traditional life they led — it was like stepping back in time. Both Grisha and Natasha wore some traditional skin clothes, but Grisha wore no modern clothes at all: from his socks and long underwear to his kukhlyanka (outer coat), everything was made from reindeer skin.

Natasha and Grisha had very little in the way of western food — just tea, sugar, and a little flour and macaroni. We would start each day with a meal of frozen reindeer meat (raw), mixed with fermented meat and willow leaves. At

Yakut horse herder near Verkhoyansk, Yakutia, northeast Siberia, 1999.

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midday, there was frozen meat again, plus hot tea, then an evening meal of hot boiled meat. Unlike the herders in the north Yamal, these Chukchi have a large herd of about 2,500 reindeer, so they can kill one whenever they need meat. They practise a very traditional form of reindeer herding: unlike herders in other parts of the Arctic, they don’t use dogs or snowmobiles to help them round up their reindeer — it’s all done on foot. They do use reindeer sleds for travelling short distances, and when they make longer journeys, they go by dog sled.

Winter in northern Siberia is considerably colder than in most Arctic regions.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the north of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), eastern Siberia. Here, in the village of Verkhoyansk, on 15th January 1885, history was made when a record-breaking minus 67.8 °C was measured — this is the lowest temperature ever recorded in the northern hemisphere. During the coldest periods, the Verkhoyansk area experiences a temperature inversion — local [Even] herders move their reindeer up the mountains because it’s warmer there than in the valleys.

In Yakutia’s extreme winter climate, it’s not just reindeer that are herded: another remarkably hardy animal — the Yakut horse — is bred here too. These horses are as important to Yakut herders as reindeer are to the Nenets or Saami, so they are deeprooted in Yakut culture, and even feature in their calendar. March, for example, is called kukun tutar, or ‘holding the foals’. Like reindeer, the horses are well adapted to the climate. Smaller than other breeds, they lose less body heat, and they have thicker skin; in winter it has a dense covering of hair up to 8 cm long. In addition, their hooves are particularly strong, allowing them to scrape away deep snow when they forage for food such as sedges, horsetail and cotton grass. A healthy adult can accumulate around nine cm of back fat, which not only acts as insulation, but also provides vital energy during the winter. The fat reserves on a well-fed Yakut horse are equivalent in energy to around 250 kg of oats. These astonishing creatures withstand the severest of winters without any shelter, and they’re largely able to fend for themselves.

As the Nenets use every part of a reindeer, Yakut herders utilize just about every part of a horse, and even make an alcoholic drink called komys from fermented mare’s milk.

For these people, horsemeat is a delicacy, and they have many ways of preparing it: March/April 2013

Nenets men check a fishing net set under a frozen lake on the Gydan Peninsula. Yamal, northwest Siberia, 2000.

Dolgan reindeer herders cross the winter tundra. Taymyr Peninsula, northern Siberia, 2004.

A Nenets woman leads a train of reindeer sleds down the banks of the River Ob, Yamal, northwest Siberia, 1993.

March/April 2013

Pavel, a Yakut horse herder, at Korban, Yakutia, northeast Siberia, 1999.

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sometimes it’s eaten raw, frozen and thinly sliced. Often, the meat is boiled, though some cuts, like ribs, are popular fried.

The Yakut also make blood sausage with the intestines, and produce perhaps one of the strangest food items of all – horse-foot jelly.

There are about 150,000 horses in Yakutia, with herds varying in size from about 30 to several hundred. Normally, herders move their horses only twice a year: in May, when they travel from winter to summer pastures, and again in October, when they return.

As winter ends, the time comes for reindeer to begin their migration to summer pastures. Today in north Norway, many Saami herders move their reindeer in trucks, but in Siberia, Nenets herders like the Chukchi tend to operate in the traditional way, travelling across the tundra at walking pace, transporting their possessions by reindeer sled. Moving at a slow, natural speed is far less stressful for reindeer than being driven fast with snowmobiles.

There is a popular myth that nomadic herders like the Nenets roam aimlessly around the tundra, but this is profoundly inaccurate. Although some migration routes and pastures were set under the Soviet state-farm system, many have been used for centuries, largely because they offer good pastures and resting places along the way. Some herds migrate considerable distances — 1000 km or more — and cross major rivers before they reach summer pastures. Other herds have much shorter routes — some as little as 50 km.

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In Khanty Mansiysk, northwest Siberia, a herd travels along the frozen Layvaya Hetta river, 2000.

The end of winter is a precarious time for herders and reindeer. Temperatures fluctuate considerably, and a few warm days that melt the snow can be followed by a cold spell, when ice forms on lichen pastures making them inaccessible to reindeer. When this happens, herders use shovels to break through and give their animals access. Sometimes, they cut down trees so reindeer can eat the lichens off the bark. For these creatures, good access to food is paramount, particularly towards the end of winter when they have low reserves of energy and the calving season is imminent — a difficult time for both herders and reindeer.

Editor’s Note: All photos and text published here represent unaltered excerpts from Bryan and Cherry Alexander’s book titled, Forty Below, Traditional Life in the Arctic — released November 2011. This fascinating hard-bound book is available for purchase online by visiting: www.arcticapublishing.com

March/April 2013

© ITK

LIVING ABOVE & BEYOND

Amaujaq National Centre for Inuit Education opens The Amaujaq National Centre for Inuit Education is named for Jose Amaujaq Kusugak, former president of ITK and one of the early champions to transform Inuit education systems and reclaim Inuktitut as the language of instruction.

From left: Nellie Kusugak, Terry Audla, Alannah Groves, Kaneena Kusugak, Aliisa Autut, Graham Kusugak, Kuluk Kusugak, and Pujjuut Kusugak.

On February 5, Inuit leaders formally opened the Amaujaq National Centre for Inuit Education at a celebration in Ottawa.

“In many of our communities, especially those impacted by the resource boom, there are critical shortages of qualified home-grown workers,” said National Inuit Leader Terry Audla, President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK).

The Amaujaq Centre will help close this gap by implementing the recommendations

of First Canadians, Canadians First: The National Strategy on Inuit Education that was launched in June 2011. Initiatives include reviewing resources and training programs, creating an online collection of culturally and linguistically appropriate teaching tools, and exploring the possibility of a Standardized Inuit Language Writing System.

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A Very “Special” Match

© COURTESY CGDB/KAREN HANLON (2)

For Noah Ooloonie Papatsie of Iqaluit, Nunavut, the phone call he received one “ very amazing” day last October could Noah and Xeno at home in Iqaluit. hardly have been more surprising, more welcome, more life-changing. In fact, the call, according to Noah, left him instantaneously “speechless.”

The call to his home came from the Canadian Guide Dogs for the Blind (CGDB) in Manotick, Ontario. The CGDB was calling to let him know that they believed they had found that “special match” to be his guide-dog in a young golden retriever they had named, Xeno. And would Noah come down to Ottawa for the initial four-week mobility training and orientation program in November, so the two could be introduced to each other and learn to work together.

“I was flying…flying up in the air,”Noah told above&beyond, “my heart was beating so, so fast!”

Life-changing events are something this very devoted family man, who is raising two young children and fostering another with life-partner Ineak Nooshoota, “Xeno stood out from his large litter of knows a great deal about. Once a successful seven from the very beginning. He was very Inuit Broadcasting executive-producer and responsive to training, very clever, showing video journalist, he was injured in 2005 in a exceptional intelligence, a real desire to please workplace accident that cost him his eyesight. and a high level of initiative,” she says. Also A major setback for anyone, yet Noah immeunder consideration when trying to match diately began rebuilding his life, in his words, dogs with clients are the personalities of both “preparing for the worst.” handlers and dogs. Will they be able to work He learned to read Braille and took computer together? training to upgrade his employability profile.

Hanlon began preparing Xeno by “training He has devoted himself to helping others, him in stimulating, more rural, less urban becoming an outspoken and effective advocate settings and varying terrains, even construcfor the disabled and is now the Treasurer tion sites,” to properly acquaint him with the of Nunavummi Disabilities Makinnasuaqtiit less typical environs that he and Noah would Society (NDMS) in Iqaluit. encounter on a daily basis on their own in Iqaluit.

Initially the most difficult challenge of all, Again, Xeno responded enthusiastically, showcertainly in terms of his own mobility, was for ing exceptional capability and that he was a Noah to learn to navigate the varied, unpaved, quick learner. sometimes difficult terrain of his beloved By all accounts the four weeks in Ottawa community using a cane as his guide. Getting training with Noah and Xeno went very well. around in the winter proved especially challenging. He also, on the advice of his local doctor, applied for the assistance of a guidedog. Assessed and approved by the CGDB for a dog, it still took some time, occasionally causing Noah to think that it would only ever be“a dream.”

According to CGDB’s Guide-dog Mobility Instructor, Karen Hanlon, (admitting that yes, it did take time to find a good match), the terrain dynamic of Noah’s far North community and harsh environment (even for people) required a unique match with “a very special dog.” To date, there had never been a guidedog assisting anyone in the North — until Xeno arrived that is.

March/April 2013

New handler and guide-dog were a team, albeit a novice one. By mid-December Xeno joined his handler’s family. They already had a pet dog of their own, but Xeno, true to his nature and willingness to please, quickly adapted. According to Noah, once at home with his spouse, the kids and family pet, it really only took “a day and a half or so for us all to bond.”

Mandatory to CGDB’s training and orientation program is the follow-up visit from the organization’s instructor to assess how the new handler and guide-dog are doing and, if needed, to help with further training. Ideally this follow-up should come fairly soon after both are on their own.

First Air, The Airline of the North, offered to fly CGDB’s Karen Hanlon to Iqaluit over the December holiday period so that she could spend time with Noah and Xeno in their own

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© COURTESY CGDB/KAREN HANLON

LIVING ABOVE & BEYOND

Noah training with Xeno in Ottawa.

environment to continue with some more locally-relevant training and assistance.

“It was great,” says Hanlon,“they were both adapting really well. With Xeno’s intelligence and natural initiative to find the best way to go and Noah’s knowledge of his community, they work well together.”

With the strong affirmation of the same positive outlook in his tone, Noah told above&beyond that there is no doubt that Xeno has changed his life.

“Oh yeah he [Xeno] really likes the cold.

We’re doing so well. Sure there were a few minor mishaps at first,” he laughs warmly.

“But I really enjoy helping people and getting around. I can now go to meetings, go shopping, go to the bank when I want to. He’s really helped me regain my balance and my confidence.”

In a statement given to Nunatsiaq News in September of last year during Iqaluit’s mayoralty campaign, (Noah ran for that position), he stated categorically that,“Challenges are not barriers.”

Seems that on that score he and Xeno definitely agree, as they cover ground to meet and conquer both old and new challenges together in the future as — that very “special” match.

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IQALUIT, NUNAVUT March/April 2013

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LIVING ABOVE & BEYOND

National representatives from the Arctic Environment Ministers meeting in Jukkasjrvi, Sweden, February 5-6.

Arctic Environment Ministers and high-level representatives from Canada, Denmark/The Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway, The Russian Federation, Sweden and the United States met in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, February 5 to 6, to discuss environmental changes in the Arctic and how to protect the Arctic environment now and in the future.

March/April 2013

CALL TO ACTION: Environment Ministers Seek to Reduce Black Carbon Chaired by Swedish Minister of the Environment, Lena Ek, topics included climate change and ocean acidification, preventing contamination in the Arctic, measures to safeguard biodiversity and ecosystems, and Arctic resilience.

At the conclusion of the meeting, ministers called for urgent cooperation from inter-

national partners to reduce short-lived climate pollutants and emissions of black carbon (or soot) from Arctic countries.

Conclusions from the meeting are available on the University of the Arctic’s website at www.uarctic.org.

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Ice of a Different Kind

© EMILE HOLBA (2)

Norway is recognized globally as a progressive, well-adapted, successful Arctic nation. And, as Norwegians are fond of telling, from an historical point of view at least, many of their famed polar exploration heroes, most notably Roald Amundsen (amongst others) attributed their polar exploration successes, in part, to what they had learned from the Inuit.

Today, Norway’s ties to Inuit have never been stronger.

Inuit of course are traditional experts on the subject of ice — able to understand its “One of the most difficult things is that you don’t really get to know the instruments, because they’re new every time.” Terje Isungset on the ice-horn.

Global game changer?

The numbers are in, supported by satellite imagery, compilations of scientific research and anecdotal reports: 2012 marked the largest annual decline of Arctic sea ice ever recorded.

With total Arctic sea ice coverage suddenly at an all-time record low, incontrovertible evidence of eco-system change is beginning to surface, presenting Arctic nations with the quandary of how to respond effectively and responsibly to potential economic advantage without doing greater harm to the fragile, rapidly changing Arctic eco-system.

If predictions that the Arctic Ocean could be totally ice free by 2015, a mere two years away, indeed do materialize, climate change could well become the global game-changer once referenced by heretofore disregarded environmental prophesies.

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Above: Singer, Mari Kvien Brunvoll (left) performing in Ice Music.

very essence and many forms, however, this past February, in Ottawa and Iqaluit, Nunavut, it was the Norwegian turn to demonstrate to Inuit and southern Canadians some very new, nevertheless fascinating properties of ice.

Playing “recognizable” but very different musical instruments (ice harps, ice drums, ice horns) hand-fashioned from blocks of ice using a chainsaw and knives, each and everyone of Isungset’s Ice Music performances are coolly unpredictable, entirely dependent upon the type of ice available at each venue and ambient temperatures at performance time.

After performing at the capital’s Winterlude festivities, the innovative Norwegian composer-musician and his group travelled North to treat Nunavummiut to his rarified brand of music.

Isungset and collaborating musicians reveal their cool daring and creative energy around the world for all to see and hear. To view and hear Ice Music in action visit: http://isung.no/ice/video/ March/April 2013

© CAPTAIN SANDRA LÉVESQUE, PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER, JOINT TASK FORCE (NORTH) (2)

LIVING ABOVE & BEYOND

Above: Ranger Sergeant Samson Ejangiaq, from Arctic Bay, Nunavut, adjusts his fishing line at the Canadian Ranger main camp, approximately 35 kilometres southwest of Cambridge Bay. Above right: Commissioners George Tuccaro of the Northwest Territories, Douglas Philips of the Yukon Territory, and Edna Elias of Nunanut stand with Major Jeff Allen, Commanding Officer of 1st Canadian Ranger Patrol Group (left) and Brigadier-General Guy Hamel, Commander of Joint Task Force (North) (right) during the graduation parade on February 10, 2013 in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut.

Rangers Host Commissioners For the first time, the Canadian Rangers hosted the Commissioners of all three territories during Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, training exercises held February 8 to 10. Accompanied by the Commander of Joint Task Force (North), Brigadier-General Guy Hamel, the Commissioners were able to experience first-hand the harsh reality of being out on the land with the Canadian Rangers.

After all, the best way to appreciate the work of the Canadian Rangers is to spend a full day and a night with them out on the land when the thermometer dips to minus 40. Despite the frigid temperature, the visitors enjoyed their experience.

Finding Opportunities, Managing Risk As global demand for metals and minerals continues to increase, mining development in Canada will become even more important over the coming decades, particularly in the North. The Centre for the North addresses the potential this growth will have on Canada, and the risks involved and how they can be managed in their new report, Managing the Risks and Acting on the Opportunities: The Future of Mining in Canada’s North.

Topics covered include aboriginal rights in economic development, the need for open dialogue between all parties throughout a project’s life cycle, the need for skilled labour and implementing education and training programs to address the shortage of skilled workers, providing impact and benefits agreements in a more transparent manner and ensuring there is meaningful and long-term collaboration between governments, industry and communities.

The report is available for download from the Centre for the North’s website at www.centreforthenorth.ca.

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Exploring

© PARKS CANADA

Nunavut’s Parks

Auyuittuq National Park.

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© GORD IRWIN

Outstanding, Exotic, Visitor Experiences

Above: Skiing up a glacier in Quttinirpaaq National Park.

Left: Local Inuit cleaning seal skin.

© BILLY ETOOANGAT

during those long intoxicating views. Hike treks deep into the parks or enjoy day trips to the Arctic Circle. Kayak or boat and make sure to stop to paint or photograph all that is laid out before you.

Relish seascapes and towering glaciers spilling into the sea, gaze at the tundra awash in splashes of summer flowers, dense and purple. As autumn approaches, be awe struck as the tundra turns ochre and gold, orange, scarlet and burgundy before the dusting of snow comes to enclose the land once more.

© PARKS CANADA

© PARKS CANADA

Stride across gorgeous tundra and mountainous landscapes, listen to the sounds of the wind and the call of birds — explore where few get to go.

Beneath the rays of slanting gold midnight light, breathe in the crisp, clear air and enjoy magnificent vistas almost close enough to touch. Be an explorer! Be part of the last great adventures on the planet. Come to the Arctic. It will take your breath away!

See splashes of neon green northern lights dancing across the darkening late summer sky from the bow of expedition cruise ships in the company of like minded passengers who want to learn about the ancient culture of Inuit.

Watch Inuit carvers, print makers and weavers craft their art in communities close to the national parks, as part of your experience in Nunavut.

Taste all that the Arctic has to offer from fresh caught Arctic Char to cranberry bannock; drink the ice-cold clear waters that flow over rocks as you hike in places most people never see.

Hear the hiss of your skis as you travel over wind swept snow in spring, or the sharp yip of dogs pulling your sled as a raven caws and clicks above you circling in the deep cobalt blue sky.

Test yourself climbing the mountains and hills; see Hiking glaciers in Sirmilik National Park. the bare bones of the earth not obscured by trees, 28

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Arctic Circle Marker, Auyuittuq National Park.

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SIrMILIk – The Place of the Glaciers QUttINIrPAAQ – The Place at the Top of the World In the High Arctic’s “other worldly” landscape, on the northern tip of Ellesmere Island is Canada’s most northern National Park. The trip is a once-ina-life-time experience like no other. Access to the park is by expedition size, icebreaker cruise ship most years or via charter plane from Resolute Bay.

UkkUSIkSALIk – Where there is Stone to Carve to Make Pots and Oil Lamps

AUyUIttUQ NAtIoNAL PArk – The Place that Never Melts

Sirmilik

NUNAVUT Ukkusiksalik

Auyuittuq

This park was the first created in Nunavut when Parks Canada looked north to include the incomparable landscapes of the Arctic. Access to this park is through the communities of Pangnirtung and Qikiqtarjuaq by local transporters, guides and outfitters. Travel to the park by snow machine in late winter and spring or via motorboat in summer and early fall.

© MARKUS SIIVOLA

Access to this park is by charter boat or plane from Repulse Bay, Rankin Inlet, Baker Lake, Coral Harbour or Chesterfield Inlet.

Ukkusiksalik National Park surrounds the inland sea of Wager Bay and has high densities of wildlife along with a variety of landscapes, seascapes and incredible cultural resources ranging from huge numbers of Inuit archaeology sites to the remains of a Hudson Bay Company post.

Quttinirpaaq

This park, which straddles the boundary between the Arctic and High Arctic, is four parcels of land with different landscapes and exotic geology. Access is from either Pond Inlet, with its 180-degree view of Bylot Island and several of the 16 glaciers that flow into Eclipse Sound or Arctic Bay just south of the Baillarge Bay Bird Sanctuary and Borden Peninsula portions of the Park. Visitors can ski or snow machine to Sirmilik in late winter or spring, visit in summer via boat or experience the park by expedition cruise ship in August and September.

Skiing the Akshayuk Pass in Auyuittuq National Park.

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The Canadian Tourism Commission and Parks Canada want to help visitors tailor their trips to the kind of visitor they are. There are nine visitor types or explorers. To find out which explorer type you are, go to the free website (www.canada.travel/eq) and take the short survey.

© GORD IRWIN

Which Explorer Type Are You?

Hiking up thor Peak in Auyuittuq National Park.

As A Cultural History Buff… Has the Arctic always been one of those places you’ve been promising yourself you’d see for a long time? Now is the time to come North to explore and learn about this remarkable part of Canada. Finally feed your curiosity at your own pace. Hear the sagas of times past and rub shoulders with local people and staff. Experience the places you’ve only read about. © ALEX STUBBING

If you are a Personal History Explorer… follow in the footsteps of family who explored the Arctic in times past, who came to work as a Bay boy or nurse, who came to teach, were part of the RCMP or were one of the first researchers that told southern Canadians about this part of the world.

Quttinirpaaq National Park.

As An Authentic Experiencer… you learn about the Arctic first hand trekking into the heart of any of the national parks in Nunavut. Back packing, climbing, skiing or kayaking brings you in touch with the wild lands to test yourself while learning about the culture, the climate, the wildlife and the geology of these vast parks.

If you are No Hassle Traveller… Escape the mad pace of city life into a fun and renewing Arctic National Park on guided trips by experts or take an expedition cruise with family or friends. Revel in the splendour of all that surrounds you. Recharge in a place like no other.

As A Cultural Explorer…

As A Free Spirit… visit the Arctic and see places like nowhere else you’ve been before. Stride into these parks as part of exclusive guided groups or on expedition cruise ships that provide gourmet cuisine and unique destinations that provide thrilling experiences that fascinate and intrigue you. Be inspired and energized by the unconventional Canadian vacation.

© BLACK FEATHER

© BRAD WHITE

your adventure begins the moment you leave behind your daily life and home base. Be sure to add extra days to see the communities and get to know local people before your park visit.

Spend extra time with Parks Canada’s knowledgeable staff both in the offices and visitor centres as well as when you meet them while they patrol the park.

Watch for cultural sites within the parks and enjoy experiencing the park on foot, by boat or from the mountaintops.

Paint it, write about it, talk about it, show your friends where your latest adventure took you this time!

MacDonald river Valley, Quttinirpaaq National Park.

More Information About Getting to the Parks

© PARKS CANADA

FREE Vacation Planners and Pre-trip information on all the national parks in Nunavut are available by contacting the parks by phone and email directly or on the Parks Canada website at www.pc.gc.ca.

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Auyuittuq & Quttinirpaaq at (867) 473-2500 or Nunavut.Info@pc.gc.ca Sirmilik at (867) 899-8092 or Sirmilik.Info@pc.gc.ca Ukkusiksalik at (867) 462-4500 or Ukkusiksalik.Info@pc.gc.ca Left: Boat tours to Sirmilik National Park.

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Nunavik. . . Let Us Take You There

1 (800) 361-2965 Charters 1 (800) 661-5850

ŠHeiko Wittenborn

Regularly scheduled flights linking the communities of Arctic Quebec and Montreal 547 rue Meloche, Dorval, QuĂŠbec H9P 2W2 (514) 636-9445 Fax: (514) 636-8916

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Maïna, full of emotion, stands in front of the Inuit clan. Aasivak, Natak’s sister who has befriended her, is by her side as Maïna shows the new tunic that she has made. “My tunic is made of seal and caribou. It comes from my people and yours.”

JOURNEY ALONGSIDE

MAÏNA Text and photos by Isabelle Dubois Maïna, the soon to be released (Fall 2013) feature film now in post-production is based on the book by the same name.

The novel, by acclaimed Quebec author Dominique Demers was first published in French and tells the fascinating story of a young Innu woman taken on an epic journey from her homeland on the North Shore of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, far away to a land of ice, Nunavik’s Ungava Peninsula. It tells of her struggle to achieve ethnic acceptance there and of finding love.

There is a personal near surreal connection to young Maïna’s journey and the path my own life has taken. Much like my own story of going North, her story and my life seem to have mysteriously unfolded alongside each other’s in surprisingly similar ways …

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The Call of the Wolves Natak (Pond Inlet’s Ipellie ootoova) performs a ritual to honour the spirit of the seal that has given its life to feed his people. He places fresh water from melted snow in the mouth of the seal to slake its thirst and appease the animal's spirit in the hope it will again return (reincarnation) to provide additional resources so the hunt can be renewed.

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Even as a young child I was very fascinated by Aboriginal cultures. I’m not exactly sure how or why it began.

Perhaps it was the Amerindian dolls my mother collected for me, or the way my father would rub his nose against mine to wish me good night, in what he called an “Eskimo kiss”. My interest only grew stronger as I became a young woman when my brother and his friend introduced me to dog sledding, an activity that would come to play an important part in my life. Indeed, my connection to these wolf-like canines would take me further than I could have ever imagined.

In March 1997, as I’m about to leave for the Lower North Shore of Quebec on my first real dog sled expedition as a guide for French tourists, Dominique Demers publishes her novel titled Maïna.

Her novel, set centuries ago, long before the qallunaat arrival, begins in the very locale I’m about to discover for the first time. When I come back to my hometown of Sherbrooke, the very place where Demers graduated with a PhD in literature and taught at its University, I see her book everywhere in stores. After my own experience of a lifetime travelling by dogsled through Innu territory, I couldn’t help myself — I had to get my own copy of her book.

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The natural pace of life increases, gets more complicated and things zoom along quickly. I can’t seem to find the time to read. Maïna remains on the shelves. Later, I move to France for a job at a magazine and forget all about Maïna and my calling for a while until I miss my snow-covered country so much and decide to head back to La belle province, ready for another adventure on the Lower North Shore by dog sled, some three years later.

On that expedition I bring Maïna along, in an attempt to read it and learn more about the mystifying Indigenous people who inhabit this remote region of Quebec that I have the privilege to explore once again, who’s culture I had only caught a glimpse of the first time around. It was there that I finally let Maïna tell me her story.

As each day ends, I read by the light of the fire keeping us warm at night in the cabins where we settle along the way. I devour each word and soon discover that Maïna and I are not so very different after all.

Of course, at first glance, we are nothing alike. Aside from our totally distinct shades of skin, she also has tundra brown almondshaped eyes and long, dark, almost black hair, shooting down straight like an arrow, while my eyes change from the still blue to the greyish green of the sea and my dirty blonde hair spirals in waves only surfers dream of. And of course the obvious — I am not Innu.

I keep reading while the pack of huskies parked outside howl at the moon like wolves do calling each other in the wild. I can't help but feel a connection with Maïna. Like her, I too long for the great spaces. After all, here I was roaming an unknown land on a sled pulled by huskies that weren’t even mine, except for one I had adopted from my first odyssey in this now seemingly familiar place. And like Maïna, I was about to lose my father and embark on an even greater journey in search of myself.

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Natak gives his knife to Maïna (roseanne Supernault), granting her the honour of cutting up the first of two seals brought back from their hunt together.

Charlie Watt Jr.’s huskies pull tikittuq (Paul-Dylan Ivalu of Igloolik) and film-extra George Annanack Jr. of kuujjuaq.

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In Natak’s country In this scene Maïna offers the liver she has removed from the seal she killed to the Inuit community leader tadlo, Natak’s father, (Natar Ungalaq).

Aputik (renaltta Arluk) Natak’s mother and tadlo’s wife, Quujuuq, (Eric Schweig) Natak’s friend and “brother-in-law,” and Aasivak’s man look on.

Between the long days on the trail along the St. Lawrence River sea ice and the late nights tending to the dogs, time has gone by too fast and, as Maïna starts to head North following her stars, I have to put down the book once more and get back to the reality of modern times, as our excursion comes to an end. Instead of reading, it’s time for me to write, as work awaits back home on my desktop computer, and a strict deadline to complete a guidebook of Quebec’s greatest outdoor destinations.

Little did I know that my assignment a couple of months later would again bring me North. I again seemed to be following Maïna’s footsteps, and again I decided to take the book along with me, hoping to finish it during this new adventure, one from which I would never really return from.

In Maïna’s own words in the screenplay that would later be adapted from my now favourite author Dominique Demers’ novel, “the path my life would take was visible to me; I knew something exceptional was waiting for me at the end of my journey.”

Maïna is expected to be released in theatres sometime in the Fall of 2013, after screenings take place in Kuujjuaq and Mingan, the locales where it was shot, as a way for the producers to show their gratitude to the communities involved in the making of the film.

The original paperback story of Maïna, written by Dominique Demers was first published in French by Québec Amérique in March 1997. It can still be purchased in several bookstores throughout Quebec, as well as through various online outlets, namely Archambault.ca and Renaud-Bray.com, whether in its integral French version for adults or in two volumes for teens: Part One: L’appel des loups (The Call of the Wolves) Part Two: Au pays de Natak (In Natak’s Country) An English version, translated by Leonard Sugden, was also published by Ekstasis Editions in 2001.

Although now sold out, a limited number of used, but in good condition copies remain available online at Amazon.ca and Chapters.indigo.ca. For a good preview of the English version, the first 50 pages can be read online at books.google.ca

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The date at which this media trip to Nunavik, Northern Quebec, started, was, in itself, an omen of something about to happen. It was on April 1, at the turn of the new millennium, that I left what I now call the South by plane on First Air, Kuujjuaq-bound.

I was so ready for this, had been my whole life, so anxious to finally meet the Inuit I had read about in a number of books I had acquired over the years leading to this day. What I didn’t know was that this would be the best April’s fool’s trick ever played on me.

Again, like Maïna, I had followed my calling, one that led me North, where I was soon to find love in the compelling arms of a stranger, Etua, an Inuit hunter, just like Natak, who, in the story I was reading while my own life-story was being written, had taken Maïna to his frozen kingdom to make her his. I too was going to learn to love this harsh but oh so heavenly expanse of land. And I too, like Maïna, would have to stand my ground as an outsider at first to hopefully become accepted by these amazing people.

Fortunately, I would soon realize that, like Maïna, I had been brought up in [some] ways not so different from those of the man whom I had fallen in love. In fact, being out here in this winter wonderland brought me back to my roots. I could relive my childhood and remember the days when we’d go ice fishing with my maternal grandfather, enjoying turns on one of the earliest models of the Arctic Cat Kitty Cat snowmobile that one of my uncles had won. And we’d go hunting then too and I wouldn’t frown at the sight of blood, as I had grown up seeing my grandmother skinning the rabbits (hares) that my grandfather had caught in his snares and gut the fish that we, the grandchildren, so enjoyed playing with in the tub where they were being kept to stay fresh.

My mom used to make all of my clothing, not to mention a matching set for my doll and just as my mother had learned to sew from her own mother at a very young age, I too learned from my own mom. I did drift away from the craft when I became the typical in-store fashion-driven teenager for a short while. But now I am very grateful for what she taught me. In a remote community such as Kuujjuaq, where the general store is pretty much the only outlet, knowing how to sew comes in handy and I now take pride in making my own clothing, just as Maïna did.

It is now 13 years later and I’m still here and, like Maïna’s film character, I too have a family of my own with the man I love and a little girl whom I had at one time thought of naming Maïna. In the end we chose the name Niivi: a name that happens to mean something in both her father’s native language, short form for “little girl” in Inuktitut, and is phonetically similar to “névé,” which translates to “eternal snow” in French, my mother tongue.

Maïna’s story has never left my side. I have read the book many times over the years. And then about a year and a half ago, I received a call at Nunavik Tourism, where I now work, to promote this friendly, beautiful and wild Northern region of Quebec. The caller told me he is looking for an umiaq, a traditional Inuit boat made with skins. He tells me it is to be used as a prop in a movie based on a book, which will be shot in Mingan, on an Innu reserve on the Lower North Shore, and then up North in Kuujjuaq. He doesn’t need to say more for me to realize that Maïna is back in my life.

The feature film’s storyline based on the book Maïna was adapted to the screen by Pierre Billon. The project is spearheaded by filmmaker and award-winning director Michel Poulette (Agent of Influence, Bonanno: A Godfather’s Story, Louis 19: King of the Airwaves, etc.), with the assistance of Pierre Magny (Shadow of the Wolf) and director of photography Allen Smith (Seven years in Tibet, Seducing Doctor Lewis, etc.). Their concept brings together the Inuit and Innu people and cultures to the big screen for the first time.

This newfound bond between people is reflected in the cast, bringing together talented First Nations actors such as Roseanne Supernault (APTN’s new hit series Blackstone), Graham Greene and Tantoo Cardinal, and brilliant Inuit stage and actors such as Ipellie Ootoova (The White Archer) and Natar Ungalaq (Atanarjuat: the Fast Runner, The Necessities of Life, etc.), to name but a few.

The process of making the film contributed to bringing the non-aboriginal members of the crew closer to Innu and Inuit alike, working together as one for the first time in history and proving what Tommy Kajuatsiaq, a wise Inuk elder, once told me when I first arrived here: “Inuuqatigittugut” (we are all just people), which, interestingly enough, is also the title of a song by the man who captured my heart, just as Natak did Maïna’s.

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Maïna, as portayed by talented Métis actress roseanne Supernault, on set.

Isabelle Dubois and Niivi

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A REVIEW ESSAY BY DAVID F. PELLY

B O U N D

F O R

the Barrens Journal of the Ernest Oberholtzer & Billy Magee 2,000-mile Canoe Voyage to Hudson Bay in 1912 Jean Sanford Replinger (ed.)

E

rnest Oberholtzer, an American in his mid-20s, having discovered the joys of canoe

travel in the Rainy Lake border district, allowed his imagination to be fuelled by reading accounts of the Far North, principal among them the writings of J.B. Tyrrell,

a geologist who was among the earliest white men to travel in the barrenlands. Oberholtzer dreamed of emulating his hero. “If you want to go to a place where the information you bring back will really be valuable,” he said, “this is the place to go.” The barrenlands of his dreams were the tundra plains north of Manitoba, Canada’s youngest province at the time, having been carved out of the Northwest Territories just a few years earlier, in 1906. That’s where Oberholtzer wanted to go.

“Tyrrell’s own never-to-be-forgotten report on his exploration of the Kazan River, the vast herds of Barren Ground caribou encountered, and his discovery of a hitherto unknown band of inland Eskimos, living entirely by their own stone-age economy, had fired my imagination,” © COURTESY THE ERNEST OBERHOLTZER FOUNDATION

wrote Oberholtzer some years later. As romantic as that call of the unknown sounds today, it was no doubt entirely real and genuinely mysterious in the mind of a young man searching for adventure in the early 20th century. “…he came up beside us, and extending his paddle for me to take hold of, shook hands.” Bite in his kayak. September 12, 1913 [Photo 4:1, see p.108]

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© COURTESY THE ERNEST OBERHOLTZER FOUNDATION (2) © COURTESY DAVID PELLY

Below: “for the Paalirmiut Elders gathered around the table in Arviat, all of these stories came flooding back to life when they held in their hands, the photographs taken by oberholtzer in 1912.” Arviat, Nunavut, 2006.

In 1903, Oberholtzer left home in Iowa to attend Harvard University. As he said, “I never learned anything that I could earn a living with. But I found out more about myself and what my interests were.” During the summer between completing his BA and doing graduate studies in landscape planning, he headed to northern Minnesota for his introduction to wilderness canoeing and the Native peoples of the region. What he discovered, at its root, was an abiding interest in the land and its multiple uses, a perspective that would channel his energies through much of life. It may also explain why, just a few years later, the notion took hold of him to see the “vast unknown North” — a land where truly all possibilities still lay ahead.

Oberholtzer read copiously: “I looked up everything there was on the barrenlands.” The earliest account came from Samuel Hearne, an English fur-trader, employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company, who traversed what he called the Barren Ground on foot during the period 1769-72, accompanied by Dene guides, most significantly Matonabbee, traveller extraordinaire and a major ambassador for the fur-trade among his people. On his third, and successful, attempt, Hearne followed Matonabbee’s sizeable party of hunters and women — necessary to cook and sew and “made for labour; one of them can carry, or haul, as much as two men can do,” according to Matonabbee — from the mouth of the Churchill River on Hudson Bay, northwest to the mouth of the Coppermine River at the Arctic Ocean, and back.

Hearne’s account of this remarkable journey of at least 2,000 miles (as the crow flies) provided readers with a first detailed glimpse of the land and its people. In a very matter-of-fact voice, he describes the difficulties of his long journey and offers innumerable details of how the people travelling with him were able to survive in this harsh landscape. Captivating though it may have been to the young reader, Hearne’s own words cannot be said to offer an enticing picture of the wilderness: In my opinion, there cannot exist a stronger proof that mankind was not created to enjoy happiness in this world, than the conduct of the miserable beings who inhabit this wretched part of it.

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A Canadian edition of Hearne’s account was published in 1911, edited by J.B. Tyrrell. One need not wonder, therefore, why Oberholtzer devoured the book with such passion. He kept detailed hand-written notes as he read, most of them related to the birds and mammals of the North, or to the culture and sociology of the Dene and Inuit, the Chipewyan and Eskimos as he called them. Among these notes, he penned “Mr. Tyrrell writes: ‘I happen to be the only one since Hearne who has conducted explorations in the country lying between Fort Churchill and the eastern end of Great Slave Lake and south of latitude 63°N. Except Hearne, I and those who accompanied and assisted me are the only white men who have crossed that great stretch of country, …

Absolutely the only information that I had about the region when I visited it, other than what I had secured in conversation with Indians, was contained in Hearne’s book… It is hardly necessary to say that a magnificent field for exploration is still left in that far northern country.’” One can just imagine Oberholtzer’s desire to be the next white man to enter this country after reading that.

If it was Hearne who provided the earliest glimpse of life on the barrenlands for a youthful Oberholtzer, it was Tyrrell who laid out the travel route to get there. In 1894, Tyrrell’s assigned task was to extend the geological map of Canada north beyond the limit of northern Manitoba, where the work had already been done. Tyrrell himself was responsible for much of the exploration and mapping of northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan, during his fieldwork seasons from 1887 to 1892. In 1894, he was to leave from the most northerly outpost, on Reindeer Lake, 600 miles north of Winnipeg, and follow a route long-used by the Native peoples, but only once followed by a white man, a missionary, north to the barrenlands. There he would find and follow, even farther north, a large river which the Dene had described to him previously, and which Hearne had crossed more than a century before; today we know it as the Kazan. It was Tyrrell’s account of this journey, which, more than anything else, as Oberholtzer put it, “had fired my imagination.” Tyrrell’s map, which Oberholtzer carried, was little more than a sketch of the land and waterways to be found north of Reindeer Lake. Nonetheless, it represented the extent of mapped knowledge for the country beyond the frontier.

Years later, at age 80, Oberholtzer reminisced about his expedition, and its origins. “I came across the work of J.B. Tyrrell, who was by all odds the greatest of all the modern geographers.

A very remarkable man! … he found, he actually found — at that late day, maybe 1897, something like that — a tribe of Eskimos living inland that had never been known to anybody. So far as he knew, they’d never seen a white man. They were living on this Kazan River, as it was called…. J.B. never wrote anything but his reports to the geological service. But to me it was

© COURTESY DAVID PELLY

Ahmak, whom ober spoke of in his travels with Bite in 1912, has many descendants living today in Arviat, among them Leo Ahmak [left] and his older brother, Luke kinniksi [right] shown here in 2006 looking, for the first time, at a photo of their grandfather.

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one of the most fascinating things I had ever read in all my life…. The two things, of course, that meant more to me than anything else was seeing all those caribou and seeing these Eskimos that nobody had ever known. And my imagination was at work. I thought, well, there are probably other groups of those Eskimos up in there. What that would mean, what a delight to be the first one ever to find them!! … So these things had impressed me very greatly, and I wanted to go up in there.”

© COURTESY THE ERNEST OBERHOLTZER FOUNDATION

***

To learn more about Ernest Oberholtzer, go to: http://www.eober.org For the complete history of the 1912 route used by Ernest Oberholtzer, see David Pelly’s book The Old Way North, available at your favourite northern bookstore or directly from the publisher at: http://shop.mnhs.org/moreinfo. cfm?Product_ID=1701 To order Bound for the Barrens, edited

by Jean Sanford Replinger, go to: http://www.eober.org/ Store/Books.shtml

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Oberholtzer was not alone in dreaming of such far-off adventure. It was an era of public fascination with tales of adventurous travel and survival against the odds, and in the extreme, heroic failure. It’s a safe bet that many young men of the time knew about Robert Peary’s claim of reaching the North Pole on April 6, 1909, and pondered whether he did in fact make it, and of Roald Amundsen’s 1906 conquest of the Northwest Passage in the Gjoa, the first ship ever to make it through the long-sought-after route across the top of North America. Oberholtzer probably had a particular affinity to Vilhjalmur Stefansson, who left Iowa for Harvard in 1903, and then joined the Anglo-American Polar Expedition in 1906, which sailed into the Arctic around the top of Alaska. Stefansson became one of the best-known Arctic explorers and writers of his day, particularly noted for the way he adopted Inuit methods of survival and travel.

As Oberholtzer set out in 1912, the world was only just learning of the heroic deaths of Captain Robert Scott with his party during their attempt at the South Pole, in March that same year. Scott’s journal contained his final lines: “Had we lived I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman,” and ended with the words, “We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker of course and the end cannot be far.” He was to become such a national hero in England that books, art, sculpture, film and poetry subsequently developed the tragic, as well as the heroic, aspects of his story. Streets, churches and towns throughout the British Empire were named after Scott and his companions. Oberholtzer had been in England for much of the two years preceding his own expedition, so he was certainly aware of the public’s fascination for their Antarctic hero. All of this offers some insight into the social context of the time, replete with heroic journeys and expeditions into “the vast unknown.” Oberholtzer longed to be part of the action. In one 1910 notebook, in the midst of various jottings about others’ northern explorations, he had written (as if a ‘note to self ’): “Possibly make an interesting historical discovery.”

It seems clear, with hindsight, that Oberholtzer wanted to position himself among the explorers and writers of the day, at least in some small way. He had made some initial forays into the field of wilderness travel writing, but this trip to “the vast unknown North,” would earn him solid standing, he hoped, perhaps even approaching that of his hero J.B. Tyrrell. His notebooks offer some evidence of this aspiration; in one piece of advice to himself, he wrote: “Real stories full of zest, reality, daring, reckless, resourceful, wonderful – let the reader draw breath at the end and exclaim ‘But he was a man.’ Tell it cold-bloodedly, off-hand, so that it allows a picture of truth.”

To foster an association with other explorers, he attended lectures by both Roald Amundsen and Vilhjalmur Stefansson, recording afterwards his favourable impressions of both men, whom he somehow contrived to meet following the lectures. He wrote to J.B. Tyrrell, to Vilhjalmur Stefansson and to David Hanbury, all three remarkable northern travellers of the time, and to the Reverend J. Lofthouse, who later became Bishop of the Arctic. Tyrrell wrote back: “I shall hope to see a splendid account of your journey in one of the good magazines very soon.”

It is perhaps a surprise, but certainly a disappointment to himself, that Oberholtzer never did write the “real story full of zest” for his 1912 journey to Hudson Bay. So the recently released Bound for the Barrens is the closest anyone can come to reading Oberholtzer’s own account of his journey.

March/April 2013

Specialists in individual and group travel to the Arctic regions for over thirty years.

1.800.661.3830 greatcanadiantravel.com

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ENVIRONMENT

Sequencing the Arctic

he Arctic has always been a mecca for biologists.

In its extremes, the most magnificent species have flourished. And year after year, hardy scientists migrate from the cozy confines of university classrooms to the far North to study these amazing creatures. Chasing after caribou, tagging polar bears, filming the dive of an Eider duck, biologists have become part of the Arctic landscape. One of my favourite memories from school is of an old, silverback professor who David Smth would regale the class with adventure stories about his summers on Prince Patrick Island, Nunavut, where he explored the icy ocean for marine algae. He claimed that if it weren’t for his wife’s bad circulation, he’d have gladly spent all his days on the island.

But many of today’s polar researchers are trading in their parkas for lab coats. Arctic species, being on the frontlines of climate change, are prime targets for genome sequencing, which involves decoding the complete DNA sequence — the instruction booklet — of an organism.

A lot of genomic bigwigs, including the United Sates Department of Energy, which helped sequence the human genome, and the National Research Council of Canada, have their eyes on the North. As you read this, teams of scientists are sweating away in stuffy computer labs, from Newfoundland to California, deciphering the genetic code of the world’s coolest Arctic species.

Much of their focus is on the DNA from species inside permafrost — permanently frozen soil that spreads for thousands of kilometres across the Arctic. Permafrost is a hot topic because vast quantities of carbon are trapped within it. As Arctic temperatures rise, this carbon could leak from the frigid soils into the atmosphere, causing even sharper

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increases in global warming. The largest players in this equation are microscopic organisms living in and above the permafrost because they convert the sequestered carbon into greenhouse gases, like methane and carbon dioxide. But we still know very little about the types of microbes that call the permafrost home.

To better understand these tiny critters and their impact on climate, Canadian and US scientists are sampling the permafrost from diverse locations across the North, such as Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, and Hess Creek, Alaska. In a single gram of these samples there can be thousands of unique microorganisms, each with its own distinct genome. The researchers are indiscriminately sequencing DNA from the collected soils, trying to piece together like a jigsaw puzzle the genomes from these different microbes.

Early results from these experiments will make people shiver. A recent study published in the journal Nature by researchers from California found that some of the species inhabiting permafrost are, as expected, highly tuned machines for converting carbon into dangerous greenhouse gases. The study also showed that the microbial communities inside Arctic soils are extremely sensitive to thawing.

Slight increases in temperature can cause rapid shifts in the number and types of species residing within permafrost, and could eventually lead to a proliferation of greenhouse-gas-generating organisms. As biologists learn more about permafrost biodiversity, they are eager to identify species that instead of dumping carbon into the atmosphere remove it. Depending on how common and hungry these taxa are, they may be able to offset some of the carbon footprint of their fellow microbial neighbours.

But it’s not all happening down in the dirt. Other researchers are taking advantage of genetic technologies to study polar algae — solar-powered unicells that flourish in the Arctic seas and melt water, and even in the ice and snow. Given that algae survive by sucking up carbon dioxide, they are just what the doctor ordered for counteracting global climate change. By unravelling the DNA sequence of these poorly studied photosynthesizers, biologists are hoping to learn about their biodiversity and how they may react to rising global temperatures.

Their genomes could also give important insights into how species adapt to extreme habitats.

The Arctic environment is rapidly changing, as are the ways that scientists interact and understand this environment. When we think of the North, we often picture big animals, like wolves, walruses and whales. But as with almost all of the Earth’s environments, it is the tiniest players — the bacteria, algae and other microorganisms — that determine the ultimate outcome.

David Smith David Smith is a Killam Postdoctoral Scholar in the Botany Department at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

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ARTS & CULTURE

above&beyond remembers a great life lived, a great gift shared The early days of 2013 marked, in her 85th year, the passing of one of the most highly revered print artists of Canada’s North: Kenojuak Ashevak. Her kind loving nature and genuine humility in life and the creative genius of her art touched the lives of many around the world and represented a great, great gift to us all.

In 2001, above&beyond contributor Pascale Dion had the privilege of visiting this gifted artist in her home in Cape Dorset, Nunavut. To acknowledge and honour Ashevak’s iconic contribution to the Inuit art world, we are again sharing Dion’s story, first published little over a decade ago, with our readers. From our July/August 2002 files:

Arctic Artist

Kenojuak Ashevak

© PASCALE DION

a Woman of Heart

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ARTS & CULTURE

One of Ashevak’s best-known creations: Ashevak, Kenojuak, Drawing for “The Owl” c. 1969, Felt pen on wove paper, 45.5 H 61.1 cm National Gallery of Canada, Gift of M.F. Feheley, Toronto.

n November 2001, I was extremely fortunate to meet with the legendary Inuit artist, Kenojuak Ashevak, while she was completing a special commission for blankets at the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative print shop in Cape Dorset. She had created six drawings for illustrated blankets to be produced in collaboration with the Pendleton Woolen Mills, renowned blanket manufacturer of the West American Coast. The new designs feature rich motifs and exuberant colours.

The owl — one of the most recurring figures in Kenojuak’s art — is well represented in these designs. Two of them — “Tapestry of Owls” and “Owls Treasure” — have been transferred onto aluminum plates to produce two limited editions of 50 print lithographs.

A team of highly skilled printmakers collaborates with Kenojuak at the Kinngait Studios in Cape Dorset to print the drawings in the best possible way. Kenojuak is highly satisfied with the results.

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© PASCALE DION

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Sitting in the comfort of her home in the company of two of her grandchildren, Johnny and Martha Ashevak, Kenojuak puts the finishing touches on a beautiful pair of sealskin mitts.

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Although Kenojuak Ashevak is well known for her graphic and sculpted stylized depictions of birds and other animals, she is, above all, a sensitive woman who is dedicated to her family. She discovered the extent of her artistic talents by accident.“When I was younger, I didn't do art,” she explains.“But when someone showed me how to and encouraged me, I started to do it.” In the late 50s, James Houston, a Toronto artist who was then the federal government's administrator for the area, introduced Kenojuak and her husband, Jonniebo, to drawing, printing and carving stones. At that time, Kenojuak was in her early 30s and was still living in the traditional Inuit way, travelling from camp to camp in the South Baffin area and in Arctic Quebec depending on hunting resources.

It didn’t take long for her talents to be recognized. Kenojuak’s representations of Arctic life demonstrate a highly individualistic style.

There is something haunting and intriguing about Kenojuak’s imagery. Her subjects seem to be coming out of another world, displaying some of her signature elements — the radiating extensions, interwoven elements and motifs.

The designs are often symmetrically organized, like the appliqué designs seen on Inuit clothing. The source of her inspiration? She tells me she simply looks into her mind and lets the subject take form on paper. She rarely makes preliminary sketches; rather she follows her own sense of composition and aesthetic inspiration to create images that are pleasing to the eye. Her earlier lifestyle sheltered her from the aesthetic influences of the south.

The end result is a compelling blend of realism and imagination, which is both direct and vivacious.

Kenojuak Ashevak’s mythical images are eagerly sought by art collectors across Canada and around the globe. In the past 40 years her prints have been shown in over 100 exhibitions and have been included in numerous special commissions and projects. Three of her images have been released as Canadian postage stamps and one is featured on a Canadian coin. Her truly impressive body of work has gained her worldwide recognition. She is the recipient of numerous honours, including the highest honours a Canadian artist can receive: membership in the Order of Canada (1967), election to the Royal Canadian Academy (1974) and, recently, induction into Canada’s “Walk of Fame” (2001).

The most famous of her creations, “The Enchanted Owl,” was used on a 1970 Canadian 48

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ARTS & CULTURE

© PASCALE DION

Vision on Spring Ice.

Kenojuak Ashevak fills out shapes of the “Owls treasure” design, part of a special commission to illustrate blankets.

She applies small strokes of black pencil on the surface that will be transferred onto an aluminum plate to produce limited edition lithographs. Kinngait Studios Cape Dorset, November 2001.

Autumn Spirits.

postage stamp. On November 5, 2001, the stone-cut print broke auction-sale records for a Canadian print, reaching $58,650. Kenojuak was quite astonished by the news.“She knows her art is appreciated but that really took her by surprise,” explained Jimmy Manning, the print shop manager in Cape Dorset. In 1960, the first issues of that print sold for $24.

Kenojuak is a woman of heart, whose authenticity and simplicity can be seen in her artistic creations. At 75, she is still working

hard on her art so that she can support her family and her cherished grandchildren.

During the past year, this extraordinary artist has continued to demonstrate high energy and creativity, expressing her limitless imagination in the creation of numerous remarkable new images.

Over the years, Kenojuak has visited many countries in Europe, Asia and North America.

She greatly enjoyed her travels but doesn't wish to spend much time away from her home now. “I don't want to go anywhere. I want to stay home and do my art, sew and spend time with my family,” she says. On a recent trip to Ottawa in April, where she went to oversee her latest art exhibit, she was looking forward

Canada’s Leading Retailer of Inuit Arts & Crafts

to the warm weather and the delicacies of Japanese sushi and seafood.

Kenojuak retains fond memories of her time spent living on the Arctic land.“Thinking is good out on the land,” she says. However, she admits that nowadays she tires more easily and prefers the comforts of her home. Spring is her favourite time of year. She tells me that she still enjoys fishing and boat rides on the open sea. She pauses for a moment and then returns to the sealskin mitts she is sewing. This grandmother and artist is as keenly focused on her sewing as she is at work in the print shop.

Pascale Dion

“Grazing Caribou”

by Esa Kripanik, Igloolik, Nunavut

northern images A Division of Arctic Co-operatives Ltd.

Yellowknife 867-873-5944 | Churchill 204-675-2681

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www.northernimages.ca March/April 2013

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NORTHERN BOOKSHELF

Coming Home Stories from the Northwest Territories Great Plains Publications, Enfield and Wizenty Imprint, September 2012 A compilation of short stories by and for northerners that features 17 fiction and non-fiction stories from established northern writers to emerging writers with eight being published for the first time. It is the first contemporary anthology of NWT writing and was made possible by funding by DeBeers.

From thoughtful prose on understanding ancestry, historical stories, humorous tales, outdoor adventure, romance, and mystery,the stories are views of people living in the north in present day, and even sometimes the struggles of living there such as a personal account of the tragic Giant Mine strike told from a child’s perspective. The book is not only a reflection of life in the north but shows the diversity of life in the north.

Never Look The cover image is by talented a Polar Bear Yellowknife photographer Dave Brosha in the Eye and the foreword is by Richard Van Zac Unger, Da Capo Camp.

Books, February 2013

The Reindeer Botanist: Alf Erling Porsild, 1901-1977 Wendy Dathan, University of Calgary Press and the Arctic Institute of North America, November 2012 One of Canada’s most remarkable botanists, Alf Erling Porsild, grew up on the Arctic Station in West Greenland and later served as curator of botany at the National Museum of Canada. He collected thousands of specimens, greatly enlarging the National Herbarium and making it a superb research centre. For nearly twenty years, Porsild studied reindeer activities in Alaska and the Northwest Territories as part of the Reindeer Project designed to encourage grazing animal husbandry among aboriginal peoples. In this biography, author Wendy Dathan traces the challenging and adventurous career of a remarkable, little-known scientist. Porsild earned universal respect for his prodigious publications and intimate knowledge of the people, plants and land around Canada’s Arctic Circle. This book is also the first full story of the Canadian Reindeer Project and the only description of the exploration and mapping of the Canadian flora and growth of the National Herbarium from about 1920 to 1967.

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Despite the fact that Churchill, Manitoba, is a relatively small town, with a population just under one thousand, that figure soars periodically year after year as thousands of people flock there for a chance to see a polar bear in the wild. Since Churchill is considered the polar bear capital of the world, people from all walks of life bundle up in their parkas to brave the searing cold for an opportunity to see these northern giants in their natural habitat.

Author Zac Unger takes the reader along on his journey to Churchill to meet the unique characters who live in this remote place. In Never Look a Polar Bear in the Eye, we meet scientists, conservationists, natives, tourists, Arctic safari guides, and “Polar Bear Jail” officials in a humorous look at life near the polar bears.

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INUIT FORUM

I’ll Have My Caribou Rare and My Char Tartare pring in the nation’s capital brings showers, followed shortly by flowers, or so the saying goes.

There’s certainly no guarantee of snow. But winter will still be in the air come April, as Ottawa gets set for a spectacular exhibition of all things Arctic.

On Monday April 29, ITK, in collaboration with the National Arts Centre (NAC) in Ottawa, will offer up the simple elegance of Inuit culture during the premiere event of the season: A Taste of the Arctic.

Inuit invented the 100-mile diet, and continue to live off the bounty of the land. A Taste of the Arctic celebrates that tradition with country food, with a twist. Sample carved roast of muskox, sautéed shrimp martini with seaweed julienne, and seal vol au vent. No factory farmed chicken or hormone-injected beef here.

A Taste of the Arctic is a strolling supper, a chance to make new friends and interact with your chef, including the Laughing Chef herself, Rebecca Veevee of Nunavut.

In previous years, A Taste of the Arctic has attracted distinguished guests ranging from former Governor General Michaëlle Jean, and Laureen Harper, wife of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, to Senators, Members of Parliament and members of provincial and territorial legislative assemblies.

In 2010 and 2011 the event was held at the National Gallery of Canada. Then, to mark the 40th anniversary of ITK, we held a very special conference at the NAC. So we have decided to return, this time, during the NAC’s Northern Scene festival.

The cultural program will include performances by Nunavik songstress Beatrice Deer, Western Arctic powerhouse troupe the Inuvik Drummers and Dancers, and the electronic stylings of DJ Madeskimo.

© ITK ARCHIVES

© ITK

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Retired Senator Willie Adams samples Carpaccio of seal with aqpiit relish at A Taste of the Arctic in 2011.

For many in Ottawa, A Taste of the Arctic is an eye-opener, an introduction to the richness of Inuit culture — of Canadian culture. This is Inuit culture with exaggerated elegance.

We want to show Canada’s decision-makers that Inuit are a people of the 21st century, that our traditions have endured the test of time and that our culture is woven into the Canadian fabric.

Our message will echo throughout the halls of the NAC during the NAC’s own Arctic celebration, Northern Scene, which continues until early May. This 10-day festival will present the English Theatre production of Tulugak: Inuit Raven Stories, directed by Sylvia Cloutier, and a dynamic drumming exhibition combining drum dancers from throughout Inuit Nunangat.

Also during the month of April, the Canadian Museum of Nature will present Extraordinary Arctic, a month-long festival of igloo building, film screenings, and discussions with the museum’s Arctic scientists.

Of course, April is a fabulous time to be in the Arctic as well. A time to go hunting, enjoy the warm sunlight and pull your qamutik over smooth ice. But there’s much to celebrate about April in Ottawa, too, especially when our culture is on display, and we have the opportunity to share a little bit of ourselves.

Add a slice of warm caribou, some tender Arctic hare and a bit of seal cooked to perfection, and Ottawa will feel just like home.

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 LEE NARRAWAY

Mica A piece of mica from the Soper River Valley in Katannilik Territorial Park is rendered translucent by the Arctic sun sending a warm and dramatic stream of light my way.

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ᓄᓇᓕᓐᓅᖓᔪᖅ, ᐊᑲᕐᕆᓇᖅᑐᖅ, ᐊᑐᐃᓐᓇᖃᑦᓯᐊᖅᑐᖅ

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ᑲᓲᑎᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᓄᓇᕐᔪᐊᑉ ᖄᖓᒍᑦ

Haniliriikhutik Hilarjuap Qulaani Spanning the Top of the World

© above&beyond/PIERRE DUNNIGAN

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ᐱᔨᑦᑎᕈᒪᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᐱᐅᓂᖅᐹᖑᔪᒥᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᒥ

ᐊᑲᐅᓂᖅᐹᖑᔪᒥᒃ ᖃᖓᑕᖃᑦᑕᓂᒃᑯᑦ ᐱᓕᕆᔪᒪᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᓄᓇᓕᓐᓄᑦ 3 0- ᓄᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᒦᑦᑐᓄᑦ.

Hay River Team: Left to right: Brent Townend, Tracy Cross Gauthier, Kandee Froese.