Above & Beyond | Canada's Arctic Journal May-June 2013

CANADA’S ARCTIC JOURNAL

MAY/JUNE 2013 • $ 5.95

1989

2013

ICEBERG MAGIC A Scenic Pictorial

ᔮᓂ ᐊᖏᕐᕋᑦᑕᕆᐊᓕᒃ ᓄᑖᒥᒃ

Johnny Needs a New Home

Arctic Climate Change Geological Investigations into an Ancient Arctic Greenhouse

Under the Spell of the Crystal Eye

PM40050872

Nunavik’s Pingualuit Retreat

o

Featured on

www.arcticjournal.ca

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

Brock Friesen / XÇ4 K‰n8 President & C.E.O., First Air xzJ6√6 x7m xsM5tp7mE, {5 wsf8k5 Le président et directeur général, First Air

A message from our new CEO I would like to begin with thanking everyone for the warm welcome I have received. I am very pleased to be joining the First Air family and to be onboard The Airline of the North.

I am proud to be leading this team and building on our experience, dedication and energy that is First Air. We are invigorated by the significant reinvestment from our owners and the three newly acquired Boeing 737-400 aircraft joining our fleet in the coming months. We will continue to focus our efforts on providing the highest level of customer service, increasing operational reliability and efficiency, and being an active participant in the communities we serve.

We are excited to be partnering with APTN and being front and centre as the official airline of the upcoming National Aboriginal Day Live celebration on June 22nd in Iqaluit. The logistics and infrastructure required to bring an event of this magnitude to the North can only happen with The Airline of the North. We are looking forward to celebrating and sharing with the nation everything that makes the Arctic special. First Air is honoured to help bring this showcase to life.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our customers and partners who are committed and invested in our success, and I’m looking forward to meeting you personally as I travel across our system to visit our operational hubs. First Air is a dynamic company with a rich history and exciting future. Your support and confidence makes us The Airline of the North.

ᑐᓴᕋᖅᓴᖅ ᐊᓪᓚᕕᒻᒥ ᐊᖏᔪᖅᑳᑖᖅᑲᐅᒥᑦ

ᐱᒋᐊᕈᒪᔪᖓ ᖁᔭᓕᓗᖓ ᑭᒃᑯᓕᒫᓂᑦ ᐅᕙᓐᓂᑦ ᑐᓐᖓᓱᑦᑎᑎᑦᑎᐊᓚᐅᖅᑐᓂᑦ. ᖁᕕᐊᑦᑐᖓ ᐃᓚᒋᔭᐅᔪᓐᓇᕋᒪ ᕗᔅᑦ ᐃᐅᒃᑯᓐᓄᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐃᑭᒪᖃᑕᐅᓗᖓ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᔫᖓᑦ.

ᐅᐱᒍᓱᑦᑐᖓ ᓯᕗᓕᖅᑎᐅᓂᐊᕐᓗᖓ ᑖᒃᑯᓄᖓ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᖅᑎᓄᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐱᕈᖅᑎᐸᓪᓕᐊᓗᒍ ᐊᑐᖃᑦᑕᖅᓯᒪᓂᕗᑦ, ᑲᔪᖏᖅᓯᒪᓂᕗᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐊᔅᓱᕈᕐᓂᕆᔭᕗᑦ ᕘᔅᑦ ᐃᐅᒃᑰᕗᑦ. ᓴᓐᖓᑦᑎᑕᐅᒃᑲᓂᖅᑐᒍᑦ ᐊᖏᔪᒥᑦ ᑮᓇᐅᔭᓕᐅᕋᓱᒃᑲᓂᓂᕐᒥᑦ ᐅᕙᒍ ᓇᒻᒥᓂᖃᖅᑐᖏᓐᓂ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐱᖓᓱᑦ ᓂᐅᕕᖅᑕᐅᕋᑖᓚᐅᖅᑐᑦ ᓱᐱᔪᑦ Boeing 737-400 ᐃᓚᓕᐅᑎᓂᐊᖅᑐᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᑦᑎᓐᓄᑦ ᐊᒡᒋᖅᑐᓂᖅ ᑕᖅᑭᓂᑦ. ᐱᔨᑦᑎᕋᓱᐊᖏᓐᓇᓂᐊᖅᑐᒍᑦ ᐱᐅᓛᒥᑦ ᖁᕝᕙᓯᓐᓂᖅᐹᒥᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖃᑦᑕᖅᑐᓂᑦ ᐱᔨᑦᑎᖅᑕᑎᓐᓂᑦ, ᖁᕝᕙᕆᐊᖅᑐᒍ ᐊᐅᓚᓂᖓᓄᑦ ᑐᓐᖓᕕᐅᔪᓐᓇᕐᓂᖓ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐊᐅᓚᑦᑎᐊᕐᓂᖓ, ᐊᒻᒪ ᐃᓚᐅᖃᑕᐅᖃᑦᑕᖅᑐᑕ ᓄᓇᓕᓐᓂᑦ ᐱᔨᑦᑎᖅᑕᑎᓐᓂᑦ.

ᖁᕕᐊᑦᑐᒍᑦ ᐱᓕᕆᖃᑎᖃᕆᐊᔅᓴᖅ ᓄᓇᖃᖅᑳᖅᓯᒪᔪᓂᑦ ᑕᑯᓐᓂᕋᔅᓴᓕᕆᔨᓂᑦ APTN ᐊᒻᒪ ᓯᕗᒃᑲᑕᖅᑐᑕ ᐊᒻᒪ ᕿᑎᐊᓃᑦᑐᑕ ᖃᖓᑕᔫᕆᔭᐅᓗᑕ ᑲᓇᑕᒥ ᓄᓇᖃᖅᑳᖅᓯᒪᔪᓄᑦ ᐅᓪᓗᖓᓂᑦ ᖁᕕᐊᓲᑕᐅᑎᓪᓗᒍ ᔫᓂ 22nd ᐃᖃᓗᓐᓂ. ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᐅᑎᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐱᖁᑎᕐᔪᐊᑦ ᐱᑕᖃᕆᐊᓖᑦ ᑕᒪᓐᓇ ᓴᖅᑭᑎᓐᓂᐊᕐᓗᒍ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒧᑦ ᑕᐃᒪᐃᒍᓐᓇᖅᑐᖅ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᖓᓄᑦ. ᕿᓚᓈᖅᑐᒍᑦ ᖁᕕᐊᓱᖃᑕᐅᓗᑕ ᐊᒻᒪ ᑲᑐᔾᔨᓗᑕ ᑲᓇᑕᒥ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᖓᓂᑦ ᐊᔾᔨᐅᖏᑎᑦᑎᔪᖅ. ᕘᔅᑦ ᐃᐅᒃᑯᑦ ᐅᐱᒍᓱᑦᑐᑦ ᐃᑲᔪᕆᐊᔅᓴᖅᑕᒪᓐᓇ ᓴᖅᑭᖅᑎᑕᐅᑎᓪᓗᒍ ᖁᕕᐊᓲᑎᖃᕐᓂᐅᔪᖅ. ᒫᓐᓇᔪᒥᑦ ᐱᑯᖃᓂᕐᓂᑦ ᖁᔭᓐᓇᒦᕈᒪᔪᖓ ᕗᔅᑦ ᐃᐅᒃᑯᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖃᑦᑕᑐᓂᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐱᓕᕆᖃᑎᑦᑎᓐᓂᑦ ᑲᔪᖏᖅᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐱᒃᑲᑯᓐᓂᕋᓱᐊᖅᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᑲᔪᓯᑦᑎᐊᖅᓯᒪᓂᑦᑎᓐᓂᑦ, ᐊᒻᒪ ᕿᓚᓈᖅᑐᖓ ᐃᓕᔅᓯᓐᓂᑦ ᐃᓄᒃᑯᑦ ᑲᑎᒃᓯᓂᐊᕐᓗᖓ ᐃᖏᕋᕕᒋᖃᑦᑕᖅᑕᕗᑦ ᐅᐸᖃᑦᑕᓕᕈᒃᑭᑦ. ᕗᔅᑦ ᐃᐅᒃᑯᑦ ᐊᔾᔨᖏᑦᑐᖅ ᑎᒥᐅᔪᖅ ᐱᔨᑦᑎᑦᑎᐊᖃᑦᑕᖅᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᖁᕕᐊᓇᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᓯᕗᓂᔅᓴᖃᖅᑐᓂ. ᐃᑲᔪᖅᓱᐃᓃᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᖁᓚᖏᓐᓃᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᔫᖃᖅᑎᑦᑎᔪᖅ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᔫᖓ.

Message de notre nouveau PDG J’aimerais commencer par vous remercier de l’accueil chaleureux qui m’a été réservé. Je suis très heureux de me joindre à la famille de First Air et d’être à bord de la Ligne aérienne du Nord.

Je suis fier de diriger cette équipe et de miser sur l’expérience, le dévouement et l’énergie des employés de First Air. Nous sommes revigorés par le réinvestissement important de nos propriétaires et par l’achat de trois nouveaux Boeing 737-400 qui s’ajouteront à notre flotte dans les prochains mois.

Nous poursuivrons nos efforts en vue d’offrir le meilleur service à notre clientèle, d’améliorer notre fiabilité et notre efficacité opérationnelles et de participer activement à la vie des collectivités que nous desservons.

Nous sommes heureux de faire équipe avec l’APTN et de jouer un rôle de premier plan en tant que compagnie aérienne officielle des célébrations entourant la Journée nationale des Autochtones le 22 juin à Iqaluit. La logistique et l’infrastructure nécessaires pour réaliser un événement d’une telle envergure dans le Nord ne pourraient se produire sans la Ligne aérienne du Nord. Nous prévoyons de célébrer et de partager avec le reste du pays tout ce qui fait de l’Arctique une région spéciale. First Air est fier de participer à la réalisation de cet événement.

J’aimerais profiter de l’occasion pour remercier nos clients et nos partenaires qui travaillent à notre réussite. J’anticipe également le plaisir de faire votre connaissance lors de mes déplacements dans l’ensemble de notre réseau pour visiter nos centres opérationnels. First Air est une compagnie dynamique, possédant une riche histoire et un avenir prometteur. Grâce à votre appui et votre confiance, nous sommes la Ligne aérienne du Nord.

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.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

14 Iceberg Magic A Scenic Pictorial Back in time when I sailed for six weeks with a group of scientists on the Davis and Nares Strait, I became addicted to icebergs. Icebergs have since become an utterly incurable photographic passion.

Icebergs come in an unending variety of shapes and textures. Though they may on occasion defy description, they never fail to fuel one’s imagination. — By Lee Narraway

Publisher & Editor Tom Koelbel Contributing Editors Teevi Mackay Ann Meekitjuk Hanson Advertising Doris Ohlmann (Ottawa) 613-257-4999

30 Arctic Climate Change

Circulation Patt Hunter

The Arctic summer field season is a short one. A team of dedicated students from Carleton University’s Earth Sciences Department have accompanied me into the field for the last four years, to spend a few short weeks unravelling the ancient climate history as imprinted in the rocks of the High Arctic. — By Claudia Schröder-Adams

Design Robert Hoselton, Beat Studios email: editor@arcticjournal.ca Toll Free: 1 • 877 • 2ARCTIC Volume 25, No. 3

May/June 2013

CANADA’S ARCTIC JOURNAL

37 Johnny Needs

MAY/JUNE 2013 • $ 5.95

1989

A New Home

2013

Inuit Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) was created by active people in the early 1970s. There were motivating factors such as social issues, history, education, culture, health, saving our Inuktitut language, passing on Inuit survival skills, community events and current affairs. IBC opened an important new door to sharing more North-relevant information and stimulated ideas. “Johnny Needs A New Home” has become a catch phrase in the North. It means everything pertaining to the inner and outer workings of IBC needs a new place to produce more Inuktitut television in safety and comfort. — By Ann Meekitjuk Hanson

ICEBERG MAGIC A Scenic Pictorial

ᔮᓂ ᐊᖏᕐᕋᑦᑕᕆᐊᓕᒃ ᓄᑖᒥᒃ

Johnny Needs a New Home

Arctic Climate Change Geological Investigations into an Ancient Arctic Greenhouse

Under the Spell of the Crystal Eye

PM40050872

Nunavik’s Pingualuit Retreat

o

Featured on

www.arcticjournal.ca

TO WITNESS A GLACIER CALVING IS AN INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE. © LEE NARRAWAY

Cover Price $5.95 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Within Canada 6 issues $27.00 12 issues $52.00

US/Foreign 6 issues $40.00 12 issues $78.00

(Prices Include applicable taxes)

Read online:

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

May/June 2013

9 above&beyond Message 10 NORTHERN YOUTH Focus on Food Security

by Teevi Mackay 21 LIVING ABOVE & BEYOND 46 ENVIRONMENT Arctic Algae Impact Ocean Ecosystems

by David Smith

49 George River Herd’s Caribou House Nursery

by Jeff Wells and Suzann Méthot 51 TRAVEL Nunavik’s Pingualuit Retreat

54 ADVENTURE On the Gruelling Yukon Quest

by Sam Riches 57 NORTHERN BOOKSHELF 58 INUIT FORUM Big Night in Bangkok

by Terry Audla

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

above&byeond message

Canada’s Arctic Journal above&beyond Celebrates 25 years wenty-five years ago the very first issue of

readers the fact that this issue’s cover photo

above&beyond (Vol 1 No. 1. Winter 1989)

of glacial calving captured by longtime

featured a beautiful cover photo of an iceberg

contributor Lee Narraway, was taken in

floating not far off the Baffin Island coast.

Antarctica and not somewhere off a far

Taken by Arctic photographer and adventurer,

North coastline as might be misconstrued by

Mike Beedell, that image spoke then to the

those reaching for our May June 2013, Vol. 25,

beauty of the Arctic as it still does to this day.

No. 3 issue.

T

We thought it fitting then, in honour and

A bit of editorial license borrowed from

celebration of that very first cover image, that

the polar opposite ends of the earth perhaps,

we revisit the whole idea of icebergs 25 years

but we’re betting that the huge fascination

on — not only with a cover photo of an ice-

Vol. 1 No. 1 above&beyond

with icebergs held by young and old, east,

berg being born — but also with a full-blown photo feature

west and beyond will hold true, and that Lee’s cover shot will

speaking to the beauty, magic, and rare individuality icebergs

amaze and entice enough to have our hardcopy and online

hold to this day and will for decades to come.

readers venture further within to view her photo feature and

But in the name of fairness and transparency and with a twist lest we mislead, we will fess up right off and share with

May/June 2013

share in what can only be described as an irresistible redux to “iceberg magic”.

above & beyond

9

NORTHERN YOUTH ome people in the North are facing challenges and food “insecurity” is definitely one of them. I came up to Iqaluit for a week this past February and I made sure to bring up enough food to last the week, because I did not want to spend a fortune on food, which is what you are forced to do when you live in the North. That made me think about how people there are faced with this challenge: access to affordable and fresh food. How they cope with it.

S

ᐃ

ᓚᖏᑦ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᐊᔅᓱᕈᕈᑎᖃᖅᑐᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᓂᕿᓂᑦ “ᐊᑦᑕᓇᐃᖅᓯᒪᖏᓐᓂᖅ” ᐃᓚᒋᔭᐅᔪᖅ. ᐃᖃᓗᓐᓅᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔪᖓ ᐱᓇᓱᐊᕈᓯᕐᒧᑦ ᐊᑕᐅᓯᕐᒧᑦ ᕕᕝᕗᐊᕆᐅᔪᔪᒥᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᓂᕿᒡᒋᕋᓱᓚᐅᖅᑐᖓ ᓈᒻᒪᓂᐊᖅᑐᓂᑦ ᐱᓇᓱᐊᕈᓯᕐᒧᑦ, ᐊᑭᑐᔫᑎᐊᓗᓐᓂᑦ ᓂᕿᑖᕈᒪᓚᐅᖏᓐᓇᒪ, ᑕᐃᒪᐃᑦᑎᑕᐅᕙᑦᑐᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᓄᖃᓕᖅᑎᓪᓗᑎᑦ. ᐅᕙᓐᓂᑦ ᐃᓱᒫᓪᓚᑎᑦᒃᑎᔪᖅ ᖃᓄᖅ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᑕᐃᒪᓐᓇ ᐊᔅᓱᕈᕈᑎᖃᖅᑐᑦ: ᐱᔭᔅᓴᐅᓂᖏᑦ ᐊᑭᑐᓗᐊᖏᑦᑐᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐱᑐᖃᐅᖏᑦᑐᓂ ᓂᕿᓂᑦ. ᖃᓄᖅ. ᖃᓄᖅ ᐱᓕᕆᐊᖑᓲᖑᒻᒪᖔᑕ. ᐱᕈᖅᓴᓚᐅᖅᑐᖓ 1990−ᖏᓂᑦ ᐃᖃᓗᓐᓂ ᐊᓈᓇᒐ ᐊᖏᔪᖅᑳᑐᕆᓪᓗᒍ. ᐊᔅᓱᕈᖅᐸᓚᐅᖅᑐᒥ-

Focus on

Food Security

© iPHONE PHOTO, COURTESY COLLEEN MACKAY

ᓂᕿᓄᑦ ᐊᑦᑕᓇᐃᖅᓯᒪᓂᖅ ᐱᔾᔪᑎᖃᓗᐊᖅᑐᖅ:

by Teevi Mackay / ᑎᑎᕋᖅᑐᖅ ᑏᕕ ᒪᑲᐃ

I grew up in the 90s in Iqaluit while my mother was a single parent.

We had our fair share of challenges during this time. Food was definitely cheaper then, and surviving in Nunavut’s capital was a lot easier than it is today. At times we made good use of the food mail program, which really did make a difference in terms of having fresh food, food that was quick to arrive from Montreal. Still, some days were tougher, much tougher than others. I remember one instance where I went home for lunch and the only thing I was able to find to eat was a package of premium plus crackers. I remember watching TV while eating those crackers only to consume the whole package over my lunch break! It was all that I could find and it was all that I would be able to have for lunch that day. That experience makes me feel for those young people in the North faced with the difficulty of getting sufficient food to keep them going.

10

arcticjournal.ca

ᔪᑦᑕᐅᖅ ᑕᐃᔅᓱᒪᓂ. ᓂᖀᑦ ᐊᑭᑭᓐᓂᖅᓴᐅᔪᔪᑦ, ᐊᒻᒪ ᐃᓅᓇᓱᐊᕐᓂᐅᔪᖅ ᓄᓇᕗᑦ ᓄᓇᓕᐸᐅᔭᖓᓂᑦ ᐊᒡᓱᕈᕐᓇᖏᓐᓂᖅᓴᐅᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ. ᐃᓛᓐᓂᒃᑯᑦ ᐊᑐᑦᑎᐊᖃᑦᑕᓚᐅᖅᑕᕗᑦ ᓂᕿᓄᑦ ᑎᓴᐃᔾᔪᑏᑦ ᑎᑎᖅᑲᓂᐊᕐᕕᒃᑯᑦ, ᓂᕿᑦᑎᐊᕙᖃᖅᑎᑦᑎᓚᐅᖅᑐᑦ ᐱᑐᖃᐅᖏᑦᑐᓂᑦ, ᓂᖀᑦ ᑎᑭᓴᕋᐃᑦᑐᑦ ᒫᓐᑐᕆᐊᒥᑦ. ᑕᐃᒪᐃᒃᑲᓗᐊᖅᑎᓗᒍ, ᐃᓚᖏᑦ ᐅᓪᓗᐃᑦ ᐊᔪᕐᓇᖅᐸᓚᐅᖅᑐᑦ, ᐊᓯᖏᓐᓄᑦ ᐊᔪᕐᓇᓂᖅᓴᒻᒪᕆᐅᓪᓗᓂ. ᐊᑕᐅᓯᐊᖅᑐᖓ ᓱᖅᑯᐃᓱᑦᑐᖓ ᐅᓪᓗᕈᒻᒥᓇᓐᓇᐅᑎᓪᓗᒍ ᐊᖏᕋᕋᒪ ᐊᒻᒪ ᓇᓂᔪᓐᓇᖅᑕᑐᐊᕆᓚᐅᖅᑕᕋ ᓂᕆᔭᔅᓴᖅ ᓯᕙᕋᓛᑦ. ᓱᖅᑯᐃᓱᑦᑐᖓ ᑕᓚᕖᓴᑦᑐᖓ ᓂᕆᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᓯᕙᕋᓛᑦ ᐴᖅᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᓄᖑᓚᐅᖅᑕᒃᑲ ᓂᕆᓐᓇᐅᑎᓪᓗᒍ! ᓇᓂᔪᓐᓇᖅᑕᑐᐊᕆᓚᐅᖅᑕᕋ ᐊᒻᒪ ᓂᕆᔭᔅᓴᑐᐊᕆᓚᐅᖅᑕᕋ ᐅᓪᓗᕈᒻᒥᑕᕐᓇᐅᑎᓪᓗᒍ. ᐊᑐᓚᐅᖅᕋ ᐅᕙᓐᓂᑦ ᐃᑉᐱᒍᓱᑦᑎᑦᑎᔪᖅ ᒪᒃᑯᑦᑐᓂᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᐊᔅᓱᕈᕐᓂᕆᖃᑦᑕᖅᑕᖏᑦ ᓂᕿᔅᓴᖃᑦᑎᐊᖏᓐᓂᕐᒥᑦ ᐃᓅᑦᑎᐊᖁᓪᓗᒋᑦ. ᐊᕐᕌᒎᓚᐅᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᑕᑯᓚᐅᖅᑐᒍᑦ ᓈᒻᒪᓴᖏᑦᑐᓂᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᐱᔾᔪᑎᖃᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᓂᖀᑦ ᐊᑭᑐᓂᖏᓐᓄᑦ. ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᑕᑯᔅᓴᐅᓪᓗᑎᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᓂᐱᖃᕆᐊᓕᖅᑐᑦ ᐊᑐᖃᑦᑕᕐᓂᑯᒥᓂᖏᓐᓂᑦ ᐱᑕᖃᖏᓐᓂᖓᓄᑦ ᐱᑐᖃᐅᖏᑦᑐᓂᑦ, ᐊᑭᑐᓗᐊᖏᑦᑐᓂᑦ ᓂᕿᓂᑦ — ᑕᑯᔅᓴᐅᔪᖅᑕᖃᒻᒪᕆᑦᑐᖅ ᐃᓱᓕᕝᕕᔅᓴᖏᑦ (ᐱᐅᔪᓐᓃᕐᕕᖏᑦ) ᓂᖀᑦ ᓱᓕ ᓂᐅᕕᐊᔅᓴᐅᑎᑕᐅᔪᑦ. ᖃᕋᓴᐅᔭᒃᑯᑦ ᑐᓴᖃᑦᑕᐅᑎᔾᔪᑏᑦ ᓲᕐᓗ Twitter ᐊᒻᒪ Facebook ᐱᒻᒪᕆᐅᔪᒥᑦ ᐊᑐᖅᑕᐅᔪᑦ ᐊᓯᖏᓐᓂᑦ ᑐᓴᖅᑎᑎᔾᔪᑎᐅᓪᓗᑎᑦ.

May/June 2013

NORTHERN YOUTH The past year saw widespread protests across the North that revolved around the high cost of food. People are publicly voicing their personal experiences about the absence of fresh, affordable food — there is even evidence of expired (stale-dated) food still on shelves for sale. Social media such as Twitter and Facebook play important roles to help spread the word.

The Facebook group, Feeding My Family, is a grassroots initiative that currently has close to 20,000 members and seeks to address the food “insecurity” problem head on. People in the North are becoming courageously engaged and thinking out loud. Feeding My Family has helped people mobilize northerners around this serious issue and has lent both substance and purpose to their message to Northern leaders.

A lot of disappointment across the North is being expressed in regard to the Nutrition North program too. One obvious concern voiced is that the program does not really have a proper monitoring system in place at the moment. I know that many homes in the North still have empty fridges most of the time.

Quite a few families are living pay cheque to pay cheque, which means that at times — usually just days before they are to get paid — they do not have adequate food in the house to properly feed their families.

Access to country food has become more difficult too, especially since it costs a lot to just go hunting these days. And the effects upon the environment by climate change too have made hunting more difficult.

People are selling country food now, whereas before this would never happen.

I am a mother of a beautiful seven-year-old daughter and my foremost concern for her is ensuring that I have adequate and healthy food for her, even while I am a student. Food is such a necessary, fundamental human need and is required in order for children to do well in school. It is common knowledge that education is key to the growth and development of the North, but first we must make sure that young people are fed properly and in good health so they can focus while in school.

On February 4, 2013, the program, Community First: Impacts of Community Engagement (CFICE) was officially launched at Carleton University. Part of this initiative aims to address food “insecurity” in Canada through research and action at the community level. Nationally,

May/June 2013

Facebook-ᑰᖃᑦᑕᖅᑐᑦ, ᓂᕆᑎᑦᑎᓂᖅ ᐅᕙᖓ ᐃᓚᖏᓐᓂ, ᑐᓐᖓᓂᕆᔭᖓ ᐱᒋᐊᕈᑎᓂᑦ ᒫᓐᓇᐅᔪᖅ ᐃᓚᒋᔭᐅᔪᖁᑎᖃᖅᑐᖅ ᖃᓂᒋᔭᖏᓐᓂ 20,000 ᐊᒻᒪ ᐱᓕᕆᐊᖃᕈᒪᔪᑦ ᓂᕿᓄᑦ “ᐊᑦᑕᓇᐃᖅᓯᒪᖏᓐᓂᖅ”. ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᐃᓚᐅᖃᑕᐅᓕᖅᑐᑦ ᓂᐱᖃᕆᐊᓕᖅᑐᑎᓪᓗ. ᓂᕆᑎᑦᑎᓂᖅ ᐅᕙᖓ ᐃᓚᖏᓐᓂ ᐃᑲᔪᖅᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᐃᓄᓐᓂᑦ ᓅᑦᑎᒋᐊᖅᑐᓂ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒥᐅᑕᓂᑦ ᑕᒪᑐᒥᖓ ᐱᒻᒪᕆᐅᔪᒥᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐱᔾᔪᑎᖃᖅᑎᑦᑎᔅᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᑐᓴᖅᑎᑎᓪᓗᑎᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᓯᕗᓕᖅᑎᓂᑦ.

A lot of disappointment across the North is being expressed in regard to the Nutrition North program too.

One obvious concern voiced is that the program does not really have a proper monitoring system in place at the moment. I know that many homes in the North still have empty fridges most of the time. ᖁᕕᐊᓱᖏᔾᔪᑎᒥᓂᑦ ᐊᒥᓱᑦ ᓴᖅᑮᔪᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᐱᔾᔪᑎᖃᖅᑐᓂᑦ ᓂᕿᑦᑎᐊᕙᓕᕆᓂᕐᒧᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᐱᓕᕆᐊᒥᑦ. ᐊᑕᐅᓯᖅ ᓇᓗᓇ-

ᖏᑦᑐᖅ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᐅᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᐱᓕᕆᐊᖑᔪᖅ ᐊᑐᐊᒐᐊᓪᓗᑕᖏᒻᒪᑦ ᖃᐅᔨᓴᖅ-

ᑕᐅᓂᖓᓄᑦ ᒫᓐᓇᐅᔪᒥᑦ. ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔪᖓ ᐊᒥᓱᑦ ᐊᖏᕋᕆᔭᐅᔪᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᖁᐊᒃᑯᕕᖏᑦ ᐃᓗᖃᑲᐃᓐᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᐸᑦᑐᑦ.

ᖁᕕᐊᓱᖏᔾᔪᑎᒥᓂᑦ ᐊᒥᓱᑦ ᓴᖅᑮᔪᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᐱᔾᔪᑎᖃᖅᑐᓂᑦ ᓂᕿᑦᑎᐊᕙᓕᕆᓂᕐᒧᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᐱᓕᕆᐊᒥᑦ. ᐊᑕᐅᓯᖅ ᓇᓗᓇᖏᑦᑐᖅ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᐅᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᐱᓕᕆᐊᖑᔪᖅ ᐊᑐᐊᒐᐊᓪᓗᑕᖏᒻᒪᑦ ᖃᐅᔨᓴᖅᑕᐅᓂᖓᓄᑦ ᒫᓐᓇᐅᔪᒥᑦ. ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔪᖓ ᐊᒥᓱᑦ ᐊᖏᕋᕆᔭᐅᔪᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᖁᐊᒃᑯᕕᖏᑦ ᐃᓗᖃᑲᐃᓐᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᐸᑦᑐᑦ. ᐊᒥᓱᒐᒍᓚᐅᔪᑦ ᐃᓚᒌᑦ ᐄᓅᓂᖃᖅᐸᑦᑐᑦ ᓯᒃᑭᑖᕐᕕᖓᓂᑦ ᓯᒃᑭᑖᕐᕕᖓᓄᑦ, ᑐᑭᖃᖅᑐᖅ ᐃᓛᓐᓂᒃᑯᑦ — ᐅᓪᓗᐃᑦ ᐊᒥᓲᖏᑦᑐᑦ ᓯᒃᑭᑖᓚᐅᖅᑎᓐᓇᒋᑦ — ᓈᒻᒪᖏᑦᑐᓂᑦ ᓂᕿᖃᑉᐸᖅᑐᑦ ᓂᕆᑎᑦᑎᒍᓐᓇᖅᑐᓂᑦ ᐃᓚᖏᓐᓂᑦ. ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓂᕿᖏᑦ ᐱᓇᓱᐊᖅᑐᒋᑦ ᐊᔪᕐᓇᓂᖅᓴᐅᓕᖅᑐᖅᑕᐅᖅ, ᐱᓗᐊᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᐊᑭᑐᔫᓕᕐᒪᑦ ᐊᖑᓇᓱᒋᐊᑐᐃᓐᓇᖅᑐᓂ ᐅᓪᓗᒥ.ᐊᒻᒪ ᐊᑦᑐᖅᑕᐅᓂᐅᔪᑦ ᐊᕙᑎᒧᑦ ᓯᓚᐅᑉ ᐊᓯᔾᔨᕐᓂᖓᓄᑦ ᐊᖑᓇᓱᓐᓂᕐᒧᑦ ᐊᔪᕐᓇᓂᖅᓴᐅᑎᑦᑎᔪᑦ. ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓂᐅᕕᐊᔅᓴᖃᖅᐸᑦᑐᑦ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓂᖏᓐᓂᑦ, ᐅᐊᑦᑎᐊᕈ ᑕᐃᒪᐃᑉᐸᔪᖏᑦᑑᒐᓗᐊᖅ. ᐊᓈᓇᐅᔪᖓ 7-ᓂ ᐊᕐᕌᒍᓕᒻᒧᑦ ᐸᓂᑯᓗᒐ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐃᓱᒫᓘᑎᒋᓂᖅᐹᕋ ᐸᓂᓐᓄᑦ ᓈᒻᒪᑦᑐᓂᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᓂᕿᑦᑎᐊᕙᓐᓂᑦ ᓂᕆᑎᖃᑦᑕᕐᓗᒍ, ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᖅᑎᐅᒐᓗᐊᖅᑎᓪᓗᖓ. ᓂᖀᑦ ᐱᑕᖃᕆᐊᖃᓪᓚᕆᒻᒪᑕ,

above & beyond

11

NORTHERN YOUTH almost four million Canadians suffer from food “insecurity” — mostly the unemployed, single parent homes, Aboriginals, students and the homeless.

CFICE was launched through a panel discussion, which included Terry Audla, the president of the national Inuit organization Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK). Audla helped launch the new program as a panellist. Audla said that 70 per cent of Inuit in Nunavut alone are food insecure, which is a staggering percentage. The aim of this nation-wide project is to mobilize action through research; research that’ll take place at community centres across the country with the aim of influencing public policy.

This also includes dialogue with Food Secure Canada, an organization that is participating in discussions with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. CFICE is receiving $2.5 million over seven years for this project. If Northerners would like to participate in this research they can contact Professor Peter Andrée at Carleton University.

While I was in Iqaluit, I visited a home with two elders and a family of six all living together. When I saw that their fridge was virtually empty, it gave me a helpless feeling. This family is heavily reliant upon bannock for their meals most of the time and whatever country food is given to them. Renting a home is very expensive in the North and most of the money this family receives and makes goes to rent. Quite a few people are forced to leave the North because of the high cost of living there. Some leave jobs, important jobs that need to be adequately filled in the North. Who can blame them if they are able to live in the South, make less, but live far more comfortably because life’s essentials are so much more affordable.

I think it’s safe to say that many Inuit in the North are only just making it, or surviving. Food, proper food, should be an essential right, especially for growing children who are not in a position to provide for themselves. It is not fair that people living in the North, many of whom through no fault of their own lack the formal education required for high paying jobs, are forced to live this way. The North is a beautiful place. It represents home to me. But it should also be an affordable place to live and raise a family.

ᐃᓄᒻᒧᑦ ᐱᔭᐅᔭᕆᐊᖃᐃᓐᓇᐅᔭᖅᑐᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐱᑕᖃᕆᐊᖃᖅᑐᑎᑦ ᕿᑐᓐᖓᑎᓐᓄᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᑦᑎᐊᖁᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕕᒻᒥ. ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔭᐃᓐᓇᐅᒻᒪᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᑎᑦᑎᓂᖅ ᐱᕈᕐᔪᑎᐅᒻᒪᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐱᕙᓪᓕᐊᑎᑦᑎᓂᕐᒧᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒥᑦ, ᑭᓯᐊᓂ ᖃᐅᔨᒪᑦᑎᐊᕆᐊᖃᖅᑐᒍᑦ ᑕᒪᒃᑯᐊ ᒪᒃᑯᑦᑐᐃᑦ ᓂᕆᑦᑎᐊᖃᑦᑕᕐᓗᑎᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᑎᒥᒥᒍᑦ ᖃᓄᐃᖏᑎᐊᕐᓗᑎᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕕᒻᒥ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᑦᑎᐊᕈᓐᓇᓂᐊᕐᒪᑕ. ᕕᕝᕗᐊᕆ 4, 2013, ᐱᓕᕆᐊᖅ, ᓄᓇᓕᖅᑳᑦ: ᐊᑦᑐᐃᓂᖏᑦ ᓄᓇᓖᑦ ᐃᓚᐅᖃᑕᐅᓂᖏᑦ (CFICE) ᐱᒋᐊᖅᑎᑕᐅᒋᐊᓐᖓᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᑲᐅᕈᑕᓐ ᓯᓚᑦᑐᓴᕐᕕᒃᔪᐊᒥᑦ. ᐃᓚᖓ ᑕᒪᑐᒪ ᐱᓕᕆᐊᖅ ᑐᕌᖅᑐᖅ ᐱᓕᕆᐊᖃᕐᓗᓂ ᓂᕿᓂᑦ “ᐊᑦᑕᓇᐃᖅᓯᒪᖏᓂᕐᒥᑦ” ᑲᓇᑕᒥ ᖃᐅᔨᓴᕐᓂᒃᑯᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐱᓕᕆᐊᓂᑦ ᓄᓇᓕᒻᒥᑦ. ᑲᓇᑕᒥ, 4 ᒥᓕᐊᓐᐸᓗᐃᑦ ᑲᓇᑕᒥᐅᑕᐃᑦ ᓂᕿᔅᓴᓱᖃᑦᑎᐊᖏᑦᑐᑦ “ᐊᑦᑕᓇᐃᖅᓯᒪᓂᕐᒥᑦ” — ᐱᓗᐊᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᖏᑦᑐᑦ, ᐊᖏᔪᖅᑳᑐᐊᓖᑦ ᐊᖏᕋᕆᔭᐅᔪᑦ, ᓄᓇᖃᖅᑳᖅᓯᒪᔪᑦ, ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᖅᑏᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐊᖏᕋᖃᖏᑦᑐᑦ.

CFICE ᐱᒋᐊᖅᑎᑕᐅᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᑲᑎᒪᔨᒃᑯᑦ, ᐱᖃᓯᐅᑎᓚᐅᖅᑐᑦ ᑎᐅᕆ ᐊᐅᑦᓚ, ᐊᖏᔪᖅᑳᖅ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᑕᐱᕇᑦ ᑲᓇᑕᒥ (ITK). ᐊᐅᑦᓇ ᐃᑲᔪᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᐱᒋᐊᖅᑎᑕᐅᔪᒥᑦ ᓄᑖᖅ ᐱᓕᕆᐊᖅ ᑲᑎᒪᔨᐅᖃᑕᐅᓪᓗᓂ. ᐊᐅᑦᓚ ᐅᖃᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ 70-ᐳᓴᓐᑎᖏᑦ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓄᓇᕗᒻᒥ ᓂᕿᓄᑦ ᐊᑦᑕᓇᐃᖅᓯᒪᖏᑦᑐᑦ, ᐊᖏᔪᒻᒪᕆᐅᔪᖅ ᐳᓴᓐᑎᖏᑎᒍᑦ. ᑐᕌᒐᕆᔭᖓ ᑲᓇᑕᓕᒫᒥᑦ ᐱᓕᕆᐊᖅ ᐃᖏᕋᓯᑎᑦᑎᒋᐊᕐᓗᓂ ᖃᐅᔨᓴᓂᒃᑯᑦ; ᖃᐅᔨᓴᕐᓂᐊᖅᑐᑦ ᓄᓇᓕᐅᔪᓂᑦ ᑲᓇᑕᒥ ᑐᕌᒐᖃᖅᑐᑎᑦ ᐃᓄᓐᓂᑦ ᐊᔭᐅᖅᓯᒋᐊᓂᕐᒥᑦ ᐊᑐᐊᒐᓕᐅᓂᕐᒥᑦ. ᑖᓐᓇ ᐱᖃᓯᐅᔾᔨᔪᖅ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᐅᓪᓗᓂ ᓂᕿᓄᑦ ᐊᑦᑕᓇᐃᖅᓯᒪᓂᖅ ᑲᓇᑕᒥ, ᑲᑐᔾᔨᖃᑎᒌᖑᔪᖅ ᐃᓚᐅᖃᑕᐅᔪᖅᑦ ᐅᖃᖃᑎᖃᓂᕐᒥᑦ ᓯᓚᕐᔪᐊᒥᑦ ᑲᑐᔾᔨᖃᑎᒌᑦ ᐊᔾᔨᐅᖏᑦᑐᓄᑦ ᐅᓂᒃᑳᖅᑎᒥᑦ ᐱᔪᓐᓇᐅᑎᓄᑦ ᓂᕿᓄᑦ. CFICE ᐱᑎᑕᐅᓂᐊᖅᑐᑦ $2.5 ᒥᓕᐊᓐ ᐊᕐᕌᒍᓄᑦ 7-ᓄᑦ ᑖᔅᓱᒧᖓ ᐱᓕᕆᐊᒧᑦ.ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒥᐅᑕᐃᑦ ᐃᓚᓇᐅᖃᑕᐅᔪᒪᑉᐸᑕ ᑕᕝᕙᓂ ᖃᐅᔨᓴᕐᓂᐅᔪᒥᑦ ᖃᐅᔨᒋᐊᕈᓐᓇᖅᑐᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᑎᑦᑎᔨ ᓯᓚᑦᑐᓴᕐᕕᒃᔪᐊᒥᑦ ᐲᑕ ᐋᓐᑐᕋᐃ ᑲᐅᕈᑕᓐ ᓯᓚᑦᑐᓴᕐᕕᒃᔪᐊᒥᑦ. ᐃᖃᓗᓐᓃᑎᓪᓗᖓ, ᐳᕌᕆᐊᓚᐅᕋᒪ ᐊᖏᕋᕆᔭᐅᔪᒧᑦ ᒪᕐᕉᓐᓄ ᐃᓐᓇᑐᖄᓐᓄᒃ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐃᓚᒌᑦ 6 ᐃᓪᓗᒥᐅᖃᑎᒌᑦ. ᑕᑯᒐᒃᑭᑦ ᖁᐊᒃᑯᕕᖏᑦ ᐃᓗᓕᖃᖏᑦᑐᑦ, ᐃᑲᔪᕈᒪᒐᓗᐊᖅᑐᒋᑦ ᐃᑲᔪᕈᓐᓇᓚᐅᖏᑕᒃᑲ. ᑖᒃᑯᐊ ᐃᓚᒌᑦ ᓂᕿᖃᓗᐊᖅᑐᑦ ᐸᓚᐅᒑᓂᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓂᕿᖏᓐᓂ ᖃᓄᐃᑦᑐᑐᐃᓐᓇᕐᓂᑦ ᑐᓂᓯᔭᐅᒐᐃᒻᒪᑕ. ᐊᑐᖅᑐᐊᕐᓂᐅᔪᖅ ᐊᖏᕋᒥᑦ ᐊᑭᔪᒻᒪᕆᐊᓘᒻᒪᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐊᒥᓲᓂᖅᓴᐃᑦ ᑮᓇᐅᔭᐃᑦ ᐱᖃᑦᑕᖅᑕᖏᑦ ᑖᒃᑯᓄᖓ ᐃᓚᒌᓄᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᑮᓇᐃᐅᔭᓕᐊᕆᕙᑦᑕᖏᑦ ᐊᑐᖅᑐᐊᕈᑎᓅᖅᐸᑦᑐᑦ. ᐊᒥᓱᒐᓚᐃᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᐊᐅᓪᓚᕆᐊᖃᓚᐅᖅᑐᑦ ᐱᔾᔪᑎᒋᓪᓗᒍ ᐊᑭᑐᓗᐊᕐᓂᖓᓄᑦ ᐃᓅᓇᓱᐊᓂᕐᒥᑦ.ᐃᓚᖏᑦ ᕿᒪᐃᓪᓗᑎᑦ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔮᖏᓐᓂᑦ,ᐱᒻᒪᕆᐅᔪᑦ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔮᑦ ᐃᓐᓄᑦᑕᐅᓯᒪᑦᑎᐊᕆᐊᓖᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒥᑦ. ᑭᓯᐊᓂ ᑭᐊ ᐸᓯᔪᓐᓇᖅᐸᖏᑦ ᖃᓪᓗᓈᑦ ᓄᓇᖓᓐᓂ ᓄᓇᖃᖔᕐᓗᑎᑦ, ᑮᓇᐅᔾᔭᓴᖏᓐᓂᖅᓴᐃᑦ, ᑭᓯᐊᓂ ᐃᓅᓇᓱᐊᑦᑎᐊᓂᖅᓴᐃᑦ ᐃᓅᓯᕐᒧᑦ ᐊᑐᕆᐊᓖᑦ ᐊᑭᑭᓐᓂᓴᐅᒻᒪᑕ. ᐃᓱᒪᒋᔭᕋ ᐊᑦᑕᓇᖏᓪᓗᓂ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᕆᓗᒍ ᐊᒥᓱᑦ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᓈᒻᒪᓈᕆᑐᐃᓐᓇᐸᑦᑐᑦ, ᐅᕝᕙᓘᓐᓃᑦ ᐃᓅᓇᓱᐊᓂᕐᒧᑦ ᓈᒻᒪᑐᐃᓐᓇᖅᑐᑦ. ᓂᖀᑦ, ᓂᕿᑦᑎᐊᕙᐃᑦ, ᐱᑕᖃᕆᐊᖃᕐᓗᓂ ᐱᔪᓐᓇᐅᑎᐅᒋᐊᓖᑦ, ᐱᓗᐊᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᐱᕈᖅᐸᓪᓕᐊᔪᓄᑦ ᓱᕈᓯᕐᓄᑦ ᐃᒻᒥᓂᒃ ᓂᕿᒃᑲᓂᒍᓐᓇᖏᑦᑐᓂᑦ. ᓈᒻᒪᖏᑦᑐᖅ ᐃᓄᐃᑦᓄᓇᖃᖅᑐᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᒥᑦ, ᐊᒥᓱᑦ ᑕᐃᒪᐃᒍᒪᓯᒪᖏᑦᑑᒐᓗᐊᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᖅᓯᒪᑦᑎᐊᖏᓐᓂᒃᑯᑦ ᑮᓇᐅᔭᔅᓴᑦᑎᐊᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔮᓂᑦ,ᑕᐃᒪᓐᓇ ᐃᓅᔭᕆᐊᖃᖅᑎᑕᐅᔪᑦ. ᐅᑭᐅᑕᖅᑐᖅ ᓄᓇᑦᑎᐊᕚᓗᒃ. ᐅᕙᓐᓄᑦ ᑭᒡᒐᖅᑐᐃᔪᖅ ᐊᖏᕋᕆᓪᓗᒍ.ᑭᓯᐊᓂ ᐊᑭᑐᓗᐊᖏᓪᓗᓂ ᐃᓅᓇᓱᐊᕐᕕᐅᒋᐊᓕᒃ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐱᕈᖅᓰᓗᓂ ᐃᓚᒌᓂᑦ.

2 Locations in Yellowknife Yellowknife:

867 920-2970 | 867 873-3424

Airport • Downtown

Locally-owned and operated Daily, Weekly & Monthly Rates Insurance Replacement Vehicles Great Weekend Rates Complimentary Customer Pick-Up

Book online at:

www.nationalcar.ca Reservations, Out-of-town and Worldwide Toll-Free

1 800 387-4747 12

arcticjournal.ca

May/June 2013

Iceberg Magic

As chunks of ice collapsed from this iceberg, the newly formed bergy bits floated away with the current.

A Scenic Pictorial Text and photos by Lee Narraway

14

arcticjournal.ca

May/June

This stunning iceberg gleams in the spring sunshine off the North Baffin Coast. Already cracks have begun to appear in the ice that traps it and soon it will be released again to drift with the winds and currents.

May/June

above & beyond

15

This beautiful iceberg photographed near Qikiqtarjuaq, Nunavut, had recently rolled over to reveal a magnificent sculpture carved by the passage of time and ocean currents.

As I wandered through a garden of icebergs stranded at low tide in Frobisher Bay, Nunavut, I could do nothing but marvel at the dramatic colourations and the translucent textures of the ice.

Icebergs, though floating indiscriminately in the timeless currents of salty seas, curiously provide one of the finest, purest (tastiest) sources of freshwater on the planet.

It was a tight squeeze to crawl beneath this iceberg but the effort was worth the view. The silence was incredible!

16

above & beyond

May/June

As we circled this iceberg in a zodiac, the shape and shadows shifted constantly creating new views.

A land-striped iceberg drifts casually along the coast of Baffin Island, Nunavut.

While sitting beside a relaxing naturally formed hot-spring pool, I was able to watch this iceberg slowly float by. Uunartoq, Greenland.

May/June

Icebergs come in an unending variety of shapes and textures. Though they may on occasion defy description, they never fail to fuel one’s imagination.

above & beyond

17

This iceberg appeared through the fog as we travelled by skidoo on the frozen ocean.

Back in time when I sailed for six weeks with a group of scientists on the Davis and Nares Strait, I became addicted to icebergs. Icebergs have since become an utterly incurable photographic passion.

18

arcticjournal.ca

May/June

This may be the most scenic picnic spot I have ever seen. Ilulissat, Greenland.

A lone Antarctic iceberg adrift frames yet another drifting behind and this magnificent ice portal is created and ready to be captured by my lens.

A towering iceberg dwarfs our zodiac.

May/June

A blue iceberg, created from an ancient glacier, drifts slowly by near Ilulissat, Greenland.

above & beyond

19

20

arcticjournal.ca

May/June

LIVING ABOVE & BEYOND

The Puvirnituq Snow Festival This fun-filled event celebrates the return of the sun and the end of the long winter solstice and includes amongst its activities, traditional games and competitions, music, dance and artistic performances, and snow carving for all ages.

Held every two years in Puvirnituq, Nunavik, the festival marks a time for all in the community to come out to take part. This year

theme “Revitalizing Soapstone Sculpture”.

Alasuak Amittuq and his wife Leah hold hands over the work of art that they carved out of snow during their hometown’s Snow Festival.

© ISABELLE DUBOIS

the Puvirnituq Snow Festival was held March 25 to 30 under the

Nunavut to represent Canada in Venice On March 26th, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada jointly announced that the Nunavut’s submission titled,“Arctic Adaptations: Nunavut at 15” has been selected to represent Canada at the prestigious international architectural forum — the 2014 Venice Biennale in Architecture.

“As Nunavut celebrates its 15th anniversary in 2014, ‘Arctic Adaptations’ will present innovative architecture proposals rooted in

May/June 2013

Nunavut’s distinct land, climate and culture, reflecting local traditions of migration, mobility and seasonality. It will also explore how, in light of dramatic environmental, social and economic forces that are transforming the Arctic today, architecture might help nurture robust, prosperous and vibrant Northern communities.”

For more detailed online information on the Nunavut representation go to: www.arcticadaptations.ca

above & beyond

21

© PIERRE DUNNIGAN

LIVING ABOVE & BEYOND

Sirmilik “place of glaciers.”

Park operations centre opens Eastern Arctic Canada’s jewel of nature and eastern gateway to the Northwest Passage, Sirmilik National Park, (est. 2001), is a vast natural preserve (22,000 square kilometres) located in the northern reaches of the Qikiqtaaluk (North Baffin) region of Nunavut.

The park encompasses lands around the Hamlet of Pond Inlet and includes the birder

paradise, Bylot Island.The area is widely renowned for its pristine Arctic eco-systems and memorably dramatic and diverse topography. As advertised, this “place of glaciers” offers some of the finest hiking, boating and kayaking, birding and Arctic wildlife viewing experiences on the continent.

Though hosting relatively few visitors on a yearly basis, April 10, 2013, marked a milestone

for the park and Pond Inlet with the official opening of the Sirmilik National Park Operations Centre. Significant to the hamlet and the park’s future, the Centre will provide an established base for Parks Canada operations in the region and a “first point of connection for visitors to the national park.”

Cyber atlases map Nunavut in native language Most official maps of Nunavut contain huge areas of unnamed land.

That will be changing in the near future as geographer, Dr. Fraser Taylor, from Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, helps Inuit map these areas. Using free software that he invented, places around Inuit communities can now be officially identified with traditional, Inuktitut names.

22

arcticjournal.ca

With a $516,323 grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and an expected matching grant from the Ontario government, Taylor hopes to help other communities preserve their places and oral traditions as well. Check out the online tool at nunaliit.org.

May/June 2013

Nunavut Commissioner presents arts award Veronique Nirlungayuk from Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, has received the first “Performing Arts Award” from Nunavut’s Commissioner.

“Veronique Nirlungayuk has made a major contribution to the arts, as a drum dancer, an artist, an Inuit doll maker and a writer,” said the Honourable Edna Elias.

As well as the cash prize of $10,000, Nirlungayuk will receive a certificate and the Commissioner’s medallion.

Facility allows researchers to grow sea ice A one-of-a-kind Arctic research facility opened in Winnipeg in March at the

Devoted to excellence W5txoi3u4 WoExc6g5 Executive & Business Suites ˆmJo1i4 gJ3u8Fø5

Renowned Licensed Dining

University of Manitoba campus. The facility

Listed in “Where to Eat in Canada”

includes a sea ice tank where researchers

Free Wireless Internet, Business Services

can grow sea ice under controlled conditions,

In-room Coffee & Cable TV sçMstø5\hv5g4f5

specialized cold rooms and research labs that look at all aspects of the Arctic system

Conference Facilities vtm4Fc6g5

and how it’s functioning.

X˛yu4 x4/6gw0Jtø5

The Nellie Cournoyea Arctic Research Facility was named after the first female premier of a Canadian territory.

May/June 2013

Complimentary Shuttle

Tel: (867) 979-4433 Fax: (867) 979-6591

stay@discoverylodge.com www.discoverylodge.com

IQALUIT, NUNAVUT above & beyond

23

The 2013 Great Northern Canada Writing Contest

DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES AUGUST 31, 2013!

To enter, submit a piece of prose, either fiction or non-fiction, of up to 1,000 words about life in the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut or Nunavik.

Previously published items are not eligible.

Entries should be typed and double-spaced with the title, but not your name, on each numbered page. Please submit a separate cover sheet with your name, address, phone number, email address, word count and whether your piece is fiction or non-fiction.

Entries must be mailed to: Great Northern Canada Writing Contest Box 1256, Yellowknife NT X1A 2N9

Or emailed as a WORD attachment to: info@northwordsnwt.ca with CONTEST ENTRY in the subject line. Please do not put your story in the body of the email.

Deadline is August 31, 2013.

That means they must be postmarked by that date.

First Prize is $500 and publication in above&beyond, Canada’s Arctic Journal Special Emerging Writer Prize of $250 and publication in above&beyond, Canada’s Arctic Journal, for writers who have never been published for payment.

To qualify, identify yourself “emerging writer” on the cover sheet you submit with your entry.

Winners will be announced in Fall, 2013.

For more information go to:

www.northwordsnwt.ca

The following are not eligible: Staff and contractors of above&beyond magazine and their families, writers who have been published in above&beyond, Canada’s Arctic Journal in the last five years, organizers and paid staff of the NorthWords Writers Festival and their families.

24

arcticjournal.ca

May/June 2013

© above&beyond/PIERRE DUNNIGAN

LIVING ABOVE & BEYOND

Polar bear proposal defeated at CITES A proposal to transfer polar bears from Appendix II to Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of

Nunavik Inuit honoured

Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) was defeated by the member nations of the treaty at the CITES Conference in March. The proposal, submitted for consideration by the United States, garnered intense debate primarily due to opposition from Canada, Greenland, and Norway, all of which are range states for polar bears.

Appendix I includes species threatened with extinction and includes restrictions on commercial trade. Appendix II includes species that, although currently not threatened with extinction, may become so without trade controls.

Several Nunavik Inuit were honoured for acts of bravery during Makivik Corporation’s annual general meeting in Kangiqsujuaq in March.

Sandy Kauki, nine, of Kuujjuaq, saved his friend Andrew Gunn Watt from drowning near the Koksoak River. Ten-year-old Joadamie Inukpuk of Inukjuak helped to safely bring Qatjakaa Aupaluktuk from the Inukjuak River. William Tuukak of Kangiqsujuaq saved Minnie Alaku from drowning when she lost her snowmobile in the lake outside Kangiqsujuaq. Noah Elijassiapik pulled Jessica Qumak from the Inukjuak River and Simeonie Ohaituk performed CPR to revive her successfully.

Louisa Annahatak, Sarah Annahatak and Winnie Grey, all of Kangirsuk, helped Jimmy Annahatak escape a burning cabin near Kangirsuk.

Elsie Adams, widow of singer/songwriter Charlie Adams, also received a special lifetime award for her late husband’s contributions.

May/June 2013

above & beyond

25

26

arcticjournal.ca

May/June 2013

LIVING ABOVE & BEYOND

© LEE NARRAWAY

Camel bones discovered in the North

Ellesmere Island, the fossil-rich area of Canada’s High Arctic, has yielded yet another treasure. Thirty small fragments collected by palaeobiologist Natalia Rybczynski have turned out to be the mummified remains of a camel.

This is the most northerly discovery of camel bones on the planet.

Rybczynski estimates the animal would be a giant compared to the modern day camel. It stood 2.7 metres tall and weighed about 900 kilograms. This species would have likely been one-humped, grown a thick coat in the winter and eventually crossed the Bering land bridge to settle in the deserts.

Because the bone fragments were mummified, rather than fossilized, an accurate timedating method using collagen testing could be used.This proved that camels lived in Strathcona Fiord during the Pliocene era, 3.5 million years ago. Previous fossil discoveries indicated that beaver, three-toed horse, deerlet and a relative of the bear also lived here then.

“At that time, this area would have been more like a boreal forest, dominated by larch,

peat and wetlands,” said Rybczynski, “and the average yearly temperature would have been about 0° C.” During the mid-Pliocene era, when global temperatures were 2° C to 3° C warmer, fossil evidence from Strathcona Fiord indicates it was 14° C to 22° C warmer there than present day. Current climate models predict that within 100 years, there will be a similar global temperature increase of two degrees. Perhaps the accurate time-dating information obtained from these ancient ancestors of modern camels will provide scientists with a historical analogue to help them better understand the implications of a warming climate.

Guardian of the Deep The second annual Long John Jamboree held in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, in March was a success again this year with the De Beers Canada Inspired Ice Carving Championship bigger and better than last year’s. Eleven teams from around North America entered the event this year.

The winner of the first place prize went to Chan Kitburi of Lake Stevens, Washington, and Dean Murray of Kiel, Wisconsin. They received a trophy and a cash prize. Their ice sculpture, Guardian of the Deep, also won the Carvers’ Choice Award.

© DE BEERS

Glen Koropchuk, De Beers Chief Operating Officer, (right) and Ken Diederich, Lead Judge, (left) congratulate Dean Murray and Chan Kitburi, whose piece Guardian of the Deep won the top prize in the 2013 De Beers Inspired Ice NWT Ice Carving Championship.

May/June 2013

above & beyond

27

LIVING ABOVE & BEYOND

Grand Winners of the 2013 Quebec Aboriginal Science Fair

The 2013 Quebec Aboriginal Science Fair took place on March 19-20, 2013, at the Jaanimmarik School in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik.

The event brought together over a hundred aboriginal youth from elementary and secondary schools of First Nations, and Inuit communities of Quebec. In Kuujjuaq, they presented scientific projects they had developed to compete for best project awards.

Inukjuak’s Innalik School, was awarded the Scientific Development Special Award, for Sarah Khan’s project. Khan’s project looked at

© COURTESY KATIVIK SCHOOL BOARD

what can be found on the surface of selected objects.

(L-R) Anne Sequaluk, Lukasi Tukkiapik, Jeremy Davies (all from Kuujjuaq) and Zainab Souit from Chisasibi, were the grand winners of the 2013 Quebec Aboriginal Science Fair announced on March 20th. They will represent the “Aboriginal Quebec Autochtone” region at the 2013 Canada-wide Science Fair in Lethbridge, Alberta, May 11-18, 2013.

© HARRY WINSTON

Resource roundup

Rough diamonds from the Diavik Diamond Mine.

28

arcticjournal.ca

As Areva Resources continues the regulatory process to get permission to open Nunavut’s first uranium mine, workers have been moving materials to the Kiggavik site near Baker Lake.

Areva will continue test drilling for uranium this summer with about 35 people expected to work at the site starting about June 10.

TMAC Resources has acquired the Hope Bay gold project from Newmont Mining Corp.

The Hope Bay project covers an 80-kilometre greenstone belt in Nunavut that is believed to hold at least nine million ounces of gold.

The next steps include a pre-feasibility study targeted for mid 2013 and obtaining the

required permits and equipment to bring the Doris North mine into operation.

Dominion Diamond Corporation, formerly Harry Winston, acquired 80 per cent interest in NWT’s Ekati mine in April for just over half a billion dollars. That makes them a major player in the Canadian diamond scene, also owning 40 per cent of Rio Tinto’s Diavik mine.

The Ekati mine expects to be in production for another seven years though Dominion hopes to look for more diamond discoveries in the area. The company plans to move its head office to Yellowknife.

May/June 2013

ARCTIC CLIMATE CHANGE Geological Investigations into an Ancient Arctic Greenhouse Climate

by Claudia Schröder-Adams

T

he Arctic summer field season is a short one. A team of dedicated students from Carleton University’s Earth Sciences Department have accompanied me into the field for the last four years, to spend a few short weeks unravelling

the ancient climate history as imprinted in the rocks of the High Arctic. With just two to three weeks available to us, we came prepared

to work quickly looking for evidence of climate change at the top of the world through an examination of marine fossils.

We witnessed extensive glacier melt during our summer field season in 2011 at the head of Glacier Fiord, southern Axel Heiberg Island, noting that fresh rock outcrops had become exposed. These exposed rocks tell a story of an ancient Arctic region that was icefree during summers with much warmer average temperatures than today. Extensive sedimentary sections along the glacier’s erosional © J. HERRLE

path date back to a geological time period called the Cretaceous

30

(145 to 65 million years ago). arcticjournal.ca

May/June

The author and graduate student Adam Pugh in front of a retreating glacier exposing fresh rock surfaces at Glacier Fiord, Axel Heiberg Island.

May/June

above & beyond

31

Š C. SCHRÖDER-ADAMS (4)

Aerial view of the widespread muddy landscape on Ellef Ringnes Island.

Our supplies for the next three weeks are delivered by helicopter sling.

32

arcticjournal.ca

Earth climate history can be divided into greenhouse and icehouse conditions depending on the absence or presence of continental glaciers. By using this qualifier our present climate is in icehouse conditions and the Cretaceous Period was in greenhouse conditions.

The Cretaceous was a unique time during earth history where our planet was shaped by extensive formation of mid-oceanic ridges, intense volcanism and high levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases that resulted in temperature maxima. At times these processes created a nearly ice-free globe with high sea levels flooding large continental segments. These marine sedimentary records with their fossil content tell the story of a much different earth than the one we know today.

It is that marine record that my team is here to examine.

Polar regions are most sensitive to climate change. Ice-free poles will trigger changes in marine water column structure by delivering large amounts of freshwater to oceans due to glacier melting. This lowers salinity in surface waters causing watermass stratification to which marine organisms have to respond. For example, organisms that are stenohaline, which means adapted to a narrow salinity range, are more likely to become extinct, as salinities will inevitably change. Increased CO2 uptake in marine waters can ultimately lead to ocean acidification that in turn will be detrimental to marine organisms that secrete calcium carbonate to build their shells. This will open up niches for organisms with siliceous tests such as diatoms, which are microscopic algae made out of biogenic silica, or radiolaria, which are microscopic zooplankton. As ice covers melt earlier in the spring or retreat completely, summer primary productivity explodes, sending large amounts of organic matter to the seafloor for burial. As stratified oceans inhibit the vertical transfer of oxygen from the surface to the seafloor, benthic environments suffer from the lack of oxygen and biological communities living on the

May/June

seafloor collapse. These environmental changes are predictions for a future Arctic Ocean if the current trend to warmer temperatures continues.

Can the Cretaceous rocks in the Arctic Polar Region serve as an analogue to better predict future environmental changes? We believe they can, although let’s not forget that all Cretaceous climate drivers were unaffected by humans because our species was not around yet. Two summer field seasons have been devoted to studying the Cretaceous record on beautiful Axel Heiberg Island and desolate Ellef Ringnes Island and have shed light on an Arctic region where trees once grew and oceans were ice-free during summer months. These sedimentary records are part of the Sverdrup Basin, a sedimentary basin that holds the answer to more than 250 million years of Arctic paleoenvironmental changes that are preserved in the rock record. During Cretaceous time this basin had its deepest parts where Ellef Ringnes and Amund Ringnes islands are now situated, whereas the Axel Heiberg study locality reflects a shallower marine shelf setting of that ancient sea.

Ellef Ringnes Island has relatively flat topography and large areas are covered by indistinct black mud giving the uninhabited island a forbidding appearance. Those muddy sections were, of course, our target since they reflect the upper Cretaceous seafloor of the ancient Sverdrup Basin. After finding our camp spot, tents were set up, radio antenna assembled and our kitchen dome tent became our home when the weather turned nasty. During a routine radio check-up we were told that we had to ration our water because of a helicopter breakdown at the main camp of the Geological Survey of Canada. As this was well beyond walking distance, we resorted to gathering snow from the tops of our tents to melt as valuable drinking water since local creeks were salty due to contamination from salt domes on the island.

As we started piecing our sedimentary sections together, often stuck knee-deep in mud, we doubted how such a miserable environment, where barely a bird was sighted, could deliver any good science. Now two years after our journey and with the dedicated research of my two graduate students Julie Andrews and Adam Pugh we know we had chosen the right place. A multidisciplinary approach of studying several fossil groups augmented with geochemical analyses unravelled a complex paleoenvironmental history of the Late Cretaceous ocean that might serve as an ancient analogue to a future Arctic Ocean.

With great anticipation, the following year we travelled to Axel Heiberg Island where we had hoped to find the entire Cretaceous rock record. Polar Continental Shelf flew us in a Twin Otter to Sherwood Head, our landing spot at the mouth of Glacier Fiord. A helicopter delivered us to the head of the fiord allowing a bird’s eye view of a spectacular glaciated landscape under sunny skies. The added bonus of 24 hours of daylight made for long work days and occasionally provided opportunities to observe the habits of a herd of musk oxen that kept their distance. I am sure they claimed back their green pastures as soon as we left. Our camp was set up at the foot of one of the glaciers that

Camp move: Attaching the net underneath the hovering helicopter was always a stressful moment.

Cretaceous outcrop at the head of Glacier Fiord, Axel Heiberg Island and our camp locality with majestic views.

May/June

above & beyond

33

© C. SCHRÖDER-ADAMS

Our camp on Ellef Ringnes Island on a good day.

© JENS HERRLE

was retreating before our very eyes. The melt provided the most delicious drinking water I have ever sampled.

The fresh rock outcrops in the vicinity of the glaciers are the sort that geologists cherish for field investigations. We went to work with immense enthusiasm. After measuring a section of nearly three kilometres in length we had enough sample material for years of study. Careful field observations already revealed an interesting Cretaceous Arctic landscape that was shaped by large sea-level changes and varying climate. The lower Cretaceous is dominated by sandstones that reflect an ancient large delta where coal beds testify to rich vegetation at the time. Large chunks of petrified wood attest to trees in the area, which are completely unknown in the modern icehouse Arctic. The lower Cretaceous section contains multiple beds of so-called glendonites, a pseudomorph of the mineral ikaite. These tweaked our interest because ikaite is a calcium carbonate mineral that forms under near freezing temperatures on muddy seafloors and therefore becomes a paleoclimate indicator. Sure enough, as we moved towards the upper Cretaceous sections and geological time that globally reflect a temperature maximum, these crystals disappeared telling us that the Late Cretaceous global warming affected the Arctic as well.

Fossils are a testament to ancient ecosystems and their animal and plant inhabitants.

Microscopic life is a great indicator for paleoenvironmental reconstructions because they are usually abundant and widely spread in ocean basins allowing for stratigraphic correlations between different sites. As we then compare time-equivalent fossil and sedimentary records from Ellef Ringnes and Axel Heiberg islands, we are able to correlate times of high surface productivity and times when no oxygen remained on the seafloor preventing animals living on the seafloor to thrive. As predicted for a future warmer Arctic Ocean, the warm upper Cretaceous deep Polar ocean as exposed on Ellef Ringnes Island was barren of calcium carbonate but rich in siliceous planktic organisms in the form of diatoms and radiolaria. In contrast to the stratified deep offshore regions, the shelf regions of that ancient basin, as documented in Axel Heiberg Island sections, remained oxygenated due to storms mixing the water column and allowing benthic life to prevail.

Our two field seasons have delivered a wealth of information about ancient climate conditions of the Arctic and biotic responses to a much warmer Arctic Ocean. While we cannot forget the contribution humans have made to the warming trend of our current climate, the geological rock record tells a story of constant and inevitable climate change with periods of warmer and colder climates than today.

As with most scientific studies, our work has left us with more questions to ask and more answers to find. We hope to return in the summer of 2014 for another exciting field season in the High Arctic looking for more stories the rocks can unveil.

The author collects samples from an ancient seafloor for microfossil analysis.

34

arcticjournal.ca

Claudia J. Schröder-Adams is a Professor with the Department of Earth Sciences at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario.

May/June

36

arcticjournal.ca

May/June

ᔮᓂ ᐊᖏᕐᕋᑦᑕᕆᐊᓕᒃ ᓄᑖᒥᒃ

Johnny Needs A New Home Beacon of Hope for Inuktitut Programming

© COURTESY INUIT BROADCASTING CORPORATION

by Ann Meekitjuk Hanson | ᑎᑎᕋᖅᑐᖅ ᐊᓂ ᒥᑭᔾᔪᒃ ᕼᐋᓐᓴᓐ

May/June

above & beyond

37

t stood there, alone, high on top of a three-legged pole in the middle of the room. We, the community workers, volunteers and social workers were invited for the unveiling of this object. People sat in chairs or stood against the wall in anticipation, not saying a word. We just stared at it. We were told it was a video camera. This was in the winter 1970.

Prior to this, there had been filmmakers coming up to make copy of us, direct us to do this and that, say this and that and smile. We admired the film makers and some of them even showed us how their cameras worked. The first time we were taught formally through workshops about filmmaking was when National Film Board sent their filmmakers. I remember Wolfe Koenig, well known animator and later Peter Raymont, teaching us how to operate a huge camera. It was fun, exciting, fresh and very enticing.

Ajiliurijuq means “to make copy”. Ajiliuriji means a “taker of pictures” or “filmmaker”. The word aji simply means “a copy”. When we add descriptive suffixes at the end of the word aji, its meaning becomes active, alive and motivating.

I

38

arcticjournal.ca

ᑕ

ᐃᑦᓱᒪᓃᓛᒃ ᑕᑯᓐᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᒐᑦᑕ ᐊᒥᓲᓪᓗᑕ ᐃᑲᔪᖅᑏᑦ ᐃᓄᓕᕆᔩᑦ. ᖃᐃᖁᔭᐅᓯᓪᒪᓗᑕ ᑕᑯᓂᐊᕋᑦᑕᒎᖅ: ᐊᒥᓲᒐᑦᑕ ᓂᓐᓂᐅᒐᓚᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔪᒍᑦ ᐃᓪᓗᕈᓯᕐᒥ ᐃᓚᖏᑦ ᐃᑦᓯᕚᖅᑐᑦ ᐃᓚᖏᓪᓗ ᓂᑯᕕᖓᔪᑦ ᐊᑭᓐᓇᒥ. ᐅᖃᐅᔾᔭᐅᓯᕗᒍᑦ ᑖᓐᓇ ᑕᑯᓐᓇᖅᑕᕗᑦ ᐊᔾᔨᓕᐅᕈᒡᒎᖅ ᐊᐅᓚᔪᖅ. 1970ᖑᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᐅᑭᐅᒃᑯᑦ. ᐅᕙᓯᐊᕈᒋᐊᑳᓂᖅ ᐊᔾᔨᓕᐅᕆᔩᑦ ᐊᐅᓚᔪᓕᐅᖅᑏᑦ ᑎᑭᖃᑦᑕᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᒻᒪᑕ ᐊᔾᔨᓕᐅᕆᔭᖅᑐᖅᑐᑎᒃ ᐃᓄᓐᓂᒃ. ᑐᓵᑦᓯᐊᕕᔾᔪᐊᖃᑦᑕᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᒐᑦᑕ ᖃᓄᑐᐃᓐᓇᖅ ᖃᓄᐃᓕᐅᖁᔭᐅᒐᑦᑕ ᖁᖓᓪᓗᑕᓗᒎᖅ. ᐊᐅᓚᔪᓕᐅᖅᑎ

May/June

May/June

© COURTESY INUIT BROADCASTING CORPORATION (4)

Inuit Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) was created by active people in the early 1970s. There were many reasons that gave its ultimate creation purpose. There were motivating factors such as social issues, history, education, culture, health, saving our Inuktitut language, passing on Inuit survival skills, community events and current affairs. IBC opened an important new door to sharing more North-relevant information and stimulated ideas. It empowered people.

The plusses were many. IBC provided entirely new, more culturally relevant (and sensitive) avenues of entertainment and humour. It aroused creativity and the interest to explore subjects in the comfort of using our own language without the need for translation. It’s creation gave Inuit a wonderful new tool to entice our young people to take part in learning their mother tongue, learn more about their culture, and to make a connection to the unwritten knowledge of the elders. IBC fast became a bright new beacon of hope.

All of us — Inuit Broadcasting’s Inuit audience —cared little for and did not know much about what went on behind the doors in political realms regarding IBC and government funding agencies, as long as we were getting Inuktitut programming, be it good or bad (subjective).

At last, we had control of some television content. The television shows that came about, the things we watched were finally our own; created, produced, directed and viewed by our own people. This was a very new concept 40 years ago. Moreover, it meant a near beyond belief opportunity not previously imagined. We could only say to each other, “Inuit ajungilat,” meaning “Inuit are so able.”

One long-time IBC employee, Henry Naulaq, remembers the early training he received in television production as the ultimate inspiration, saying “everything was new and exciting.” He had never really paid attention to time before [as in minutes or seconds] but now declares “timing is everything” at least in television production.

Over his 30-some years working in Inuktitut language television production, Henry recalls with fond, wondrous memories three very special places on this planet, Axel Heiberg Island, Africa and Ukkusiksalik [Wager Bay, Nunavut].

This beloved, now famous Inuk cameraman told me, “Axel Heiberg Island is eerie and mysterious because no human beings live there, it’s just so quiet and vast.” Recalling his trip to Africa for IBC, his tone saddens as he describes the people he saw. He well remembers the starving people. The smell of starvation still lingers with him today.

As a cameraman, Henry has a keen eye and he pays attention to every detail, but when he tries to describe Ukkusiksalik, Wager Bay, he is temporarily at a loss for words.

We finally came up with kajaanaqtuq, an Inuktitut word that is almost impossible to comprehensively translate into English.

ᐱᕕᐊᕆᕙᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔭᕗᑦ. ᐃᓚᖏᑦ ᐊᔪᕆᖅᓱᐃᕙᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᖃᓄᖅ ᑖᓐᓇ ᐊᔾᔨᓕᐅᕈᑦ ᐊᐅᓚᓲᖑᒻᒪᖔᖅ. ᐃᖅᑲᐅᒪᓗᐊᖅᑕᒃᑲ Wolfe Koenig, ᑲᓇᑕᐅᑉ ᐊᐅᓚᔫᓕᐅᖅᑎᖏᓐᓂ ᐃᓚᒋᔭᐅᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᐊᒻᒪ Peter Raymont. ᑖᒃᑯᐊ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᑎᑦᓯᓚᕆᓚᐅᕐᓯᒻᒪᔾᔪᒃ ᓯᕗᓪᓕᖅᐹᖑᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᐊᐅᓚᔪᓕᐅᕐᓂᕐᒥᒃ. ᖁᕕᐊᓇᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᓄᑖᖑᓪᓗᓂ ᐊᒻᒪ ᑲᔪᓯᒋᐊᕈᒥᓇᖅᑐᓂ. ᑕᒪᒃᑯᐊ ᐊᔾᔨᓕᐅᕈᑏᑦ ᐊᐅᓚᔪᓕᐅᕈᑏᑦ ᖃᓄᑐᐃᓐᓇᖅ ᐊᑐᖅᑐᒋᑦ ᐆᒻᒪᐃᓲᖑᒻᒪᑕ ᖃᓄᐃᑦᑐᑐᐃᓐᓇᕐᓂᒃ ᐅᓂᒃᑳᓂᒃ. ᑕᑯᑦᓴᕈᐃᓪᓗᑎᓪᓗ ᑕᑯᒐᔭᓐᖏᑕᑦᑎᓐᓂᒃ. ᑕᐸᐃᖅᑎᑦᓯᒍᓐᓇᖅᑐᑎᓪᓗ. ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᑕᑯᓐᓇᕋᑦᓴᓕᕆᔩᑦ ᑲᓇᑕᒥ, IBC ᓴᖅᑭᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᒻᒪᑕ ᓱᓕ 1970ᑏᑦ ᐊᑐᖅᑎᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᑕᐃᒃᑯᓄᖓ ᐃᓄᓐᓄᑦ ᐊᐅᓚᑦᓯᒋᐊᖅᓯᒪᔪᓄᑦ ᓱᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᕐᓂᒃ. ᐊᒥᓲᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᒻᒪᑕ ᓴᖅᑭᕈᑎᑦᓴᑦ, ᐅᑯᐊ ᐃᓚᖏᑦ: ᐃᓅᓯᓕᕆᓂᖅ, ᑐᓴᐅᒪᔭᐅᒋᐊᓖᑦ, ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᖅᑐᓕᕆᓂᖅ, ᐃᓕᖅᑯᓯᓕᕆᓂᖅ, ᐋᓐᓂᐊᖃᖅᑕᐃᓕᓂᖅ, ᐃᓄᑦᑎᑑᕈᒪᓂᖅ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᒃᑯᑦ ᐃᓕᖅᑯᓯᓄᓪᓗ, ᐃᓅᓇᓱᐊᕐᓂᖅ, ᒐᕙᒪᓕᕆᓂᖅ, ᑖᒃᑯᐊ IBC-ᑯᑦ ᒪᑐᐃᖅᓯᓯᒪᕗᑦ ᓱᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᕐᓂᒃ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐅᕙᑦᑎᓐᓄᑦ ᐃᓄᓐᓄᑦ ᑐᕌᕐᔫᒥᔪᓂᒃ ᑕᑯᔭᐅᑎᑦᓯᒋᐊᓐᖓᖅᓯᒪᕗᑦ. ᐃᓱᒪᑎᑦᓯᓯᒪᓪᓗᑎᓪᓗ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᑦᓴᓂᒃ. ᓄᑭᑖᖅᓯᒪᓂᖅᓴᐅᓕᖅᐳᒍᑦ. ᐊᒥᓲᕗᑦ ᐊᑦᓱᕉᑎᖏᑦ. IBC-ᑯᑦ ᑕᑯᑦᓴᐅᑎᑦᓯᒋᐊᖅᓯᒪᕗᑦ ᐃᓄᓐᓄᑦ ᑐᕌᕐᔫᒥᔪᓂᒃ ᐊᑦᑐᐃᓯᒪᓪᓗᑎᓪᓗ. ᐊᒻᒪ ᓱᐃᓛᕿᒍᑎᓂᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᔪᕐᓇᖅᑐᓂᒃ ᐃᔪᖅᓴᑐᓂᓪᓗ ᐃᓄᑦᑎᑐᓪᓚᕆᒃ. ᐃᓄᓐᓃᖔᓪᓚᕆᑦᑐᓂᓪᓗ ᐊᑐᖅᑐᑎᒃ ᐊᑲᕐᕆᔮᖅᑐᑎᒃ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᕐᒥᒍᑦ. ᐊᒻᒪ ᐊᑐᖅᑕᐅᑎᑦᓯᒋᐊᒃᑲᓂᖃᑦᑕᖅᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᑦᑎᓐᓂᒃ ᖃᓂᑦᓴᓂᖅᓴᐅᓕᖅᑐᑕ ᐃᓐᓇᑎᓐᓂᒃ ᐃᓄᑐᖃᐅᓂᖅᓴᓂᒃ ᐃᓕᕝᕕᒋᓗᒋᓪᓗ. IBC ᓇᓗᓇᐃᒃᑯᑕᕆᕙᕗᖅ ᐃᓄᒃᓱᒃᑎᑐᑦ.

above & beyond

39

ᑕᑯᓐᓇᖅᑎᐅᔪᒍᑦ ᖃᐅᔨᒪᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᓐᖏᓇᑦᑕ ᓱᓇᑦ ᐅᖃᓕᒪᐅᑕᐅᑕᒻᒪᖔᑕ ᒐᕙᒃᑯᓐᓄᑦ IBC ᐱᓪᓗᒍ ᐊᒻᒪ ᖃᓄᐃᑦᓴᕋᑕᓗ. ᑕᑯᓐᓈᖅᑕᓚᐅᑐᐊᕈᑦᑕ ᐃᓄᑦᑎᑑᖅᑐᓂᑦ ᑕᓚᕖᓴᒃᑯᑦ. ᐃᓄᑦᑎᑑᒐᓚᑐᐊᖅᐸᑕ. ᐊᑐᐃᓐᓇᐅᓕᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᒻᒪᑦ ᑕᒪᓐᓇ ᐊᒍᕈᒪᔭᕗᑦ ᑕᑯᑦᓴᐅᑎᑦᓯᓂᖅ ᓴᓇᔭᒥᓂᑦᑎᓐᓂᒃ ᓇᒻᒥᓂᑦᑎᓐᓂᒃ. ᑕᒪᓐᓇᐃᓛᒃ ᓄᑖᖑᕕᔾᔪᐊᖑᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᒻᒪᑦ. ᑕᐸᐃᖅᓯᒪᓪᓗᑕᓗ ᐅᕙᑎᓂ ᐃᓄᓐᓂᒃ. ᐃᒪᐃᓕᕙᒍᑐᓗ, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᐊᔪᓐᖏᓚᑦ. ᑖᓐᓇ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᑕᑯᓐᓇᕋᑦᓴᓕᕆᔨᒃᑯᖏᑦ ᑲᓇᑕᒥ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᖅᑎᐅᓕᖅᑐᖅ ᐊᑯᓂᐅᓂᖅᐹᖅ ᕼᐊᐃᓐᓇᓕ ᓇᐅᓪᓚᖅ ᐃᖅᑲᐅᒪᔪᖅ ᑕᐃᑦᓱᒪᓂᒎᖅ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᖅᑎᑕᐅᕙᓕᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᒻᒪᑕ ᖃᓄᑐᐃᓐᓇᖅ ᑕᓚᕖᓴᒃᑯᑦ ᑕᑯᑦᓴᐅᔪᑦᓴᓂᑦ ᓴᓇᒋᐅᖅᓴᓂᕐᒥᒃ. ᐃᒪᐃᓕᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᑲᔪᓯᒍᒥᓇᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᑕᑭᓂᖓ ᓇᐃᓐᓂᖓ ᑖᑦᓱᒪ ᓴᓇᔭᐅᓂᖓ ᑕᑯᑦᓴᐅᔪᑦᓴᐅᑉ ᑕᓚᕖᓴᒃᑯᑦ. ᑕᐃᒪᓐᖓᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᑦ 30ᐅᖓᑖᓅᓕᖅᑐᑦ ᑖᓐᓇ ᕼᐊᐃᓐᓇᓕ ᓴᓇᔨᐅᑎᓪᓗᒍ ᑕᑯᑦᓴᐅᔪᑦᓴᓂᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐃᖅᑲᐅᒪᔭᖃᖅᑐᓂ ᐊᒥᓱᓂᑦ. ᐅᑯᐊ ᐱᓗᐊᖅᑐᒥᒃ ᑕᐃᓐᓇ ᖁᑦᓯᓂᖅᐹᒥᒃ ᓯᓚᕐᔪᐊᒥ ᕿᑭᖅᑕᐸᐅᔮᓗᒃ ᐃᓄᖃᓐᖏᑦᑐᐊᓗᒃ, ᕿᓐᓂᖅᑕᐃᑦ ᓄᓇᖓ ᐅᖅᑰᔪᖅ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐅᒃᑯᓯᑦᓴᓕᒃ ᓄᓇᕗᒻᒦᑦᑐᖅ. ᐊᔾᔨᓕᐅᕆᔨᕗᑦ ᓇᒻᒥᓂᕗᑦ ᐅᓂᒃᑳᕆᐊᖃᓐᓂᖅᐳᖅ, “ᑕᐃᓐᓇ ᖁᑦᓯᓂᖅᐹᒥᒃ ᓯᓚᕐᔪᐊᒥ ᐃᓄᖃᓐᖏᓯᐊᕐᒪᑦ ᐅᐱᓐᓇᕋᓂ ᓂᐱᖃᖅᑐᖃᓐᖏᓚᖅ ᓂᖃᑐᐊᓗᒃ.” ᐊᒻᒪ ᕿᓐᓂᖅᑕᐃᑦ ᓄᓈᓗᐊ ᐅᖅᑰᔪᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᖅᑲᐅᒪᔭᖓ ᐃᒫᒃ: “ᑕᑯᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔭᒃᑲ ᑕᐅᑐᓐᖑᐊᖅᐸᑦᑕᒃᑲ ᑳᑦᑐᐊᓗᐃᑦ ᐊᒥᓱᐊᓗᐃᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᑎᐱᖏᑦ ᓇᐃᒪᓗᒍ ᓱᓕ ᐅᓪᓗᒥ ᑳᒃᓱᓐᓂᐊᓗᒃ.” ᐊᔾᔨᓕᐅᕆᔨᐅᒐᒥ ᕼᐊᐃᓇᓕ ᐅᐱᓐᓇᕋᓂ ᐅᔾᔨᖅᓱᓲᖑᕗᖅ ᓱᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᕐᓂᒃ. ᑕᑯᔭᕆᐅᖅᑕᕋᒥᒎᖅ ᐅᒃᑯᓯᒃᓴᓕᒻᒥᒃ ᑕᐸᐃᖅᓯᒪᓕᖅᑐᒥᓂᖅ ᑲᔾᔮᕐᓇᕐᓂᖓᓂᒃ ᐊᒻᒪ ᖃᓄᖅᑑᖅᑐᓂ, “ᖃᓄᕐᓕᐅᓇ ᐊᔾᔨᓕᐅᖅᑕᕐᓂᐊᓕᖅᑕᕋ ᑲᔾᔮᕐᓇᕐᓂᖓ ᑕᑯᔭᐅᒃᑯᕐᓗᒍ ᑕᐃᒃᑯᓄᖓ ᑕᑯᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᓂᐊᓐᖏᑦᑐᓄᑦ ᓇᒻᒥᓂᖅ ᒪᓂᓗᑎᒃ ᐅᒃᑯᓯᒃᓴᓕᒻᒥ.”

40

arcticjournal.ca

May/June

© COURTESY INUIT BROADCASTING CORPORATION (4)

The closest translated meaning could be, “the most beautiful scenic place in memory,” but its deeper meaning is entrenched in our psyche as “taisumaniapik” understood by the people who were “there in time and place and with whom,” meaning “at that lovely/wonderful time”.

Henry states he has seen and still sees many beautiful places and captures them into his camera. However, when he saw Ukkusiksalik for the first time, he wondered, “how am I going to do any justice to this kajaanaqtuq into my camera and show it to people who will never see it in person?”

Henry Naulaq has had many training sessions in all aspects of the use of a camera and the tools and quirks of television and video production. He has learned video editing, lighting, the importance of timing, and the art of interviewing. He knows how to fix cameras when they break, protect batteries from freezing in the High Arctic, and the need to keep up with new, always changing high technology.

Though he understands it is very time-consuming when he has to read all the instructions, after reading the guide lines and diagrams so many times, when he gets it, his response is simply to say “oh” to himself. Then he passes his newfound knowledge on to his fellow workers. His only complaint over the years working at IBC is having had to lift and carry very heavy equipment.

Naulaq is a walking archive, filing cabinet and historian for everything at IBC. He knows where each archival tape is stored. Laughing [at himself], he ends our interview with “when I can’t lift anything anymore, I will teach staff, digitize old tapes, tell stories, fix broken equipment and pass on my knowledge.”

Legends, Culture and IBC on a string Most of our Inuit legends feature talking animals, rocks, bones, loons and many other tangible items. For example, in the legend of Lumajuq, a blind boy is lifted by two loons.

The loons tell the boy to dive down deep into the lake, and to stay down below the surface until he is gasping for air. On his third dive down, the boy is no longer blind when he surfaces. In fact, his eyesight has become supernatural.

In another story, the legend of Kiviuq, the talking bones save Kiviuq from certain death. The bones sang to Kiviuq: “…put a big flat rock on your abdomen when you go to sleep tonight.” The old female shaman attempts to stab him with her huge sharp tail, but the rock breaks her tail instead.

In the same legend there are other talking creatures, such as the little lemming who shouted at Kiviuq: “…lift me up, I am stuck on the ledge, the tide is coming up.” Kiviuq travelled all over the world encountering various creatures and weird people while searching for his native homeland. Both legends are long with great details and have the songs to go with them.

ᕼᐊᐃᓇᓕ ᓇᐅᓪᓚᖅ ᐊᒥᓱᐃᖅᑎᑦᑐᓂ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᖃᑦᑕᖅᓯᒪᒐᒥ ᒪᑯᓂᖓ ᓇᑲᑎᕆᓂᕐᒥᒃ, ᖃᐅᒪᓕᕆᓂᕐᒥᒃ, ᐊᒥᓱᕆᐊᖃᓐᓂᕐᒥᓪᓗ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᓯᖏᓐᓂᒃ. ᐊᒻᒪ ᓱᕋᑦᑐᖃᓐᓂᕋᐃᒻᒪᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᖓᖅᑐᖃᕐᓂᕋᐃᒻᒪᑦ ᓴᓇᑲᐃᓐᓇᕆᐊᖃᖁᖅ. ᒪᑯᐊᓗ ᕚᑕᓖᑦ ᖁᐊᓴᕋᐃᒻᒪᑕ ᐃᒃᑮᓇᖅᑎᓪᓗᒍ, ᖁᐊᖅᑕᐃᓕᑎᓲᕆᒻᒥᔭᖏᑦ ᖁᒥᑦᑐᒋᑦ ᐅᕝᕙᓘᓐᓃᑦ ᐃᒻᒧᓯᔭᖅᑎᑦᑐᒋᑦ. ᐊᒻᒪ ᐊᖑᒻᒪᑎᓐᓇᕆᐊᖃᓲᖑᒻᒥᔪᖅ ᓱᓇᑦ ᓄᑖᖅ ᓴᖅᑭᐸᓪᓕᐊᑎᓪᓗᒋᑦ. ᐅᖃᓕᒫᖏᓐᓇᕆᐊᖃᕐᒥᔪᖅ ᑎᑎᖅᑲᓂᒃ ᐊᔪᕆᖅᓱᐃᔪᓂᑦ. ᑕᒪᒃᑯᐊ ᐃᓕᑕᓂ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᖅᑎᑦᓯᒍᑎᒋᓕᖅᑐᒋᓪᓗ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᖃᑎᒥᓄᑦ. ᑭᓯᐊᓂᓕ ᐃᓂᖁᓇᐃᒋᓯᒪᔭᑐᑦ ᐋᒡᒐ ᑕᒪᒃᑯᐊᕌᓗᐃᑦ ᐅᖁᒪᐃᑦᑐᐊᓗᐃᑦ ᐊᔾᔨᓕᐅᕈᑏᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐃᓚᓗᒋᑦ ᑭᕕᑉᐸᑦᑐᒋᑦ ᐊᔾᔭᖅᐸᑦᑐᒋᓪᓗ. ᑖᓐᓇ ᕼᐊᐃᓐᓇᓕ ᖃᐅᔨᒪᓂᖅᐹᖑᓕᖅᑐᖅ ᓱᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᐃᑦ ᓇᒦᒻᒪᖔᑕ. ᑭᓱᓕᒫᑦᓯᐊᕌᐲᒡᒎᖅ ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔭᖏᑦ ᓇᒻᒦᒻᒪᖔᑕ. ᐃᔪᕈᓱᑦᑐᓂ ᐃᒪᐃᓕᔪᔪᖅ, “ᑭᕕᓯᒍᓐᓇᐃᓕᒍᒪ ᐊᔾᔨᓕᐅᕈᑎᓂᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᖅᑎᑦᓯᖃᑦᑕᓛᖅᑐᖓ. ᐅᓂᒃᑳᖃᑦᑕᕐᓗᖓᓗ, ᓴᓇᖃᑦᑕᕐᓗᖓᓗ ᐃᓕᓐᖓᑦᓯᒪᔪᓂᒃ. ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔭᕐᓂᒃ ᕿᒪᐃᒍᒫᖅᑐᖓ ᐊᓯᓐᓄᑦ.”

ᐅᓂᒃᑳᖅᑐᐊᑦ, ᐃᓕᖅᑯᓯᖅ ᐊᒻᒪ IBC-ᑯᑦ ᓂᕕᖓᐃᓐᓇᕐᓂᖓ

ᑕᒪᒃᑯᐊᖏᓛᖅ ᐅᓂᒃᑳᖅᑐᐊᕗᑦ ᖃᓄᑐᐃᓐᓈᓗᒃ ᐱᓲᖑᒻᒪᑕ ᓱᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᐃᓪᓗ ᐅᖃᓕᒫᒍᓐᓇᖅᑐᑎᒃ. ᐆᑦᑑᑎᒋᓗᒍ ᑕᐃᓐᓇ ᐅᓂᒃᑳᖅᑐᐊᖅ ᓘᒫᔪᖅ. ᑖᓐᓇᒎᖅ ᑕᐅᑐᓐᖏᑦᑐᖅ ᓱᕈᓯᖅ ᑐᓪᓖᓐᓄᒃ ᒪᕐᕉᓐᓄᒃ ᑭᕕᑎᑕᐅᖃᑦᑕᕐᓂᕐᒪᑦ ᓛᓯᒥ ᑕᐅᑐᓕᖅᑎᑕᐅᒐᓱᐊᖅᑐᓂ. ᐊᐱᕆᔭᐅᕙᑦᑐᖅ ᑖᒃᑯᓄᖓ ᑑᓪᓖᓐᓄᒃ ᑕᐅᑐᓕᕐᒪᖔᖅ. ᐋᒑᖅᐸᑦᑐᖅ ᑕᐅᑐᓕᕋᓗᐊᕋᒥ, ᑕᐅᑐᑦᓯᐊᓕᕈᒪᒧᑦ. ᑭᓯᐊᓂᒎᖅ ᐃᕕᒃᓱᑳᐱᓐᓂᒃ ᖃᖅᑲᒦᑦᑐᓂᑦ ᐅᖓᓯᑦᑐᓂᑦ ᑕᑯᒍᓐᓇᖅᓯᒐᒥ ᐅᖃᓯᕗᖅ,“ᑕᐅᑐᓕᖅᐳᖓ.” ᐊᒻᒪ ᐊᓯᐊᓂᒃ ᐅᓂᒃᑳᖅᑐᐊᒥᑦᑕᐅᖅ ᑕᐃᓐᓇ ᑭᕕᐅᖅ ᐅᖃᓕᒪᕕᐅᕙᓐᓂᕐᒪᑦ ᓴᐅᓂᕐᓄᑦ. ᑕᐃᓐᓇᒎᖅ ᓴᐅᓂᖅ ᐃᓐᖏᖅᑐᒥᓂᖅ ᑭᕕᐅᕐᒧᑦ, “ᓵᓗᕿᒥᒃ ᐅᔭᕋᕐᒥᒃ ᐃᓕᓯᒋᑦ ᓈᓐᓄᑦ.” ᐊᓱᐃᓪᓛᒎᖅ ᐃᓕᓯᓕᕐᓂᕐᒪᑦ ᓵᓗᕿᒥᒃ ᐅᔭᕋᕐᒥᒃ ᓈᒻᒥᓄᑦ ᓯᓂᒐᓱᐊᓚᖓᓕᕋᒥ. ᑕᐃᓐᓇᒎᖅ ᓂᖏᐅᕌᓗᒃ ᐸᒥᐅᕐᒥᓄᑦ ᑮᓇᓕᐊᓗᒻᒧᑦ ᐃᐱᑦᑐᐊᓗᒻᒧᑦ ᑐᖁᑦᓯᒋᐊᑐᒥᓂᐅᒐᓗᐊᖅ.

May/June

above & beyond

41

ᐊᒻᒪᑦᑕᐅᖅ ᑖᓐᓇᓴᐃᓐᓇᖅ ᑭᕕᐅᖅ ᐅᖃᓕᒪᕕᐅᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᓐᓂᕐᒥᔪᖅ ᐊᕕᓐᖓᕈᓗᒻᒧᑦ, “ᑭᕕᓚᐅᓐᖓ ᐱᒍᓐᓇᐃᓕᖅᑲᒐᒪ ᖃᕐᕕᕈᓐᓇᓐᖏᓐᓇᒪ, ᐅᓕᑦᑐᐊᓘᓕᕐᒪᑦ.” ᑭᕕᐅᖏᓐᓇ ᓯᓚᕐᔪᐊᓕᒫᒥ ᓈᔭᐃᓂᕐᒪᑦ ᐊᖏᕐᕋᕋᓱᐊᕋᓗᐊᖅᑐᓂ, ᔭᒐᐅᖅᑲᓐᓂᕋᒥ. ᑖᒃᑯᐊ ᐅᓂᒃᑳᖅᑐᐊᑦ ᑕᑭᔪᑲᓪᓚᐅᒻᒪᑎᒃ ᐃᓚᐃᓐᓇᖏᑦ ᑎᑎᕋᐅᑎᒋᕙᒃᑲ. ᖃᐅᔨᑎᑦᓯᒋᐊᑐᐃᓐᓇᕋᒪ ᐅᖃᓕᒫᖃᑦᑕᖅᑐᒥᓂᕐᓂᑦ ᐃᓅᓐᖏᑦᑐᓂᑦ. ᐊᓱᐃᓪᓛᓕ ᑕᐃᒃᑯᐊ ᐃᓄᓐᖑᐊᑦ ᐃᓚᒌᓐᖑᐊᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐊᕕᓐᖓᓐᖑᐊᖅ ᓴᖅᑭᑎᑕᐅᒋᐊᓐᖓᕐᒪᑕ ᐅᕙᑦᓯᐊᕉᓗᖅᑐᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᑦ 25-ᖑᓕᖅᑐᑦ. ᓴᖅᑭᒻᒪᑕ ᑐᓐᖓᓱᑦᑎᑐᐃᓐᓇᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔭᕗᑦ ᖁᕕᐊᒋᓪᓗᒋᓪᓗ ᖁᖓᐅᑎᒋᕙᑦᑐᒋᓪᓗ ᐃᓕᓴᕆᑐᐃᓐᓇᖅᑐᒋᑦ ᑕᒪᒃᑯᐊ ᐅᓂᒃᑳᖅᑐᐊᕗᑦ ᓱᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᖏᑦ ᐅᖃᓕᒫᓲᖑᒻᒪᑕ, ᑖᒃᑯᐊᑦᑕᐅᖅ ᐃᓄᓐᖑᐊᑦ ᐊᕕᓐᖓᕐᓗ ᐅᐱᓐᓇᕋᓂ ᐃᓄᑦᑎᑐᑦ ᐅᓂᖃᓕᒪᒻᒪᑕ ᐃᓚᒋᓕᐅᑎᑐᐃᓐᓇᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔭᕗᑦ. ᐅᐊᑲᓪᓚᖔᖅᓯᒪᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᑕᐸᐃᖅᓯᒪᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᓇᓪᓕᒋᓕᖅᑐᒋᑦ. ᐅᑯᐊᖑᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔪᑦ: ᐊᑖᑕᑦᓯᐊᖅ, ᐊᓈᓇᑦᓯᐊᖅ, ᐃᕐᖑᑕᖓᓗ, ᐴᑭ, ᑕᐃᕕᑎ, ᒪᑐ, ᔨᒥ, ᐅᓗᐊᑲᓪᓚᒃ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐊᕕᓐᖓᓐᖑᐊᖅ ᔮᓂ. ᔮᓂ ᓴᓇᔭᐅᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔪᒥᓂᖅ ᓯᕗᓪᓕᖅᐹᒥ ᓖᑎᐊ ᐊᐃᓂᐊᕐᒧᑦ. ᑖᓐᓇ ᔮᓂᐅᓐᖑᐊᖅᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᐅᑭᐅᓂᒃ 25-ᓂᒃ ᒪᐃᑯ ᐊᐃᐱᓕ. ᑕᐃᒃᑯᐊᓕ ᐊᓯᖏᑦ ᐃᓄᓐᖑᐊᑦ ᓴᓇᔭᐅᖃᑦᑕᖅᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᖅᑎᓄᑦᑕᐅᖅ IBC-ᑯᓐᓂ, ᐃᓚᒋᔭᐅᓪᓗᓂ ᕚᓚᓐᑏᓇ ᒪᒃᑭᒃ. ᑖᒃᑯᐊᓕᒎᖅ ᐃᓄᓐᖑᐊᑦ ᓱᕈᓯᕐᓄᑦ ᑐᕌᓚᐅᖅᒪᔫᒐᓗᐊᑦ ᓱᕈᓰᑦ ᐃᓄᑦᑎᑑᒃᑲᓐᓂᖁᔭᐅᒧᑦ,ᑭᓯᐊᓂᓕ ᐅᕙᒍᑦ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᑕᑯᓐᓇᕈᒪᖃᑦᑕᖅᓯᒪᒻᒥᒐᑦᑕ ᑖᒃᑯᓂᖓ ᐃᓄᓐᖑᐊᓂᒃ. ᒪᐃᑯ ᔮᓂᒥᒃ ᐊᑎᖃᖅᑎᑕᐅᒻᒪᕆᑉᐸᓕᖅᑐᖅ ᐃᓄᓐᓄᑦ ᒪᐃᑰᒐᓗᐊᖅᑎᓪᓗᒍ.ᒪᐃᑯ ᐃᒪᐃᓕᓯᒪᔪᖅ,“ᖃᓄᐃᒋᓇᒍᓗ. ᑭᓯᐊᓂᓕ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᖅᑏᑦ ᐊᒥᒐᓕᕋᐃᒻᒪᑕ ᔮᓂᐅᓐᖑᐊᕋᓗᐊᖅᑐᖓ ᑕᐃᒃᑯᐊᑦᑕᐅᖅ ᐃᓄᓐᖑᐊᑦ ᐊᓯᖏᑦ ᓂᐱᖃᖅᑎᐸᒻᒥᔭᒃᑲ.” ᑖᒃᑯᐊ ᐃᓄᓐᖑᐊᑦ ᑕᑯᑦᓴᐅᑎᑕᐅᕙᑐᑦ ᐅᖃᓕᒪᑎᑕᐅᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᐃᓅᓯᑦᑎᓐᓂᒃ ᐅᓪᓗᒥᐅᓕᖅᑐᖅ. ᐃᓅᓯᑦᑎᓐᓂ ᑐᕌᕐᔫᒥᓪᓗᑎᒃ.ᑕᐃᓐᓇ ᐃᖅᑲᐅᒪᔭᐅᓂᖅᐹᖑᔪᖅ ᔮᓂ ᓯᓱᕋᖃᑕᐅᑎᓪᓗᒍ ᓱᕈᓯᕐᓄᑦ ᓂᕕᐊᖅᓯᐊᓄᑦ.ᓇᖏᐊᕙᓗᑦᑐᕈᓗᒃ ᓴᔪᒻᒪᕆᑦᑐᖅ ᑎᒥᓕᒫᕈᓗᐊ ᓂᐱᕈᓗᐊᓗ ᓇᖏᐊᕝᕙᓗᑦᑐᖅ. ᐊᓱᐃᓪᓛᓕ ᓱᑲᑦᑐᕖᓐᖔᓘᓪᓗᓂ ᓯᑐᓯᔪᖅ ᑕᐅᓄᖔᓗᒃ. ᓂᐱᕈᓗᐊ, “ᐊᔭᐃ” ᑕᐅᓄᖓᓕᒫᖅ ᓯᑐᓪᓗᓂ ᐊᔭᐃᓚᔪᖅ. ᐃᔪᓐᓇᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᒐᓗᐊᖅ. ᒪᐃᑯ ᐊᐃᐱᓕ ᓱᓕ 25-ᑲᓐᓂᕐᓂᒃ ᐅᑭᐅᓂᒃ ᔮᓂᐅᖑᒪᔪᖅ. ᐃᓅᓯᕗᑦ ᑕᕝᕗᖓ ᓯᕗᒧᑦ ᐊᑐᕐᓗᒍ.

42

arcticjournal.ca

May/June

May/June

© COURTESY INUIT BROADCASTING CORPORATION (3)

So, when the puppets were first created 25 years ago by IBC staff, we, the Inuit audience naturally welcomed them warmly and with humour. The puppets reminded us of our many legends, myths and old stories and also of our own family structures.

We call these Inunguaat, the “pretend Inuit”. These Inunguaat consist of grandfather, grandmother, grandchildren, Puuki, Taiviti, Matuu, Jajii, Uluakallak and one lemming, named Johnny.

Johnny, the lemming was created by Letia Ainiaq (Ineak) over 25 years ago. The voice of Johnny for the past 25 years belongs to Michael Aipili (Ipeelie). The other Inunguaat were created by various staff members, one of them being Blandina Makkik.

The creation of these puppets is greatly admired by Inuit of all ages. The puppets were originally created for small children so they can learn and speak their own Inuktitut language and to be familiar with our family structures.

Michael claims he is stuck being Johnny the lemming. With affection, people call him Johnny instead of his real name around the community. Michael explained further, “I often have to double in to do the voices when there is a staff shortage here at IBC. I also have to do the grandfather, some other puppet and especially Johnny, in the same show.”

The scripts are written to fit in with community life in the North, doing the usual everyday things. Perhaps a favourite scene of many is when the puppet children along with real-life children are seen playing outdoors together sliding down a big hill.

It is Johnny’s turn to slide down. Johnny is visually frightened, his little body is shaking. The voice is shaky and squeaky as he exclaims, “Ajaiiii!” when he starts to slide down this big hill very fast. His little shaky voice trails off and ends in a big thump.

Michael Aipili hopes Johnny and the other family puppets continue for another 25 years, continuing to grow and expand and to keep up with the times.

Today Inuit Broadcasting Corporation still produces new programs. Staff have come and gone. There have been good times and times that were perhaps, not so good. Still, IBC has experienced many firsts in Inuit television production. For example, recording the first time Canadian Inuit met other Inuit from the circumpolar world and formed the first Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC) in 1983.

The other significant event for IBC was its first-ever live broadcast over Anik as the satellite was launched to serve all of the North in communications. There were others.

IBC broadcast for the first time a program done in our language an event that was all too familiar to us older Inuit, a horrible starvation in Africa. When we were living on the land full time, starvation was just around the corner when animals didn’t cross our path or the weather was bad for any length of time.

We had so much empathy and felt such a kinship with a country so far away and the people we had never seen. It was reported later that Inuit had donated more money, per capita, in Canada alone to the charitable organizations helping the starving people.

While we are not involved in day-to-day operations of our only Inuktitut television production organization, we have known for a long time there are many challenges the administration staff have to work on, must deal with.

Not only are there financial struggles from year to year, there are trying times to keep staff, keeping up with ever changing high technology, high cost of shipping, having to work in a dilapidated old building, having to do their own training when there is a high turnover in staffing. The saving grace however, is that it is fortunate that there is no shortage of talented people living here in the North.

Debbie Brisboise is a long-time employee of IBC and works tirelessly and delights in developments in spite of all the dilemmas that may arise. She simply states that, “staffing is definitely a challenge, related to financial limitations, of course. We cannot offer the same kind of salaries and benefits to staff as governments, CBC, or other Inuit organizations do, so it is difficult to attract and keep people, although we do also have an unusually high rate of long timers.”

In the very much-needed training area for those who are interested in the media, training is an ad hoc situation or it is offered as on the job training with more senior staff who are already swamped with other multi tasks.

Brisboise further explains, “We have to do all our training ourselves. There is no institution offering the kind of training we need, such as Arctic College for example. It

ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᑕᑯᓐᓇᕋᑦᓴᓕᕆᔨᖏᑦ ᑲᓇᑕᒥ ᓱᓕ ᓴᓇᕙᑉᐳᑦ ᑕᑯᑦᓴᐅᔪᑦᓴᓂᑦ ᑕᓚᕖᓴᒃᑯᑦ. ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᖅᑏᑦ ᐃᓚᖏᑦ ᑖᒃᑯᐊᓴᐃᓐᓇᐅᒐᓗᐊᑦ ᐃᓚᖏᓪᓕ ᓅᑉᐸᒃᑭᕗᑦ ᕿᒪᐃᓪᓗᑎᒃ IBC-ᑯᓐᓂᒃ. ᖁᕕᐊᓇᖅᑐᒃᑰᖅᐸᑦᑐᑎᓪᓗ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᖁᕕᐊᓇᓗᐊᖏᑦᑐᒃᑰᖅᐹᑦᑐᑎᒃ ᑕᐃᒪᐃᖃᑦᑕᖅᓯᒪᕗᑦ. ᑕᐃᒪᐃᒃᑲᓗᐊᖅᑎᓪᓗᒍ IBC-ᑯᑦ ᓯᕗᒃᑲᑕᖃᑦᑕᖅᓯᒪᕗᑦ ᓱᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᒃᑯᑦ. ᐅᓇ ᐆᑦᑑᑎᒋᓗᒍ IBC-ᑯᑦ ᑕᑯᑦᓴᐅᑎᑦᓯᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᕗᑦ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓯᓚᕐᔪᐊᒥᐅᑦ ᑲᑎᖅᑳᓕᖅᑎᓪᓗᒋᑦ, ᓯᕗᓪᓕᖅᐹᓯᐅᒻᒥᒃ 1983-ᖑᑎᓪᓗᒍ. ᐊᒻᒪ ᓯᕗᒃᑲᑕᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᒻᒥᔪᖅ IBC, ᖃᖓᑕᑎᑕᐅᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᐋᓂᒃ ᐊᑐᖅᑕᐅᒋᐊᓐᖓᓕᖅᑎᓪᓗᒍ ᑕᑯᑦᓴᐅᑦᓴᐅᑎᒋᓪᓗᑕ. ᐊᒻᒪ ᐊᓯᖏᑦ ᐱᒐᓗᐊᕐᒥᑎᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᑕᑯᑦᓴᐅᖃᑦᑕᖅᓯᒪᔪᑦ. ᑕᑯᓐᓇᕆᐅᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᒻᒥᔪᒍᑦ ᐃᓅᓪᓗᑕ, ᐃᓅᖃᑎᑦᑎᓐᓄᑦ ᐊᔾᔨᓕᐅᖅᑕᒥᓂᖏᓐᓂᑦ, ᐃᓄᑦᑎᑐᓪᓗ ᐅᓂᒃᑳᕆᔭᐅᑦᓴᐅᑎᒋᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᑕᐃᒃᑯᐊ ᑳᑦᑐᕐᔪᐊᕌᓘᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᕿᓐᓂᖅᑕᑦ ᓄᓇᖓᓂ. ᑕᒪᓐᓇ ᐃᓕᓴᕆᑐᐃᓐᓇᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔭᕗᑦ ᑳᖃᑦᑕᕐᓂᐅᓪᓗᑕ ᐃᓄᑐᖃᐅᓂᖅᓴᑦ.ᐊᑦᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᓇᓪᓕᒋᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔭᕗᑦ ᑳᑦᑐᑯᓗᐃᑦ ᐃᓛᒃ ᓴᐃᒪᒍᓐᓃᖅᑐᑕ. ᑐᓴᓕᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᒻᒥᔪᒍᑦ ᐃᓛᒎᖅ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᑐᓂᓯᓂᖅᐹᒥᓃᑦ ᑮᓇᐅᔭᓂᑦ ᐃᑲᔫᑎᑦᓴᐅᒍᒫᖅᑐᓂᑦ ᑕᐃᒃᑯᓄᖓ ᑳᑦᑐᓄᑦ. ᑕᑯᓐᓈᖅᑎᑐᐃᓐᓇᐅᔪᒍᑦ IBC-ᑯᓐᓂᒃ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᓐᖏᑦᑐᒍᑦ ᑐᓴᖃᑦᑕᑐᐃᓐᓇᕋᑦᑕ ᑖᒃᑯᐊ IBC-ᑯᑦ ᐊᑦᓱᕈᓐᓇᖅᑐᒃᑰᑲᐃᓐᓇᖃᑦᑕᖅᑐᑦ, ᑮᓇᐅᔭᑎᒍᓪᓗ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᖅᑎᖏᓪᓗ ᐊᒥᒐᓯᕙᑦᑐᑦ. ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑖᒃᑯᐊ ᐊᖏᔪᖅᑲᐅᑎᖏᑦ ᐊᑦᓱᕈᓯᕙᑦᑐᑦ ᖃᓄᖅᑑᕋᓱᐊᖅᑐᑎᒃ ᐋᖅᑭᓯᒋᐊᒃᑲᓐᓂᕈᒪᒧᑦ ᐊᑦᓱᕈᓐᓇᓗᐊᖏᑦᑐᓂᒃ. ᑮᓇᐅᔭᑭᓐᓂᕉᖅ ᑖᓐᓇᑑᕙᓐᖏᒻᒪᑦ. ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᖅᑏᑦ ᐊᒥᒐᐃᓐᓇᕐᒥᔪᑦ ᐊᓯᔾᔨᖅᐸᓪᓕᐊᖏᓐᓇᖅᑐᓪᓗ ᓄᑖᕈᖅᐸᓪᓕᐊᖏᓐᓇᖅᑐᑦ ᓱᓇᒃᑯᑖᖏᑦ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᕈᑎᖏᑦ ᐊᑭᑐᔪᐊᓘᕙᑦᑐᓪᓗ ᖃᖓᑦᑕᐅᑏᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᓱᓇᓕᒫᑦᓯᐊᑦ. ᐃᒫᒃ ᐅᓇ ᐊᖏᓂᖅᐹᖑᐃᓐᓇᕐᒥᔪᖅ: ᐃᓪᓗᑐᖄᓗᒻᒥ ᓱᕋᓐᓂᑯᐊᓗᒻᒥ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᕐᕕᖃᖃᑦᑕᖅᑐᑦ. ᐊᒻᒪ ᓇᒻᒥᓂᖅ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᖅᑎᑦᓰᓐᓇᕋᓱᐊᖅᑐᑎᒃ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᖅᑎᒥᓂᒃ. ᑭᓯᐊᓂᐊᐱᓪᓕ ᐆᒥᖓ ᖁᔭᓕᓯᒪᕙᕗᑦ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓴᓇᑐᔫᒻᒪᑕ ᐱᒍᓐᓇᓐᖑᐊᖅᑕᓯᓐᓇᖅᐸᑦᑐᑦ. ᐊᒥᒐᓐᖏᑐᐃᓐᓇᒨᑦ ᓴᓇᑐᔪᑦ.

Debbie Briseboise, ᑕᐱ ᐊᑯᓂᑦᑕᐅᖅ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᖅᑎᐅᓕᕐᒥᔪᖅ ᐊᖏᔪᖅᑳᕆᔭᐅᓪᓗᓂ IBC-ᑯᓐᓂ ᐃᕿᐊᓱᒍᓐᓇᕋᓂ ᑕᖃᔫᔮᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᒐᓂᓗ ᐱᓇᓱᐊᖏᓐᓇᖅᑐᖅ. ᐅᖃᖅᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᐃᒫᒃ, “ᐃᓛᒃ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᖅᑎᑖᕋᓱᐊᕐᓂᖅ ᐊᑦᓱᕈᓐᓇᖅᐸᑦᑐᖅ ᐅᐱᓐᓇᕋᓂ ᑕᐃᒃᑯᐊ ᐊᓯᕗᑦ ᒐᕙᒪᒃᑯᑦ CBC-ᑯᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᑲᑐᔾᔨᖃᑎᒌᓪᓗᒎᖅ ᐱᒍᒥᓇᖅᑐᓂᓪᓕ ᐊᑐᐃᓐᓇᐅᑎᑦᓯᒍᓐᓇᕐᒪᑕ ᐊᒥᓱᓂᑦ. ᐃᓛᒃ ᑕᐃᒪᐃᒃᑲᓗᐊᖅᑎᓪᓗᒍ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔮᑯᑖᑦᑐᑦ IBC-ᑯᓐᓂ ᐊᒥᓲᓐᖑᐊᑕᖅᓯᓇᕐᒥᔪᑦ.”

above & beyond

43

is unfortunate they discontinued their journalism program.

Despite many attempts to revive some kind of media training program it has not happened.”

“Johnny Needs A New Home” was first said by Madelaine d’Argencourt and has now become a catch phrase in the North.

It means Johnny, the other puppets (Inunguaat), archives, old and new equipment, production staff, office staff, custodians, props, and everything pertaining to the inner and outer workings of IBC need a new place, a new venue to produce more Inuktitut television in safety and comfort.

What is not only desired but needed is a real television production centre that will house our treasury of archives, continue to produce relevant Inuktitut television content that ensures the preservation of our language for today’s and future generations, harness information and produce current events programming to move ideas forward and inspire discussions and youth, and of course entertain all ages and so much more.

ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᑎᑦᓯᓕᕋᐃᒻᒪᑕᒎᖅ IBC-ᑯᑦ ᑭᓯᐊᓂ ᑖᓐᓇᑑᓗᐊᖅᐸᑦᑐᖅ ᑮᑕᑲᐃᓐᓇᕈᓗᒃ ᐋᖅᑭᑦᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᖅᓯᓐᓈᑦ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᓯᓐᓈᑦ ᑕᐃᒪᐃᓲᖑᒻᒥᔪᑦ. ᑕᐱ ᑕᑯᒍᒪᓲᖑᒐᓗᐊᖅ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕐᕕᓪᓚᕆᒻᒥᒃ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᖅᑐᖃᑦᓯᐊᒪᕆᖃᑦᑕᑎᓪᓗᒍ ᐱᕙᓪᓕᐊᔪᓕᕆᔨᑦᓴᓕᒻᒪᓄᑦ. ᐆᑦᑑᑎᒋᓪᓗᒍ ᓯᓚᑦᑐᓴᕐᕕᒻᒥ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᖅᑐᖃᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᒐᓗᐊᕐᒪᑦ ᐱᕙᓪᓕᐊᔪᓕᕆᔨᑦᓴᓂᑦ ᑭᓯᐊᓂᓕ ᐱᔭᕇᑐᐊᕐᒪᑕ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᖅᑐᑦ, ᑕᐃᒪᓐᖓᑦ ᓄᖅᑲᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᒻᒪᑕ ᑕᕝᕗᖓ ᓄᖅᑲᓚᕆᑦᑐᒥᓂᐅᒻᒪᑕ. ᐱᒋᐊᒃᑲᓐᓂᖁᓇᖅᑑᒐᓗᐊᑦ. “ᔮᓂ ᐊᖏᕐᕋᑖᕆᐊᓕᒃ ᓄᑖᒥ,” ᑖᓐᓇ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᖅ ᑐᓵᕋᔪᒻᒥᔭᕗᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᒥ. ᐅᖃᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔭᖓ Madeleine d’Argencourt. ᑐᑭᓯᓇᖅᑐᐹᓘᒻᒪᑦ, ᔮᓂ ᐊᖏᕐᕋᑖᕆᐊᓕᒃ ᓄᑖᒥ ᐊᒻᒪ ᑖᒃᑯᐊ, ᐃᓄᓐᖑᐊᑦ, ᓱᓇᒃᑯᑖᓕᒫᑦ, ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᖅᑐᓕᒫᑦ. ᐊᑕᓇᖏᑐᒥ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᕆᐊᖃᒻᒪᑕ. ᑕᑯᑦᓴᐅᔪᑦᓴᓂᑦ ᑕᓚᕖᓴᒃᑯᑦ ᓴᓇᕕᑦᓴᖅᑕᖃᕆᐊᖃᕐᒪᑦ ᓄᑖᒥᒃ ᐱᒥᓂᐅᓐᖏᑦᑐᒥᒃ. ᒪᑯᐊ IBC-ᑯᑦ ᑕᕐᕆᔭᐃᑦ ᐃᓂᖃᕆᐊᖃᒻᒪᑕ ᓱᕋᓐᓇᖏᑦᑐᒥ. ᐃᓪᓗᑐᖄᓗᒻᒦᑦᑎᓗᒋᑦ ᓱᕋᑉᐸᓪᓕᐊᒻᒪᑕ ᓱᑲᑦᑐᒥᒃ. ᐱᐅᓕᒪᒋᐊᖃᕋᑦᑎᒍᑦ ᐅᕙᓯᐊᕈᓂᓴᐃ. ᓱᕋᑉᐸᑕ ᐅᑎᖅᑎᒍᓐᓇᓐᖏᓇᑦᑎᒍ. ᑕᐃᓐᓇ ᐊᔾᔨᓕᐅᕈᑦ ᐅᓂᒃᑳᕆᖅᑲᐅᔭᕋ ᓯᕗᓪᓕᐅᑎᓗᒍ, ᐃᓛᒃ ᐊᑐᕈᓐᓇᖅᓯᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔭᕗᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕇᕋᑦᑕ. ᑕᑯᑦᓴᐅᔪᑦᓴᓂᑦ ᓴᓇᒍᓐᓇᖅᓯᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔪᒍᑦ ᓄᓇᓕᓐᓂ ᑐᕌᖓᔪᓂᒃ. ᑭᓯᐊᓂᓕ ᑕᕙᓂ ᐃᓗᒥ ᑭᓯᐊᓂ ᑕᑯᓐᓇᕈᓐᓇᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔭᕗᑦ ᐅᐱᓐᓇᕋᓂ ᑕᓚᕖᓴᖃᓚᐅᖅᑎᓐᓇᑕ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕈᑎᒋᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔭᕗᑦ. ᓱᓇᐅᕙ ᐊᑑᑎᓕᒥᓂᐅᒻᒥᔪᑦ ᓯᕗᓂᑦᓴᑎᓐᓄᑦ. ᑮᓇᐅᔭᓂᑦ ᓄᐊᓴᐃᒻᒪᑕ IBC-ᑯᑦ ᑲᑎᒪᔨᕋᓛᖃᖅᑐᑎᑦ ᐅᖃᐅᔾᔨᒋᐊᖅᑎᓂᑦ, ᐃᑲᔪᖅᑎᒥᓂᑦ. ᑕᒪᓐᓇ ᑐᓴᕐᔫᒥᖃᑦᑕᓚᖓᔭᕗᑦ ᖃᖓᑐᐃᓐᓇᒃᑯᑦ. ᑐᑭᓯᒋᐊᕐᕕᑦᓴᐃᑦ ᐊᑐᐃᓐᓇᐅᕗᑦ ᖃᕆᑕᐅᔭᒃᑯᑦ ᐅᑯᐊ: www.inuitbroadcasting.ca

To learn more and be incredibly informed, please visit the following websites: www.inuitbroadcasting.ca, www.Sanavallianiq.ca and www.Building4Dreams.ca

Much more than a memory © COURTESY INUIT BROADCASTING CORPORATION (2)

That video camera that had stood so high and lonely on the tripod was eventually used once we were trained how to use it. Some of us did alcohol and drug prevention programs, some on how to start community meetings, raise community awareness on community programs and other adult education programs. I did a short clip on good country foods. These programs could only be seen in the small room, not on television because we didn’t have a network then, but it was a huge start to four decades, and still counting, of television programming serving Inuit and the circumpolar North.

44

arcticjournal.ca

May/June

RANKIN INLET cq6Oi6 (Kangiqliniq)

Located on the west coast of Hudson Bay about 300 km north of Churchill, Rankin Inlet is the transportation, health services, and business centre of the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut.

Rankin Inlet has a rich mining history.

The town grew up around the North Rankin Nickel Mine, which operated from 1957-1962. The underground miners were Inuit from all over Nunavut.

The Federal Government started a soapstone/clay project in the early ‘60s after the mine closed to help create a sustainable economy for the Inuit.

Today, many of their children and grandchildren are working in mining and related industries, for the Meadowbank Gold Mine, the new Meliadine Gold Project and other mineral exploration projects in the region.

Our community is the Kivalliq centre for government and educational activity, but private business also thrives.

Business activity includes everything from arts and crafts, tourism and country food processing to construction, restaurants, and hotels. There is large government activity as well. We have all the amenities you expect of a Northern hub, including a downtown area with offices, the RCMP detachment, Hamlet office, hotels, shopping, apartments, banks, schools, and the post office. There are five hotels and a Bed & Breakfast, several restaurants, a dental clinic,

drugstore, three convenience stores, and two hardware stores. The health centre includes a hospital and a birthing centre. Nunavut Arctic College offers many courses that prepare people to work with government or business, and the associated Trade School prepares Nunavummiut for careers in trades like electrician, housing maintainer, plumber and heavy equipment mechanics.

Step outside and you’ll feel the pulse of the activity that drives our community.

Rankin Inlet combines the best of land and sea. Rocky islands with sheer cliffs support one of the healthiest populations of peregrine falcons in the world, and several rocky rivers offer great fishing for Arctic char and grayling, and wide inland lakes harbour large lake trout.

Great gravel eskers stretch across the land, enticing families out for superb berry picking in late summer. Tundra swans nest on the edges of larger lakes, and the land echoes with the rattling calls of sandhill cranes. Comical sik siks (Arctic ground squirrels) stand like sentinels along the roads, and Arctic foxes and hares can often be seen. Caribou from the Qamanurjuaq herd often pass close to town in late summer. Ringed and bearded seals and beluga whales are commonly seen on boat trips from the community, and polar bears are sometimes seen at Marble Island or on other islands.

Whether you are here for business or pleasure, there is a lot to see and do during your visit to Rankin Inlet.

We hope you enjoy your time in one of Nunavut’s busiest communities!

867-645-2895

info@rankininlet.ca

www.rankininlet.ca

© DAVID SMITH

ENVIRONMENT

Undercover Arctic algae impact ocean ecosystems “T

ake a look around,” my dad would say on our hikes in the woods. “What do you see?” It was Northern Ontario. I saw rocks, trees, moss, and lakes. Dad would then lean down and lift up a stone or peel back a chunk of David Smth moss, revealing the damp soil.“Don’t let your eyes fool you,” he’d exclaim, handing me a fistful of wet dirt. “Look there,” he’d say, nodding towards my muddied hands.

“You’re holding more than a million microbes.”

My father was bang on. No matter where you go on this planet, much of the action is taking place beneath the surface — on a microbial scale. Recently, this point was proven in fine fashion when an international team of

46

arcticjournal.ca

scientists on the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy discovered a massive algal bloom under the Arctic sea ice.

Algae are sun-loving creatures and tend to do best in open water where they can bask in the daylight, uninhibited. Thus, as the Healy crunched through vast expanses of metrethick ice in the Chukchi Sea, north of the Bering Strait, the researchers weren’t expecting to uncover a thriving mass of algae. They were wrong.

The ship was deep within the Arctic ice pack when one of its instruments used to measure ocean fluorescence lit up, essentially saying: “Ladies and gentlemen, we have algae.” The crew stopped the boat and sampled the ice-ridden water. It was the colour of pea soup and dense with unicellular diatom algae — a common type of phytoplankton. When the Healy cut further into the

frozen sea, the algal bloom got even denser, much denser than what was observed in the open water. The scientists estimate that the under-ice bloom extended for more than 100 kilometres, and in some places was greater than 50 metres in depth.

How could these algae flourish beneath the ice, ostensibly veiled from the sun’s nourishing rays? In an article published in the journal Science, researchers from the Healy explain how in the Arctic Ocean “light transmission has increased in recent decades because of thinning ice cover and the proliferation of melt ponds.” Melt ponds — pools of water on top of sea ice — are a big deal because they thin the underlying ice, creating portholes that allow sunlight to sneak through, while also filtering harmful UV rays. “Although the under-ice light field was less intense than in ice-free waters,” write the researchers, “it was

May/June 2013

sufficient to support the blooms… which grew twice as fast at low light as their open ocean counterparts.” Sub-ice algal blooms have been spotted in other polar regions, including the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and the Barents Sea, suggesting that they are more widespread than previously thought.

Scientists will need to reassess their view of Arctic Ocean ecosystems, taking in account the potential for a teeming under-ice algal world, and one that might grow larger and larger as Arctic ice packs continue to thin.

But this isn’t the only tale of undercover Arctic algae. In a separate expedition, European and Russian scientists on the icebreaker Polarstern visited the Eastern Central basins of the High Arctic and discovered that forests of algae anchored to the underside of sea ice are falling to the ocean floor in alarming numbers.

Researchers aboard the Polarstern used state-of-the-art equipment to photograph and collect samples from the seafloor, three to four kilometres beneath the water’s surface.

The bottom of the Artic Ocean is typically barren and bleak, so the scientists were surprised when they stumbled upon mounds of fresh algae scattered across the seabed. Many of these algae were Melosira arctica — a species that grows underneath ice floes, forming metre-long filaments, which extend into the water column. If the sea ice thins, cracks, or melts, these filamentous algae can lose their grip and sink to the ocean floor where they are gobbled up by sea cucumbers and other types of deep-sea creepy crawlers. Arctic warming and the record loss of sea ice may explain why Melosira and other types of ice algae are falling to the seabed earlier in the season and in greater numbers than ever before.

What does all this mean? If I’ve learned one thing from the wilderness walks with my father, it’s that if you meddle with the microbes, including the algae, you can bet your winter boots that you’ll be meddling with everything. As Arctic temperatures rise and ice packs thin and recede, some of the algae will blossom, others will fall to the floor, but all of the ocean’s ecosystems will feel the impact.

David Smith David Smith is an assistant professor in the biology department at Western University in London, Ontario.

May/June 2013

above & beyond

47

48

arcticjournal.ca

May/June 2013

ENVIRONMENT

Would you fly over a nursery?

Protect the George River Herd’s Caribou House nursery 80°W

nce considered the largest caribou herd in the world, the George River caribou herd of Nunavik, Nunatsiavut, Quebec, and Labrador, has declined from 800,000 individuals twenty years ago to only about 20,000 individuals as of 2012. The recovery of the George River caribou herd is uncertain but decisions about the lands where its Caribou House calving ground are located may be key in deciding its future.

60°W

60°N

© CARIBOU UNGAVA, UNIVERSITÉ LAVAL (WWW.CARIBOU-UNGAVA.ULAVAL.CA)

Caribou House, the central calving grounds of the George River herd, must be protected. Positive measures have been taken in recent years with the establishment of the Torngat Mountains National Park (9,600 km2) in Nunatsiavut and Labrador, and the Kuururjuaq (4,460 km2), George River (7,282 km2), and proposed Pyramid Mountains (1,935 km2) protected areas in Nunavik and Quebec; however, more than three-quarters of Caribou House remains open to industrial development.

70°W

55°N

O

Why’s that?

Although the current decline follows a natural trend observed over the last 250 years, the cumulative effects of new roads, transmission lines, railways, mines and hydro projects — compounded by a changing climate — are new conditions that could forever alter the fate of the George River herd.

Caribou House, the central calving grounds of the George River herd, must be protected.

Positive measures have been taken in recent years with the establishment of the Torngat Mountains National Park (9,600 km2) in Nunatsiavut and Labrador, and the Kuururjuaq (4,460 km2), George River (7,282 km2), and proposed Pyramid Mountains (1,935 km2) protected areas in Nunavik and Quebec; however, more than three-quarters of Caribou House remains open to industrial development.

May/June 2013

50°N

Calving grounds of the Leaf River (green or left) and George River (red or right) migratory caribou herds estimated from telemetry locations of adult females between 2000-2012.

REF : TAILLON, J., M. FESTA-BIANCHET ET S. D. CÔTÉ. 2012. SHIFTING TARGETS IN THE TUNDRA: PROTECTION OF MIGRATORY CARIBOU CALVING GROUNDS MUST ACCOUNT FOR SPATIAL CHANGES OVER TIME. BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION 147:163-173

While the George River herd has proven that it can return from low numbers in an undisturbed environment, it has never demonstrated recovery in a landscape that is changing as much as it is today. For centuries, the Northern Quebec and Labrador interior was largely isolated from outside pressures. However, development over the past 50 years has transformed large areas through hydroelectric reservoirs, mining, and roads. The cumulative effects of multiple developments in the region on caribou biology are currently unknown. In light of this uncertainty, it is important to take precautions and place limits on development while the herd recovers.

Immediate effective action In the short term it will be important to avoid any natural resource exploration or exploitation in these areas, especially during the calving season, including low-level flights over calving

grounds. That applies equally for the Leaf River caribou herd that is experiencing a similar decline. The exact location of caribou calving grounds change every year as herds respond to changes in food supply, predator density, and other ecological conditions. In the long term, maintaining a large area free of industrial development that allows the calving ground to move in response to changing and unpredictable ecological and climactic variables is crucial to the long-term health and survival of caribou.

The map shows the recent locations of the calving grounds of the George River and Leaf River caribou herds. All pilots, outfitters, and mining exploration companies should make every effort to avoid low-level flights within these coordinates between May 15 and July 31.

Jeff Wells, Science advisor IBCC Suzann Méthot, Quebec director CBI above & beyond

49

50

arcticjournal.ca

May/June 2013

© HEIKO WITTENBORN/NUNAVIK TOURISM

TRAVEL

Under the spell of the crystal eye Nunavik’s Pingualuit Retreat Pingualuit: The magnificent crystal eye of Nunavik.

The event occurred a little over 1.3 million years ago. Over time accumulated precipitation and melt rose up within the 400-metre deep walls to form a circular lake of exceptionally clear, dark blue water, some of the purest in the world. When seen in the light from above, it peers back as a sparkling and mysterious crystal eye incarnate.

ad an ancient fortuneteller been able to divine this liquid crystal she would have seen a bright future for the crater that remained. In all probability Inuit were the first human beings to come across its mystifying beauty. They named it Pingualuit and, indeed, this mirror-like natural wonder “turned Snow White” in winter can be pronounced “the fairest of all in the land” of Quebec’s Far North —the Nunavik region.

Etched in the past, the near mystical site became Nunavik’s first gem of nature to benefit from the protection of Quebec’s national parks network in 2004. Pingualuit now welcomes travellers from around the globe to share its inner most secrets.

H

A two-hour flight from Kuujjuaq, Nunavik’s main door to this treasured land, a pit stop is in order in Kangiqsujuaq, the park’s gateway.

In this inviting village snuggled between Wakeham Bay and the hollow of voluptuous mountain ranges, visitors are treated to an enlightening natural environment and cultural interpretation exhibit.

Then, and only then, after a 20-minute flight with Air Inuit, will the legendary meteoritic crater reveal itself moments before the plane lands at the park’s base camps, just a stone’s throw from nearby Lake Manarsulik (a.k.a. Lac Laflamme).

Here even the most adventurous of tourists will discover that comfort is a luxury one can

© SIMON BUJOLD/NUNAVIK PARKS

Long ago, far away in a silent endless land now known as the Ungava Peninsula, a massive meteorite struck the earth with such power that it instantly pulverized on impact, turned to dust, vanishing as fast as it had appeared, as if by magic. The cataclysmic crash, carving out in rock a perfectly round chasm 3.4 kilometres in diameter, left an open wound in the ground that would not go unnoticed.

Markusie Qisiiq, Pingualuit park director, enjoys a refreshing moment paddling one of the kayaks at Lake Manarsulik.

May/June 2013

above & beyond

51

© COURTESY FORTIER-DORVAL FAMILY

TRAVEL

easily become accustomed to. The full-service camps are equipped with a main kitchen complete with a kitchenware set, oil-burning stoves for the cool northern summer nights, state of the art bunk beds, running water, and therefore showers, and WiFi Internet.

While the cool crystal eye of the pingualuit crater watches, coyly hidden in the distance, it is easily forgotten for a moment as one takes in the serene beauty of Lake Manarsulik.

Even those eager to walk to the crater will first be charmed by Manarsulik’s fine sandy beaches, easily enticed to stay to bask in the peace and quiet along the shore, to play in the sand with the kids, cast for a fish dinner, or enjoy a late evening-lit walk as the sunset kisses the near

© HEIKO WITTENBORN/NUNAVIK TOURISM (4)

Though not allowed in the crater’s protected waters, fishing catch-and-release (or for dinner) in Pingualuit’s other waters is a fun activity in the park.

52

arcticjournal.ca

Young Jessie Ningiuruvik plays in the smooth sand of the Lake Manarsulik beach after having conquered the Pingualuit crater, a commendable accomplishment for the then six-year-old Inuk girl.

never-ending day good night. Bringing their good fortune, Northern lights may glow up high to steal the show as darkness finally sets in for the few hours of an Arctic summer’s night.

Of course, a visit at the Pingualuit Park would not be complete without paying tribute to its main attraction, the crater that inspired the name. In the language of Inuit, pingualuit means “where the land rises” or “pimples,” fittingly depicting the protruding silhouette it sketches against the vast horizon of this otherwise flat landscape. Though the crater is only a 2.5-km climb from the base camps, patience, caution and care must be observed.

The pathway to the crater’s splendour is scattered with rocks, some of which may just move turning out to be rock ptarmigans too perfectly camouflaged amidst the rugged terrain.

Finally, having achieved the crater’s crest to gaze in awe into its crystalline waters, all thoughts seem to grow clearer as the mind is freed of distractions, having attained a meditative state via the crater’s hypnotic power and beauty. Inuit like to call the spot, nunavingmi pikkuminartuq, meaning a remarkable place where a person may become revitalized.

Now flush with renewed mental energy and the body charged by a well-deserved picnic at what seems to be the top of the world, the trek continues. Just three kilometres more, a quarter of the way around the crater, one can carefully walk down to the water level (some 130 metres below), which on a windy day is reminiscent of the sea. During the climb back up, blueberries picked along the way will give the humbled explorer the nutritional fuel needed for the return hike back to camp.

The sheer bliss of picking blueberries amidst the serenity of the crater’s tranquil scenery.

For the hardy, the journey can be pursued all the way around the rim of the crater, a good 12-km trek, during which fascinating Inuit archaeological sites can be uncovered as one walks atop the moon-like tundra. Despite the fact that Inuit were and still are primarily a coast-dwelling people, in their past as nomadic hunters, they and their families often had to venture inland in search of caribou. Once the calving ground to hundreds of thousands of caribou from the Leaf River herd (May through July), the area traversed by Inuit on their perpetual quest for food left behind rock

© COURTESY FORTIER-DORVAL FAMILY

A walk on the wild side in the field of rocks surrounding the lunar-like Pingualuit crater.

Pingualuit’s base camps and nearby Lake Manarsulik greet visitors on arrival to the park.

May/June 2013

A vibrant experience awaits hikers venturing further along the winding Puvirnituq River.

Feeling on top of the world with the best guides there are in this Inuit wonderland.

shelters and stone tent rings as remnants of their early presence long ago.

Even though caribou are more scarce nowadays, it is not uncommon to see a few still roaming the park’s expanses. Wolves, foxes, snowy owls and other birds of prey, as well as Arctic hares and lemmings also thrive in the park, but are more wary of strangers.

After a daylong hike around the crater, a good night sleep in the comfort of the park’s camps will be welcomed. Back at Lake Manarsulik the next day can be spent leisurely canoeing or kayaking its calm waters. Both types of boats are available to visitors.

The park’s friendly Inuit guides know this land like no other and those who might wish to explore its boundaries further can choose a boat ride across the lake, bringing them closer to the Puvirnituq River, another discovery worth the detour to hike along or paddle the canoe some more.

Flowing through a wide canyon, the enchanting Puvirnituq River carved its path through the faults and folds of the 1.8-billionyear-old earth’s crust known as the Ungava

May/June 2013

Isabelle Dubois

© COURTESY FORTIER-DORVAL FAMILY

© ISABELLE RAYMOND/NUNAVIK PARKS

Trough, sometimes taking a right-angle turn for the extraordinary, as the bedrock rich in iron and other minerals translates to colourful scenery.

With all this beauty, it’s no wonder the crystal eye is known to put a spell on whoever dares to stare in it. On the return flight, be sure to catch one last glimpse to see what Nunavik adventures the future might hold. A winter visit to Pingualuit perhaps?

Uniquely camouflaged rock ptarmigan blend all-too-perfectly with the landscape.

For more information about visiting Pingualuit, contact: Nunavik Tourism 1-855-NUNAVIK www.nunavik-tourism.com Nunavik Parks Pingualuit 819-338-3282 www.nunavikparks.ca Inuit Adventures 1-855-657-3319 www.inuitadventures.com above & beyond

53

ADVENTURE

Running alone

On the gruelling Yukon Quest

t’s shortly after 7 a.m. when Dyan Bergen arrives in Pelly Crossing, Yukon Territory.

She’s spent the last three days and 400kilometres travelling by dog sled through the remote and frozen wilderness of the North.

The community of less than 300 people is silent in the morning darkness. Bergen’s headlamp cuts through the ice fog as she pulls her team of 14 dogs off the Pelly River and into the empty dog yard. She anchors the sled and zips open a supply bag, grabbing a dented steel bucket and a canister of methanol — her cooking supplies. A bag of frozen meat lies at her feet and the dogs strain to watch as she manoeuvres around the sled, their mouths hanging open in anticipation. She tosses a match into the bucket and the fire’s orange

I

glow pours into the night. As she crouches down, she looks over her resting team; a satisfied smile creases her face.

Bergen is one of 26 mushers who departed Whitehorse on February 2 to take part in the 30th running of the Yukon Quest 1,000 Mile International Sled Dog Race. It’s the first time Bergen has competed in the Quest and in 18 years of running dogs, it’s the longest race she’s ever entered.

The Quest trail stretches across 1,600-km of northern wilderness, alternating direction each year between Whitehorse and Fairbanks, Alaska. Bergen qualified for the Quest by completing the Percy DeWolfe Memorial Mail Race, where she finished last, and the Canadian Challenge, where she finished third last. She

also ran in the YQ300 in 2011, which travels the first 480-km of the Yukon Quest trail. She finished in last place.

“That race gave me the nicest Red Lantern I have,” she says, with a smile. “And I’ve got a lot of them.” The award recognizes the final team to complete a race and also pays homage to the mail carriers, missionaries and trappers of the past, who travelled by dog sled. As they travelled their routes, an oil lamp, the red lantern, would flicker from the cabins they passed, letting them know they had a place to stop if needed. When it was known that the team had reached its destination, the light would be put out. It’s the traditional elements of mushing, like the Red Lantern, that Bergen values. She doesn’t compete for exposure, for the fanfare or for the media.

At home in Yellowknife, Bergen trains traditionally; with walrus ivory runners on the bottom of her sled and trap line dogs pulling her forward. The leader of her team is Tumi, an Inuktitut word meaning footprint. “Tumi” is also inscribed on her lighter, a gift from her close friend and Quest veteran, Marcel Marin.

The two have been running dogs together in NWT since 2004. The Quest is the most difficult race Bergen has attempted. The distance between checkpoints, the size of the mountain ranges, the diving temperatures and the isolation are enough to drive many of the top mushers away from the race, but for Bergen, the challenge is what pulls her in.

“I just like to be out there with my dogs,” she says. “I don’t really care about the racing. I guess it would be nice to not finish last, but it’s not about that for me. It’s the experience and being out there with my team.”

54

arcticjournal.ca

May/June 2013

ADVENTURE

Six days after leaving Whitehorse she arrives in Dawson City, the halfway point of the race, in 24th place. In Dawson the teams are required to take a 40-hour layover, a chance to rest and prepare for the Alaskan side of the race, where the toughest terrain waits.

When their time is up, they follow a system of frozen riverbeds out of Dawson and into Eagle, Alaska, 240-km north. From there, they venture further north, eventually arriving at the climax of the race — Eagle and Rosebud Summits. Buried in the White Mountains of central Alaska, the summits are feared on the trail; each year, they toss teams aside with storms that come quickly and attack mercilessly.

In 2006, six mushers and 88 dogs were plucked off the mountain face of Eagle, rescued by the National Guard. The helicopters and planes cut through the white scrawl in the early morning hours, searching for the stranded teams.

By the time Bergen is scheduled to leave Dawson, she’s moved up to 20th place. Four of

May/June 2013

Bergen arrives at the base of Eagle Summit nearly four days behind the leader, crossing in the stillness of the night. For once, the mountains sleep and she crosses without incident, a rare, and lucky, occurrence. Her team, still running strong after more than 1,500-km, pulls into Fairbanks the evening of February 15. There’s a small crowd gathered at the finish line, pressing up against the chain link fence that sits above the frozen Chena River. She arrives in last place.

“Sorry I’m a little slow but I kind of liked being out there,” she tells the waiting media.

“I didn’t really want to come in.” It’s taken her 13 days to cross 1,600-km of remote and frozen wilderness; she’s travelled most of it alone.

She’s smiling, but visibly exhausted.

Bergen is the first woman from the Northwest Territories to complete the Quest and now has another Red Lantern to add to her collection, her most impressive yet. It’s her first, and last, Quest; a one-time deal, she says.

Her name will stay here, existing in the folklore and legend of the race, and she’ll head back home — back to her dogs, her traditional ways and life in the North. Just the way she likes it.

Sam Riches

© SAM RICHES (4)

“The summits are always in the back of everyone’s minds,” says Doug Grilliot, a Quest veteran and the 2013 Race Marshal. “It’s not something you want to think about, but you have to. It’s the critical point of this race.”

the teams above her have scratched and one behind her, Christina Traverse of Fort McMurray, Alberta, didn’t make it to Dawson. Suffering from dehydration and sleep deprivation, she set off her SPOT tracker just outside the checkpoint, requesting outside assistance.

Bergen’s closest competitor is more than 19 hours ahead of her. She’ll have to face the next 800-km of frozen wilderness — the summits, the blown-in trails and the overflow — alone.

Just the way she likes it.

“I’m happier on a dogsled than anywhere else. I know I need to sleep and eat, but I’d rather be mushing.” At home in Yellowknife, she has 17 sled dogs at Walk About Kennels, named in honour of a past dog — Qimmiq, a Siberian husky with a wandering spirit.

“He’d be around all the time and then be gone for three days or so,” Bergen recalls.“But then you’d see him at the end of the driveway, with his tail up in the air.”

Storm is her lead dog and one of her favourites. “She’s the most stubborn and you never really know what she’s going to do. She leads really well when she wants to and flips me the bird when she wants to, but I really admire her tenacity and strong will.”

“I prefer to be on my own,” she says. “At home I train by myself. I do everything by myself. We can go at our own pace.”

above & beyond

55

56

arcticjournal.ca

May/June 2013

NORTHERN BOOKSHELF

Ava and the Little Folk Neil Christopher and Alan Neal Jonathan Wright (Illustrator) Inhabit Media, August 2012 Many myths and legends can be heard in the Arctic. Co-authors Neil Christopher and Alan Neal tap into the tales about tiny people who live on the land in their book, Ava and the Little Folk. This children’s story follows the adventures of an orphan named Ava. One day, cold and alone, Ava stumbles upon a group of magical dwarves who show him how it feels to have a home of his own. With watercolour illustrations

by Jonathan Wright, this book is sure to ignite the imaginations of young readers.

Little You Richard Van Camp, Julie Flett (Illustrator), Orca Book Publishers, April 2013 Little you little wonder

Kamik: An Inuit Puppy Story Donald Uluadluak Qin Leng (Illustrator) Inhabit Media, November 2012

Little wish gentle thunder You are mighty you are small You are ours after all Richard Van Camp, proud member of the Dogrib (Tlicho) Nation from Fort Smith, NWT, and internationally renowned storyteller, has partnered with talented illustrator Julie Flett to create a tender board book for babies and toddlers that honours the child in everyone.

With its delightful contemporary illustrations, Little You is perfect to be shared, read or sung to all the little people in your life.

Canada’s Leading Retailer of Inuit Arts & Crafts

In this children’s book, young readers will learn about not only how to raise a new puppy but how obedient, resourceful, and helpful sled dogs are. Kamik is all about how Jake raises his sled dog with the help of his grandfather. Inspired by the real-life recollections of elder and author Donald Uluadluak from Arviat, Nunavut, this book lovingly recreates the traditional dog-rearing practices that prevailed when Inuit relied on dogs for transportation and survival.

“Grazing Caribou”

by Esa Kripanik, Igloolik, Nunavut

northern images A Division of Arctic Co-operatives Ltd.

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

Visit Our New Website

www.northernimages.ca May/June 2013

above & beyond

57

INUIT FORUM

Big night in Bangkok e were in Thailand — several hundred politicians, bureaucrats and scientists from all over the world, sitting at long tables in the ballroom of Bangkok’s Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre, facing forward like schoolchildren.

Ironically, it was an animal rights group, or sirnaati, one that defends unreasonably, that gave me the opening I needed. The guy intervened during debate on the US proposal to uplist polar bear on the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES), a move that would essentially ban trade of pelts and other products.

Amid his diatribe of misinformation, he cited a figure to demonstrate his claim that the polar bear hunt was skyrocketing, saying that the quota in Western Hudson’s Bay had recently tripled.

Then it was my turn to speak and I just couldn’t let that one go by. I challenged the speaker, emphasizing that Inuit deal in science and the truth. To illustrate my point, I unpacked that Western Hudson’s Bay quota, telling delegates that the quota once stood at 52 animals. That number had been reduced to eight and then increased to 24 — a tripling for sure, but a figure less than half the original quota.

It’s funny how a slight change in perspective helps to shed a lot of light.

Tagak Curley, the Nunavut MLA for Rankin Inlet North, had spoken eloquently about hunting with his father on Southampton Island just moments earlier as a member of the Canadian delegation.

It held great significance for me that Tagak, ITK’s first president, and I, the current president, would bookend the Inuit intervention on this issue and represent our people at this international gathering.

© ITK ARCHIVES

© ITK

W

Members of the Inuit delegation in Bangkok included Ernest Pokiak, Gabriel Nirlungayuk, Ross Tatty, David Agkeeagok, Larry Carpenter, Attima Hadlari, James Arreak, Tagak Curley, Jim Goudie and Adamie Delisle-Alaku.

The US proposal was not about taking action on climate change. A vote in favour of the proposal would have absolutely no effect on greenhouse gas emissions.

It was not about protecting polar bears.

The proposal would not reduce our hunting quotas — one of the great misunderstandings perpetrated by animal rights groups in the lead up to the event.

Rather, the proposal was a direct attack on our livelihoods, our ability to earn a living, support our families and provide the necessities of life.

Now, something you have to understand about this meeting and others like it — because each country has one vote, most of the voting members represent small, hot countries. Many have never seen snow, much less a polar bear. But they understand the innate desire to remain self-reliant, to put food on the table.

Delegates spoke of the confusion they felt, and their longing for the truth. That was music to my ears, and I told those delegates to listen to international scientists, including the CITES Secretariat itself, TRAFFIC, the Polar Bear Specialists Group, WWF International, PEW

Environmental Group, and others, who acknowledged that this proposal did not meet the criteria for uplisting.

I reminded them that they acknowledged this fact themselves at the last CITES conference three years prior in Qatar by voting to oppose this same proposal. I asked them to trust their own good judgment in making their decision again that day.

The integrity of CITES and its informed decision-making process was being challenged.

And we were its defenders. When I finished my intervention, there was applause, which I am told is quite rare in this forum. A little while later, the delegates voted.

Thirty-eight voted to support the US proposal to uplist. Forty-two chose to support Inuit livelihoods and reject the proposal.

Another 46, including the members of the European Union, abstained. More on the European Union later.

The rest, as they say, is history. I didn’t stop shaking hands and speaking to international media until the wee hours of the morning. But clearly this fight isn’t over. And I’m ready for battle.

Terry Audla

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

58

arcticjournal.ca

May/June 2013

ᓄᓇᓕᓐᓅᖓᔪᖅ, ᐊᑲᕐᕆᓇᖅᑐᖅ, ᐊᑐᐃᓐᓇᖃᑦᓯᐊᖅᑐᖅ

Nunallaat, Ihuarniq, Atuttiarniq Community, Comfort, Convenience

ᑲᓲᑎᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᓄᓇᕐᔪᐊᑉ ᖄᖓᒍᑦ

Haniliriikhutik Hilarjuap Qulaani Spanning the Top of the World

© INNS NORTH/HOLLY HAREL

xm8n8 yi4b3F4, s6h6g, kNK5 Amundsen Hotel, Gjoa Haven, Nunavut

www.InnsNorth.com ☎ 1-888-To-North ᓄᓇᓕᓐᓂ- ᓇᒻᒥᓂᕆᔭᐅᔪᑦ ᑐᔪᕐᒥᕖᑦ, ᑲᑐᔾᔨᖃᑎᒌᑦᑐᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᓕᒫᒥ.

Nunalinni-namminirijaujut tujurmiviit, kajjiqatigiittut upiuqtaqtulimaami.

Locally-owned hotels, working together across the Arctic.

The Jet is Back First Air offers ATR service 6-days a week between Cambridge Bay and Yellowknife, and now Jet service on Tuesdays. Welcome aboard!

Meet our Cambridge Bay Team: Left to Right: Rudi Philips, Todd Malone, Aimee Glawson, Ross Mahik, Casey Eyegetok