Above & Beyond | Canada's Arctic Journal January-February 2014

CANADA’S ARCTIC JOURNAL

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014 • $ 5.95

ON THIN ICE THE STATE OF ARCTIC SEA ICE

Canadian Polar Commission A Gateway for Northern Research

A Whale-sized History Book The Oldest Living Mammal on Earth

PM40050872

The First Talentshow Salluit

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Brock Friesen / XÇ4 K‰n8

Jobie Tukkiapik / JW bexW4

ᐊᑲᐅᓯᕙᓪᓕᐊᖏᓐᓇᖃᑦᑕᕐᓂᕗᑦ ᐱᔾᔪᑎᒋᓪᓗᑎᑦ

Setting the bar higher for you After reflecting on the year that was, most of us will quickly turn our focus to the New Year that lies ahead. The start of a new year is a time of hope, an opportunity to energize ideas both old and new. It’s a time for taking stock of the past year and set goals for the coming year.

First Air is no different. We reflect on the year 2013, and set goals for 2014 looking for the path to surpassing our customers’ expectations. Each year we set the bar higher for our service delivery.

This year, we are excited about the increased efficiencies that will make traveling more enjoyable for our passengers and shipping more reliable for our cargo customers. After the successful launch of our first 737-400 all passenger aircraft on the OttawaIqaluit route last September, we are very proud to take to the skies with our second, and our first 737-400 configured to a passenger-cargo combination aircraft.

The howling Canadian Eskimo Dog livery, or qimmiq in Inuktitut, adorns the tail of the 737-400 aircraft, C-FFNF. This aircraft will provide greater comfort to our passengers and cargo capacity on our MontrealKuujjuaq route operating as Flight 864/865.

I also take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support. We continually strive to earn the support of our customers and position First Air as the best-in-class northern air carrier for you. With this in mind, I wish you and your family the best in 2014 and look forward to seeing you onboard First Air, The Airline of the North.

Brock Friesen First Air President & CEO

ᐅᑭᐅᖅ ᖄᖏᖅᑐᖅ ᐃᓱᒪᒃᓴᖅᓯᐅᕈᑎᒋᓚᐅᖅᖢᒍ, ᓄᑖᖅ ᐅᑭᐅᖅ ᐃᓱᒪᒃᓴᖅᓯᐅᕈᑎᒋᓗᐊᖅᓕᐸᒃᑕᕗᑦ. ᐅᑭᐅᕐᒧᑦ ᓄᑖᕐᒧᑦ ᐃᑳᓕᖅᑎᓪᓗᑕ ᓂᕆᐅᖕᓂᖃᑦᓯᐊᖅᐸᒃᑐᒍᑦ, ᑲᒪᒋᔪᒪᓕᖅᖢᒋᑦ ᐃᓱᒪᒃ ᓴᖅᓯᐅᕈᑎᒋᓯᒪᔭᑐᖃᕗᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓄᑖᓂᒃ ᐃᓱᒪᓕᐅᖅᖢᑕᓗ. ᖃᓄᐃᓐᓂᕆᓚᐅᖅᑕᕗᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᖑᓚᐅᖅᑐᒥᒃ ᐃᓱᒪᒋᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᐋᖅᑭᒃᓱᐃᕙᓪᓕᐊᓪᓗᑕᓗ ᓄᑖᓂᒃ ᐱᔪᒪᔭᑦᑎᓐᓂᒃ ᐅᑭᐅᒥᒃ ᓄᑖᕐᒥᒃ.

ᓯᕗᓪᓕᖅ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᓕᕆᔨᑦ, First Air, ᑕᐃᒪᐃᓕᐅᖅᐸᖕᒥᔪᑦ.

2013 ᐅᑭᐅᖑᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᐃᓱᒪᒃᓴᖅᓯᐅᕈᑎᒋᓪᓗᒍ, ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐱᔪᒪᔭᑦᑎᓐᓂᒃ ᓇᓗᓇᐃᖅᐸᓪᓕᐊᓕᖅᖢᑕ 2014-ᒥᑦ ᖃᓄᖅ ᐅᖓᑕᐅᑦᓯᔪᖕᓇᕐᒪᖔᑦᑖ ᐱᔨᑦᓯᕋᖅᑕᖅᑕᕗᑦ ᓂᕆᐅᖕᓂᕆᔭᖏᓐᓂᒃ. ᐊᕐᕌᒍᑕᒫᑦ ᐱᔨᑦᓯᕋᕐᓂᑦᑎᓐᓂᒃ ᐊᑲᐅᓯᒋᐊᒃᑲᓐᓃᓐᓇᕋᓱᒃᐸᒃᑐᒍᑦ.

ᑕᒡᕙᓂᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᒥᑦ, ᖁᕕᐊᒋᔭᖃᒻᒪᕆᒃᑐᒍᑦ ᐊᑲᐅᓂᖅᓴᐅᔪᒃᓴᐅᓂᐊᓕᖅᑐᓂᒃ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖁᑎᑦᑎᒍᑦ ᐃᖏᕐᕋᖃᑦᑕᖅᑐᑦ ᐃᓱᒪᒋᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐅᓯᑲᑦᑕᖅᑎᑦᑎᖃᑦᑕᖅᑐᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖁᑎᑦᑎᒍᑦ. ᓄᑖᒥᒃ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖁᑎᑦᑎᓐᓂᒃ 737-400 ᐃᖏᕐᕋᔪᓄᑐᐊᑦᑎᐊᖅ ᑐᕌᖓᔪᕐᒥᒃ ᓴᖅᑭᑎᑦᓯᑦᓯᐊᖅᓯᒪᓕᖅᑎᓪᓗᑕ ᐋᑐᕚᒥᑦ ᐃᖃᓗᖕᓄᑦ ᐅᑎᒧᓪᓗ ᓯᑎᐱᕆᐅᓚᐅᖅᑐᒥᑦ, ᐅᐱᒍᓱᒻᒪᕆᒃᑐᒍᑦ ᑐᒡᓕᐊᓂᒃ ᐊᑐᖅᐸᓪᓕᐊᕆᐊᒥᒃ, ᓯᕗᓪᓕᖅᐹᖑᓪᓗᓂᓗ 737-400 ᑕᒪᐃᓐᓂᒃ ᐃᖏᕐᕋᔪᓄᑦ ᐅᓯᑲᖅᑕᕆᐊᓕᖕᓄᓪᓗ ᑐᕌᖓᔪᖅ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖅ.

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

De nouveaux objectifs toujours plus élevés Après avoir réfléchi à l’année qui vient de se terminer, la plupart d’entre nous tournent leur attention rapidement vers le Nouvel An qui commence. Le début d’une nouvelle année est un moment d’espoir et une occasion de dynamiser les idées tant anciennes que nouvelles. C’est le temps de faire état des réalisations de l’année écoulée et de déterminer les objectifs de l’année à venir.

Chez First Air, les choses ne sont aucunement différentes. Nous réfléchissons à l’année 2013 et établissons nos objectifs pour 2014 en cherchant à dépasser les attentes de nos clients. Chaque année, nous plaçons la barre plus haute en matière de prestation des services.

Cette année, nous sommes heureux de l’amélioration de notre efficacité qui rendra les déplacements des passagers plus agréables et les expéditions plus fiables pour la clientèle des services de fret. Après le lancement réussi de l’aéronef tout-passager 737-400 sur l’itinéraire Ottawa-Iqaluit en septembre dernier, nous sommes très fiers d’inaugurer le tout premier aéronef mixte passager/fret 737-400.

La livrée présentant un chien esquimau qui hurle ou ᒥᐊᒡᒎᑦᑐᖅ ᕿᒻᒥᖅ ᐊᔾᔨᙳᐊᖅ 737-400 ᖃᖓᑕᓲᑉ, C-FFNF, qimmiq en inuktitut orne la queue du 737-400, C-FFNF. ᐸᐱᕈᐊᓂᒃ ᐊᑕᔪᖅ. ᑖᓐᓇ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖅ ᐃᖏᕐᕋᔪᓄᑦ ᐃᖢᕐᕆ - Cet aéronef fournit un plus grand confort à nos ᓂᖅᓴᐅᑎᑦᓯᔪᖅ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐅᓯᑲᖅᑕᕈᖕᓇᕐᓂᖅᓴᐅᓪᓗᓂᓗ ᒪᓐᑐ- passagers et une plus grande capacité de fret sur l’itinéraire Montréal-Kuujjuaq, assurant le vol 864/865. ᔨᐊᒥᑦ ᑰᔾᔪᐊᕐᒧᑦ ᐅᑎᒧᓪᓗ ᐊᑐᐃᓐᓇᐅᓂᐊᖅᖢᓂ ᓈᓴᐅJ’aimerais profiter aussi de l’occasion pour vous ᑎᖃᕐᓗᓂ 864/865. remercier de votre appui continu. Nous nous efforçons ᖁᔭᓕᓯᒪᑦᓯᐊᖅᑐᖓ ᐃᑲᔪᖅᑐᐃᓐᓂᕆᖃᑦᑕᖅᑕᕐᓂᒃ. ᐱᓇᓱᐃᓐde satisfaire notre clientèle dans toute la mesure ᓇᖃᑦᑕᖅᑐᒍᑦ ᐱᔨᑦᓯᕋᖅᑕᖅᑕᑦᑎᓐᓄᑦ ᐃᑲᔪᖅᑐᖅᑕᐅᑦᓯᐊᕈdu possible et de veiller à ce que First Air soit la ᒪᓪᓗᑕ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓯᕗᓪᓕᖅ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᓕᕆᔨᑦ, First Air, ᐅᑭᐅᖅ- meilleure compagnie aérienne du Nord dans sa ᑕᖅᑐᕐᒥᑦ ᐊᑲᐅᓂᖅᐹᖑᑎᓐᓇᓱᖃᑦᑕᖅᖢᑕ ᐃᓕᖕᓄᑦ ᑐᕌᖓ - catégorie. Ceci étant dit, je vous offre, ainsi qu’à vos ᔪᒥᒃ. ᑕᒪᓐᓇ ᐃᓱᒪᒋᓪᓗᒍ, ᑕᐃᒪᑐᖅ 2014-ᒥᑦ ᐱᕚᓪᓕᕐ- familles, mes meilleurs vœux pour 2014 et j’espère ᓂᖃᑦᓯᐊᕐᓂᐊᖅᐳᑎᑦ ᐃᓚᑎᓪᓗ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓂᕆᐅᑦᓯᐊᖅᐳᖓ avoir l’occasion de faire votre connaissance à bord ᐃᓕᖕᓂᒃ ᑕᑯᒋᐊᒥᒃ ᐃᖏᕐᕋᑎᓪᓗᓄᒃ, First Air, ᓯᕗᓪᓕᖅ de First Air, la Ligne aérienne du Nord. ᖃᖓᑕᓲᖁᑎᖓᓐᓂᑦ, ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᕐᒥᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᓕᕆᔨᒻᒪᕇᑦ. ᐸᕌᒃ ᕗᕇᓴᓐ ᕘᔅᑎᐊᒃᑯᓐᓄᑦ ᐊᖓᔪᖅᑳᖅ & ᐊᐅᓚᑦᑎᔨᒻᒪᕆᒃ

Brock Friesen Président-directeur général de First Air

ᐱᒻᒪᕆᐅᑎᑦᑕᕗᑦ ᐃᑲᔪᖅᑐᐃᓃᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᖁᔭᓐᓇᒦᒃ ᕘᔅᑎᐊ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᕐᒥᒃ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᓕᕆᔨᒻᒪᕆᐅᑎᒃᑲᕕᐅᒃ.

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

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

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Publisher & Editor Tom Koelbel Contributing Editor Teevi Mackay

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Inuktitut Translation Kevin Kablutsiak

On Thin Ice

We have camped among polar bears and seals, and enjoyed good company with our Inuit guides.

In our tow are qamutiit equipped with electromagnetic ice thickness sensors and snow radars, which can map ice and snow conditions continuously as we move along on our snowmobiles. The data are required to evaluate the state of the sea ice in the sounds, straits and channels of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, where little is known about sea ice and oceanic change and consequential impacts on the eco-system and local residents. — Text and photos by Dr. Christian Haas

Advertising Doris Ohlmann (Ottawa) 613-257-4999 Circulation Patt Hunter

14 A Whale-sized

Design Robert Hoselton, Beat Studios email: editor@arcticjournal.ca

History Book

Toll Free: 1 • 877 • 2ARCTIC

The Oldest Living Mammal on Earth

Volume 26, No. 1 CANADA’S ARCTIC JOURNAL

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014 • $ 5.95

ON THIN ICE THE STATE OF ARCTIC SEA ICE

Canadian Polar Commission A Gateway for Northern Research

A Whale-sized History Book The Oldest Living Mammal on Earth

PM40050872

The First Talentshow Salluit

o

The most interesting and intriguing fact about the Bowhead whale is that it is believed to be one of the oldest living animals to exist on this planet. With unique collaboration between the Inupiat Inuit whale hunters of Northern Alaska and biologists, it is now estimated that adult Bowheads can, and some likely do, live more than 200 years. — Text by David Reid / Photos by Doc White

January/February 2014

Featured on

34 Canadian Polar Commission The last five decades have witnessed a range of significant changes in the Arctic environment, with warming temperatures and declining sea ice that could open up the region to commercial shipping within the next five decades. The Canadian Polar Commission manages the growing body of news and knowledge about our polar regions. The nature of Canada’s activities in the Arctic encompass different roles: “a pristine wilderness, teasing our imaginations; a frontier, packed with economic opportunity; a laboratory for scientific investigation; and a homeland to part of the country’s population”.

— Tim Lougheed

www.arcticjournal.ca

A GORGEOUS DAY OUT ON THE ICE. © DR.CHRISTIAN HAAS

Cover Price $5.95 ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION RATES Canada 6 issues $30.00

US/Foreign 6 issues $45.00

(Includes applicable taxes)

Read online:

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

January/February 2014

9 above&beyond Message 10 NORTHERN YOUTH Education about Education

by Teevi Mackay 21 LIVING ABOVE & BEYOND 27 RESOURCES

41 ARTS, CULTURE & EDUCATION Inuk Actor Lucy Tulugarjuk

by Isabelle Dubois 46 ADVENTURE To Reach the Magnetic Pole

by Mike Laird

49 COMMUNITY The First Talentshow Salluit

by Alan Dicknoether 52 NORTHERN BOOKSHELF 53 INUIT FORUM Inuit Knowledge

by Terry Audla 54 EXOTICA

by Pierre Dunnigan

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

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arcticjournal.ca

January/February 2014

above&beyond message

Inspired

T

he Arctic’s natural allure and plethora of still hidden

On the evening of December 12, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the

secrets have captivated the minds and hearts of many over

S. and A. Inspiration Foundation’s second annual $1 Million

the centuries. Countless explorers, scientists and academics,

Arctic Inspiration Prize was presented at ArcticNet’s Annual

authors, photographers, artists, environmentalists, philanthro-

Scientific Meeting. Three organizations shared in the award.

pists, global powers and, of course, the indigenous peoples

They were: Barrens to Bridges, The National Strategy on

who call the Arctic “home” in some way all, in differing ways

Inuit Education – National Parent Mobilization Initiative,

perhaps, fall under the spell of its irresistible charms and yet

and SakKijânginnatuk Nunalik: Healthy Homes in Thriving

to be realized riches.

Nunatsiavut Communities.

Most importantly, that love and dedication continues to drive the quest for Arctic knowledge and continues to motivate and inspire; to bring out the very best in individuals, stakeholders and community-based groups working to improve

For complete details on the inspired efforts of these three

the lives of all who live near, or within, the vast circumpolar

very worthy organizations and the people behind them, visit:

reaches of the Arctic Circle.

www.arcticinspirationprize.ca

January/February 2014

above & beyond

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NORTHERN YOUTH

I

admit I had a smooth ride with academics in elementary school. When I lived in Toronto, for grade 7, I first began to realize the importance of working hard in school. I lived with my father that year. He had just completed Articling for his Law degree and he insisted firmly that I get the best grades. When I got 96 per cent on a test I remember him asking me, “where did the other four per cent go?”

That may seem harsh to some, but it was the standard he set. Raising one’s bar to the highest level is important — a concept I was taught at a very young age. I believe it to be a philosophy

ᐅ

ᖃᑐᐃᓐᓇᕐᓚᖓ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕐᓕᓵᖅᑎᓪᓗᖓ ᐊᔪᕐᓇᕆᓗᐊᓚᐅᙱᓐᓇᒃᑯ. ᑐᕌᓐᑐᒥᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕆᐊᖅᓯᒪᑎᓪᓗᖓ ᖁᑦᓯᖕᓂᖅ 7-ᒥᑦ ᑐᑭᓯᕙᓪᓕᐊᓕᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕐᕕᖕᒥᑦ ᐊᒃᓱᕈᕐᓗᖓ ᐱᓕᕆᒋᐊᖃᓐᓂᕐᒥᒃ ᐱᒻᒪᕆᐅᓂᖓᓂᒡᓗ. ᐊᑖᑕᒃᑯᒃᑲᓂᑦ ᐊᖏᕐᕋᖃᓚᐅᖅᑐᖓ ᑖᕙᓂ. ᒪᓕᒐᓕᕆᔨᐅᓂᕐᒥᒃ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᒐᓂᒃᓯᒪᓕᕋᒥ ᐱᓕᕆᔪᓴᓕᓵᓂᒃᓴᓪᓗᓂ ᐅᕙᓐᓄᑦ ᐅᖃᐅᔾᔪᐃᒻᒪᕆᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕈᑎᒃᑲ ᖁᑦᓯᖕᓂᖅᐹᖑᖃᑕᐅᒐᓱᖁᓪᓗᓂᒋᑦ. ᐊᑕᐅᓯᕐᒥᒃ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕐᓂᕐᒥᒃ ᖃᐅᔨᓴᖅᑕᐅᑎᓪᓗᖓ 96%-ᑖᕋᒪ ᐃᖅᑲᐅᒪᔪᖓ ᐊᐱᕆᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᖕᒪᖓ, “ᓇᐅᒡᓕ ᐃᒃᑯᐊ ᐃᓚᖓᑦ 4%?” ᑕᒪᓐᓇ ᐅᐊᕌᓘᔮᖅᑐᒋᔭᐅᔪᖕᓇᖅᑐᖅ ᐃᓚᖏᓐᓄᑦ, ᑭᓯᐊᓂ ᑕᒪᓐᓇ ᐊᙳᑎᒍᒪᓂᕆᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔭᖓ. ᐊᔪᙱᑦᓯᐊᒻᒪᕆᒐᓱᒃᑎᑦᓯᓂᖅ ᐱᒻᒪᕆᐅᔪᖅ—ᑕᒪᑦᓱᒥᖓᑦ ᓄᑕᕋᐅᓪᓗᖓ ᑐᑭᓯᐊᓕᖅᑎ-

U

qatuinnarlanga ilinniarlisaaqtillunga ajurnarilualaunnginnakku. Toronto-mit ilinniariaqsimatillunga qutsingniq 7-mit tukisivallialilauqtuq ilinniarvingmit aksururlunga pilirigiaqannirmik pimmariuninganiglu.

Ataatakkukkanit angirraqalauqtunga taavani.

Maligalirijiunirmik ilinniaganiksimalirami pilirijusalisaaniksalluni uvannut uqaujjuimmarilauqtuq ilinniarutikka qutsingniqpaanguqataugasuqullunigit. Atausirmik ilinniarnirmik qaujisaqtautillutnga 96%-taarama iqqaumajunga apirilauqsimangmanga, “Naugli ikkua ilangat 4%?”

Education about Education

ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕐᓂᖅ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕐᓂᕐᒥᒃ

Or, what I really learned about school

© VINCENT L’HÉRAULT

ᐅᕝᕙᓘᓐᓃᑦ, ᐃᓕᒻᒪᕆᓚᐅᕐᓂᕋ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕐᓂᕐᒥᒃ

that came from the generations before me.

My father grew up in Glasgow, Scotland, and likely received the best education — something for which that country is known. My father’s mother, my dear grandmother Isabelle, has been the real motivator and mover in the process of my education as she insisted I receive a university education and earn a degree.

In late 2013, her wish for me (and mine too) came true. I graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Journalism degree with a minor in Law from Carleton University. It did not happen without a lot of hard work, self-discipline, dedication and a personal work ethic beyond what I’d ever imagined.

I know now that before you can be successful in the school-system (at whatever age or level) it helps to understand what education is. To receive a bit of ‘education about education,’ before reaching university is crucial and would be helpful for young Inuit today.

For example, when you are attending university people occasionally ask, “what will you do with your degree?” — as if a degree is a means to a particular end. It isn’t. There are so many possibilities, opportunities — especially

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Ilinniarniq Ilinniarnirmik

Uvvaluunniit, ilimmarilaurnira ilinniarnirmik by / unikkaaqtanga Teevi Mackay / ᑎᑎᕋᖅᑐᖅ ᑏᕙᐃ ᒪᑲᐃ

ᑕᐅᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔪᖓ. ᐅᒃᐱᕆᖕᒥᔭᕋ ᑕᐃᒪᓐᓇ ᐃᓱᒪᖃᕆᐊᖃᕐᓂᖅ ᐊᑐᖅᑕᐅᔪᑐᖃᐅᓚᕐᒪᑦ ᓯᕗᓪᓕᑦᑎᓐᓄᑦ. ᐊᑖᑕᒐ ᐱᕈᖅᓴᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᒐᓛᔅᑰ, ᓯᑳᑦᓚᓐᒥᑦ (Glasgow, Scotland), ᐊᑲᐅᓂᖅᐹᒥᒃ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕐᓂᖃᖅᑎᑕᐅᓚᐅᖅᑐᒃᓴᐅᓪᓗᓂᓗ — ᓯᑳᑦᓛᓐ ᑕᐃᒪᓐᓇᐃᓂᖓᓂᒃ ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔭᐅᑦᓯᐊᖅᖢᓂ. ᐊᓈᓇᒪ ᐊᓈᓇᖓ, ᐊᓈᓇᑦᓯᐊᕋ ᐃᓴᐱᐅ, ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕐᓂᕆᓯᒪᔭᓐᓄᑦ ᐱᔫᒥᓱᖕᓂᖃᑦᓯᐊᕈᑎᒋᓯᒪᔭᕋ ᑲᔪᓯᒋᐊᒃᑲᓐᓂᕈᑎᒋᓯᒪᓪᓗᒃᑯᓗ. ᐊᔭᐅᕇᓐᓇᖅᓯᒪᔮᖓ ᓯᓚᑦᑐᖅᓴᕐᕕᒡᔪᐊᕐᒧᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕆᐊᖁᓪᓗᓂᖓ ᐱᔭᕇᑦᓯᐊᖁᓪᓗᓂᖓᓗ.

2013 ᓄᙳᐊᓂᑦ, ᐅᕙᓐᓄᑦ ᓂᕆᐅᒍᑎᒋᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᖓ (ᐱᔪᒪᓚᐅᕐᒥᒐᒃᑯ) ᑎᑭᐅᑎᓚᐅᖅᑕᕋ. ᐱᔭᕇᓚᐅᖅᑐᖓ ᐱᕙᓪᓕᐊᔪᓕᕆᓂᕐᒥᒃ ᓯᓚᑦᑐᖅᓴᕐᕕᒡᔪᐊᕐᒥᒃ ᐃᓕᑕᕆᔭᐅᔾᔪᑎᑖᖅᖢᖓ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᒪᓕᒐᓕᕆᓂᕐᒥᒃ ᓵᖓᒍᑦ ᑕᐃᑲᓂ ᑳᔪᑕᓐ ᓯᓚᑦᑐᖅᓴᕐᕕᒡᔪᐊᕐᒥᑦ. ᐊᒃᓱᕈᑦᓯᐊᖅᖢᖓ ᑭᓯᐊᓂ ᐱᔪᖕᓇᖅᓯᓚᐅᖅᑕᕋ, ᑲᔪᓰᓐᓇᖅᖢᖓ, ᓴᐱᓕᖅᑕᐅᓕᑦᓯᐊᖅᖢᖓ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐱᓕᕆᑦᓯᐊᕈᖕᓇᕆᐊᖃᒻᒪᕆᒃᖢᖓ ᐃᓱᒪᒋᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᙱᑦᑕᓐᓂᒃ. ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔪᖓ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕐᓂᒃᑯᑦ ᐊᔪᙱᑦᓯᐊᕈᖕᓇᓚᐅᖅᑳᖅᑎᓐᓇᑎᑦ (ᖃᓄᑐᐃᓐᓇᖅ ᐅᑭᐅᖃᕋᓗᐊᕈᕕᑦ ᖁᑦᓯᖕᓂᖃᕋᓗᐊᕈᕕᓪᓗ) ᐃᑲᔪᕐᓂᖃᖅᑐᖅ ᑐᑭᓯᐊᓗᓂ ᓱᓇᐅᖕᒪᖔᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕐᓂᖅ. ᓲᕐᓗ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᓚᐅᕐᓗᑎᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕐᓂᓕᕆᓂᕐᒥᒃ, ᓯᓚᑦᑐᖅᓴᕐᕕᒡᔪᐊᕐᒧᑦ ᐃᑎᓚᐅᖅᑎᓐᓇᑎᑦ ᐱᒻᒪᕆᐊᓘᔪᖅ ᐃᑲᔪᕐᓂᖃᕋᔭᖅᑐᖅ ᐅᓪᓗᒥᑦ ᐃᓄᖕᓄᑦ ᒪᒃᑯᒃᑐᕐᓄᑦ. ᐆᒃᑑᑎᒋᓗᒍ, ᓯᓚᑦᑐᖅᓴᕐᕕᖕᔪᐊᕐᒥᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᖅᑎᓪᓗᑎᑦ ᐊᐱᕆᔪᑲᓚᐅᑲᖃᑦᑕᖅᑐᖅ, “ᓱᓕᕆᔾᔪᑎᒋᓛᖅᐱᐅᒃ ᓯᓚᑦᑐᖅᓴᕐᕕᒡᔪᐊᕐᒥᑦ ᐱᔭᕇᖅᓯᒪᓃᑦ?” — ᓲᕐᓗ ᐱᔭᕇᕐᓂᕐᒥᒃ ᐃᓕᑕᕆᔭᐅᔾᔪᑎ ᐃᓱᓕᕝᕕᑐᐊᖑᓇᓱᒋᐅᓪᓗᓂ. ᑕᐃᒪᐃᙱᑦᑐᖅ. ᐅᓄᖅ-

Tamanna uaraaluujaaqtugijaujungnaqtuq ilanginnut, kisiani tamanna anngutigumanirilauqsimajanga. Ajunngitsiammarigasuktitsiniq pimmariujuq — tamatsumingat nutaraullunga tukisialiqtitaulauqsimajunga. Ukpiringmijara taimanna isumaqariaqarniq atuqtaujutuqaularmat sivullittinnut.

Ataataga piruqsalauqsimajuq Glasgow, Scotland-mit, akauniqpaamik ilinniarniqaqtitaulauqtuksaullunilu — Scotland taimannaininganik qaujimajautsiaq&uni. Anaanama anaananga, anaanatsiara Isabelle, ilinniarnirisimajannut pijuumisungniqatsiarutigisimajara kajusigiakkannirutigisimallukkulu. Ajauriinnaqsimajaanga silattuqsarvigjuarmut ilinniariaqulluninga pijariitsiaqulluningalu.

2013 nunnguanit, uvannut niriugutigilauqsimanga (pijumalaurmigakku) tikiutilauqtara.

Pijariilauqtunga pivalliajulirinirmik silattuqsarvigjuarmik ilitarijaujjutitaaq&unga ammalu maligalirinirmik saangagut taikani Carleton Silattuqsarvigjuarmit. Aksurutsiaq&unga kisiani pijungnaqsilauqtara, kajusiinnaq&unga, sapiliqtaulitsiaq&unga ammalu piliritsiarungnariaqammarik&unga isumagilauqsimanngittannik.

January/February 2014

NORTHERN YOUTH ᑐᐊᓗᖕᓂᒃ ᐱᕕᒃᓴᖃᕈᑕᐅᔪᖅ — ᐱᓗᐊᖅᑐᒥᒃ ᐃᓄᖕᓄᑦ — ᐱᔭᕇᕐᓂᕐᒥᒃ ᐃᓕᑕᕆᔭᐅᔾᔪᑎᖃᓕᖅᖢᓂ. ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᑦᓯᐊᕐᓂᖅᓴᐅᓛᖅᑐᑎᑦ ᐱᓕᕆᐊᕆᔭᐃᑦ ᐱᔫᒥᒋᑦᓯᐊᕈᖕᓂᑦ. ᑕᒪᓐᓇ ᑐᑭᓯᔭᐅᑦᓯᐊᒻᒪᕆᖁᔭᕋ ᓱᓕᓂᖓᓂᒃ ᑐᑭᓯᐊᑦᓯᐊᒐᓂᒃᑲᒃᑯ—ᐱᓗᐊᖅᑐᒥᒃ ᓯᓚᑦᑐᖅᓴᕐᕕᒡᔪᐊᕐᒥᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᖅᖢᓂ— ᐊᔪᙱᓂᖅᑖᓛᖅᑐᑎᑦ ᓯᓚᑦᑐᖅᓴᕐᕕᒡᔪᐊᕐᒥᑦ ᑭᓯᐊᓂᑦ ᐱᔪᖕᓇᖅᑐᓂᒃ. ᓯᓚᑦᑐᖅᓴᕐᕕᒡᔪᐊᕐᒥᑦ ᐱᔭᕇᕐᓂᕐᒥᒃ ᐃᓕᑕᕆᔭᐅᔾᔪᑎᖃᖅᖢᓂ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᖅᑎᑖᕈᒪᔪᓂᒃ ᖃᐅᔨᒪᑎᑦᓯᕙᒃᑐᖅ ᐱᔪᖕᓇᕐᓂᖃᑦᓯᐊᕋᕕᑦ, ᐊᒃᓱᕈᕐᓗᑎᑦ ᐱᓕᕆᔪᖕᓇᕋᕕᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑕᑎᒋᔭᐅᔪᖕᓇᑦᓯᐊᕋᕕᓪᓗ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔭᖅᑎᑦᓯᐊᖑᓛᕌᕕᑦ. ᑕᒪᒃᑯᓂᖓᑦ ᓯᓚᑦᑐᖅᓴᕐᕕᒡᔪᐊᖅ ᐊᔪᕈᖕᓇᐃᖅᑎᑦᓯᕙᒃᑐᖅ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕐᓂᕆᔭᑦ ᑐᕌᒻᒪᕆᙱᒃᑲᓗᐊᕈᓂ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔮᕆᔪᒪᔭᕐᓄᑦ. ᓯᓚᑦᑐᖅᓴᕐᕕᒡᔪᐊᕐᒥᑦ ᐱᔭᕇᕐᓂᖅ ᐊᔪᙱᓂᖃᕐᓂᕐᒥᒃ ᓇᓗᓇᐃᕈᑕᐅᔪᖅ. ᑕᒪᓐᓇ ᑐᑭᓯᐊᓕᖅᓯᒪᔭᕋ ᐊᓈᓇᑦᓯᐊᓐᓂᒃ ᓯᑳᑦᓚᓐᒥᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑕᒡᕘᖓ ᐅᓂᒃᑲᐅᑎᒋᔪᒪᓪᓗᒃᑯ ᐱᒻᒪᕆᐅᓂᖓᓂᒃ, ᐱᓗᐊᖅᑐᒥᒃ ᓯᓚᑦᑐᖅᓴᕐᕕᒡᔪᐊᕐᒧᑦ ᓲᖃᐃᒻᒪ ᓇᖕᒥᓂᖅ ᐊᑐᖅᓯᒪᒐᒃᑯ. ᓈᒻᒪᒋᙱᑦᑕᕋ ᐊᐱᖅᑯᑎᖃᕌᖓᑦ ᖃᓄᖅ ᓯᓚᑦᑐᖅᓴᕐᕕᒡᔪᐊᕐᒥᑦ ᐱᔭᕇᕐᓂᕐᒥᒃ ᐃᓕᑕᕆᔭᐅᔾᔪᑎ ᐊᑐᖅᑕᐅᔪᒪᓛᕐᒪᖔᑦ. ᑭᓯᐊᓂᓕ ᐃᑲᔪᖅᑐᑐᐃᓐᓇᕐᓗᒍ ᓯᓚᑦᑐᖅᓴᕐᕕᒡᔪᐊᕐᒥᑦ ᐱᔭᕇᕋᓱᒃᑐᖅ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑐᑭᓯᒐᓱᒃᑎᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᖃᓄᑐᐃᓐᓇᑦᓯᐊᖅ ᐱᕕᒃᓴᖃᓕᓛᕐᒪᑕ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕈᑎᒋᔭᖏᓐᓂᒃ ᐱᔭᕇᖅᓯᒪᓕᕈᑎᒃ. ᓯᓚᑦᑐᖅᓴᕐᕕᒡᔪᐊᕐᒧᑦ ᐃᑎᓚᐅᙱᑎᓪᓗᖓᓘᓐᓃᑦ ᓱᓕ ᐃᓕᕋᓇᖅᑐᐊᓘᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ, ᑕᒪᓐᓇ ᐃᓕᕋᓱᖕᓂᖅ ᐅᓄᖅᑐᓄᑦ ᑐᓗᕈᑕᐅᖅᑰᔨᒋᓪᓗᒃᑯᓗ. ᓯᕗᓪᓕᖅᐹᕐᒥᒃ, ᓯᓚᑦᑐᖅᓴᕐᕕᒡᔪᐊᖅ ᖃᓄᐃᒻᒪᖔᑦ ᑐᑭᓯᐊᓕᕆᐊᖃᓚᐅᖅᑕᕋ. ᐃᒻᒪᖄ ᐃᓕᕋᓱᖕᓂᕋ ᓱᓕᔾᔪᑎᖃᑦᓯᐊᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ. ᓯᓚᑦᑐᖅᓴᕐᕕᒡᔪᐊᖅ ᐊᒃᓱᕈᖅᑎᑦᓯᒻᒪᕆᖃᑦᑕᖅᑐᖅ ᐱᓕᕆᒋᐊ ᖃᕐᓇᒻ ᒪᕆᒃᖢᓂᓗ ᐊᑐᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᙱᑦ ᑕᕐᓂᒃ

© MITCHELL WHITE

for Inuit — after earning a degree.You will do better in school if the program truly interests you.

I cannot stress this enough because I know this to be true — particularly for universitylevel learning — you will gain skills that only a university education offers. Earning a university education proves to potential employers that you are a capable, hard-working and dependable person and would make a good employee.

University teaches these skills even though your chosen field of study is not necessarily applicable or related to the job you wish to apply for.

Success is found in the very attainment of a degree. I know this philosophy from my grandmother in Scotland and choose here to stress its importance, especially for university because it is what I have experienced personally. I do not agree with questioning intentions for what one will do with their degree. Allow someone to earn a degree and encourage them to know that there will be many different opportunities waiting for them once they complete their studies.

Before even stepping foot in university, I was intimidated by it and I believe that this intimidation is a common barrier to many. To begin with, I had to learn the university culture. My intimidation was perhaps well founded. University pushes you to levels of work that you’ve never experienced and leads to ways of thinking that you never knew existed.

I wish I were able to put the right words to paper to accurately describe to young Inuit the many trials and challenges I went through to get to where I am today. What I can say with

January/February 2014

Qaujimajunga ilinniarnikkut ajunngitsiarungnalauqqaaqtinnatit (qanutuinnaq ukiuqaraluaruvit qutsingniqaraluaruvillu) ikajurniqaqtuq tukisialuni sunaungmangaat ilinniarniq.

Suurlu ilinnialaurlutit ilinniarnilirinirmik, silattuqsarvigjuarmut itilauqtinnatit pimmarialuujuq ikajurniqarajaqtuq ullumit Inungnut makkukturnut.

Uuktuutigilugu, silattuqsarvingjuarmit ilinniaqtillutit apirijukalaukaqattaqtuq, “Sulirijjutigilaaqpiuk silattuqsarvigjuarmit pijariiqsimaniit?”— suurlu pijariirnirmik ilitarijaujjuti isulivvituangunasugiulluni. Taimainngittuq. Unuqtualungnik piviksaqarutaujuq — piluaqtumik Inungnut — pijariirnirmik ilitarijaujjutiqaliq&uni. Ilinniatsiarniqsaulaaqtutit piliriarijait pijuumigitsiarungnit.

Tamanna tukisijautsiammariqujara sulininganik tukisiatsiaganikkakku — piluaqtumik silattuqsarvigjuarmit ilinniaq&uni — ajunnginiqtaalaaqtutit silattuqsarvigjuarmit kisianit pijungnaqtunik. Silattuqsarvigjuarmit pijariirnirmik ilitarijaujjutiqaq&uni iqqanaijaqtitaarumajunik qaujimatitsivaktuq pijungnarniqatsiaravit, aksururlutit pilirijungnaravit ammalu tatigijaujungnatsiaravillu ammalu iqqanaijaqtitsiangulaaraavit. Tamakkuningat silattuqsarvigjuaq ajurungnaiqtitsivaktuq ilinniarnirijat turaammarinngikkaluaruni iqqanaijaarijumajarnut.

Silattuqsarvigjuarmit pijariirniq ajunnginiqarnirmik nalunairutaujuq. Tamanna tukisialiqsimajara anaanatsiannik Scotland-mit ammalu tagvuunga unikkautigijumallukku pimmariuninganik, piluaqtumik silattuqsarvigjuarmut suuqaimma nangminiq atuqsimagakku. Naammaginngittara apiqqutiqaraangat qanuq silattuqsarvigjuarmit pijariirnirmik ilitarijaujjuti atuqtaujumalaarmangaat. Kisianili ikajuqtutuinnarlugu silattuqsarvigjuarmit pijariirasuktuq ammalu tukisigasuktillugit qanutuinnatsiaq piviksaqalilaarmata ilinniarutigijanginnik pijariiqsimalirutik.

Silattuqsarvigjuarmut itilaunngitillungaluunniit suli iliranaqtualuulauqtuq, tamanna ilirasungniq unuqtunut tulurutauqquujigillukkulu. Sivulliqpaarmik, silattuqsarvigjuaq qanuimmangaat tukisialiriaqalauqtara. Immaqaa ilirasungnira sulijjutiqatsialauqtuq. Silattuqsarvigjuaq aksuruqtitsimmariqattaqtuq pilirigiaqarnammarik&unilu atulauqsimanngittarnik ammalu isumamik atulauqsimanngittarnik isumaksaqsiuqtitsivaktuq.

Titirarumatsiaraluaqtunga tukisinatsiaqtunik uqausirnik unikkaatsiaqtunik Inungnut makkukturnut aksururnaqtukkuurutigilauqsimajannik tagvunga ullumimut tikiutijungnarutigililauqtannik. Nalunngitsiarlunga uqarungnaqtungali

above & beyond

11

NORTHERN YOUTH

© COLIN MILLICIN

Mitchell White of Nunatsiavut is a close friend. He, too, is a journalist and is currently a second year student at Carleton University.

confidence is that what carried me through was that I had a singular goal in mind — to graduate with a degree — and to never ever quit no matter how many tears were shed along the way. Somehow I found that inner strength to overcome the barriers that were put before me.

A university education is not intended to be easy. No one was going to earn my degree for me, but I have to say that on my graduation day, I felt the biggest sense of accomplishment I’d felt in my life. It was as if that day, November 9, 2013, I’d been truly rewarded for all that I had worked for.

I remembered my father, Euan, (who has since passed on) bringing me to my first day of kindergarten. It was such a big step in my life to start school and I remember being very excited about the prospect of beginning school as I had watched and looked up to my older siblings.

Perhaps those first feelings about school never went away and as it turned out, my university graduation day was very, very special. When the Scottish bag pipers led the Carleton University faculty into the Convocation ceremony, my thoughts went to my father. I thought of my father a lot during the ceremony, knowing that he would have been proud. In part, it is through his teachings and the high standards he set for me early on that I had gotten this far.

My mother, Igah, has also been the backbone of my success. She is a teacher by trade and teaches Inuktitut at Carleton University.

Her eyes after the ceremony said it all: she was so proud of my accomplishment and knew that I had worked for every bit of it. She hosted 12

arcticjournal.ca

ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᓱᒪᒥᒃ ᐊᑐᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᙱᑦᑕᕐᓂᒃ ᐃᓱᒪᒃᓴᖅᓯᐅᖅᑎᑦᓯᕙᒃᑐᖅ. ᑎᑎᕋᕈᒪᑦᓯᐊᕋᓗᐊᖅᑐᖓ ᑐᑭᓯᓇᑦᓯᐊᖅᑐᓂᒃ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᕐᓂᒃ ᐅᓂᒃᑳᑦᓯᐊᖅᑐᓂᒃ ᐃᓄᖕᓄᑦ ᒪᒃᑯᒃᑐᕐᓄᑦ ᐊᒃᓱᕈᕐᓇᖅᑐᒃᑰᕈᑎᒋᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔭᓐᓂᒃ ᑕᒡᕗᖓ ᐅᓪᓗᒥᒧᑦ ᑎᑭᐅᑎᔪᖕᓇᕈᑎᒋᓕᓚᐅᖅᑕᓐᓂᒃ. ᓇᓗᙱᑦᓯᐊᕐᓗᖓ ᐅᖃᕈᖕᓇᖅᑐᖓᓕ ᐊᑕᐅᓯᕐᒥᒃ ᐱᔪᒪᓂᖃᖅᖢᖓ ᑲᔪᓯᑦᓯᐊᕈᑎᒋᓚᐅᕋᒃᑯ — ᐱᔭᕇᕈᒪᓪᓗᖓ ᐃᓕᑕᕆᔭᐅᔾᔪᑎᑖᕐᓗᖓᓗ — ᓴᐱᓕᖅᑕᐃᓕᑦᓯᐊᕐᓗᖓᓗ ᐱᔭᕇᕋᓱᒃᑎᓪᓗᖓ ᕿᐊᑲᑕᐃᓐᓇᕋᓗᐊᕐᓗᖓ. ᖃᓄᑭᐊᖅ ᐃᓗᓐᓂᒃ ᓴᙱᓂᖃᕈᖕᓇᓚᐅᖅᑐᖓ ᖄᖏᐅᑎᔪᖕᓇᕈᑎᒋᓚᐅᖅᑕᓐᓂᒃ ᑐᓗᕈᑕᐅᖃᑦᑕᓚᐅᖅᑐᓂᒃ. ᓯᓚᑦᑐᖅᓴᕐᕕᒡᔪᐊᕐᒥᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕐᓂᖅ ᐱᔭᕆᐊᑭᒃᑑᖏᑦᑐᖅ. ᑭᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᕐᒧᑦ ᐱᔭᕇᕈᑕᐅᓂᐊᙱᓚᐅᖅᑐᖓ, ᑭᓯᐊᓂ ᓇᖕᒥᓂᖅ ᐅᕙᖓ ᑕᒪᓐᓇ ᐅᖃᕆᐊᖃᓚᐅᖅᑕᕋ ᐃᓕᑕᕆᔭᐅᓕᖅᑎᓪᓗᖓ ᐱᔭᕇᕐᓂᓐᓂᒃ, ᐃᓅᓯᓐᓂᒃ ᐊᖏᓂᖅᐹᒥᒃ ᐱᔭᕆᐊᑐᓂᖅᐹᒥᒃ ᐱᔭᕇᖅᑐᑐᑦ ᐃᒃᐱᒋᔭᖃᓚᐅᖅᑐᖓ. ᓲᕐᓗ ᑖᓐᓇ ᐅᓪᓗᖅ ᑎᑭᒻᒪᑦ, ᓄᕕᐱᕆ 9, 2013, ᐊᒃᓱᕈᒻᒪᕆᒃᖢᖓ ᐱᓕᕆᓂᕆᓚᐅᖅᑕᓐᓂᒃ ᐃᓕᑕᕆᔭᐅᓕᓚᐅᕋᒪ. ᐃᖅᑲᐅᒪᓚᐅᖅᑕᕋ ᐊᑖᑕᒐ, ᐃᐅᔭᓐ Euan (ᐃᓅᔪᖕᓇᐃᖅᓯᒪᓕᖅᑐᖅ), ᓯᕗᓪᓕᖅᐹᓪᓚᕆᖕᒥᒃ ᐅᓪᓗᕐᒥᒃ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕆᐊᓕᓵᖅᑎᓪᓗᖓ. ᐅᕙᓐᓄᑦ ᐊᖏᔪᐊᓘᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕆᐊᓕᓵᕐᓂᖅ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᖅᑲᐅᒪᔪᖓ ᖁᕕᐊᓱᒻᒪᕆᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᒐᒪ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕈᖕᓇᖅᓯᓂᐊᓕᕋᒪ ᖃᑕᙳᑎᒃᑲᑎᑐᑦ ᐊᖓᔪᒃᖡᑦ ᑕᐅᑐᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᒐᒃᑭᑦ ᐅᐱᒋᓪᓗᒃᑭᓪᓗ. ᐃᒻᒪᖄ ᑕᐃᒃᑯᐊ ᓯᕗᓪᓕᖅᐹᕐᒥᒃ ᐃᒃᐱᖕᓂᐊᕆᓚᐅᖅᑕᒃᑲ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕐᕕᐅᑉ ᒥᒃᓵᓄᑦ ᐊᓯᙱᑕᐃᓐᓇᖅᓯᒪᔪᑦ, ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑕᐃᒪᐃᒻᒪᑦ ᓯᓚᑦᑐᖅᓴᕐᕕᒡᔪᐊᕐᒥᑦ ᐱᔭᕇᕐᓂᓐᓂᒃ ᐃᓕᑕᕆᔭᐅᓕᖅᑎᓪᓗᖓ ᐅᐱᓐᓇᕈᑎᒋᒻᒪᕆᓚᐅᖅᑕᕋ. ᓯᑳᑦᓚᓐᒥᐅᑎᑐᑦ ᓂᔾᔭᐅᓯᔭᖅᑎᑦ ᓯᕗᓕᐅᖅᑎᐅᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᑳᔪᑕᓐ ᓯᓚᑦᑐᖅᓴᕐᕕᒡᔪᐊᕐᒥᑦ ᐃᓕᓴᐃᔨᒻᒪᕆᖏᑦ ᐃᑎᖅᑎᖅᐸᓪᓕᐊᓕᖅᑎᓪᓗᒋᑦ, ᐊᑖᑕᒐ ᐃᖅᑲᑲᐅᑎᒋᓚᐅᖅᑕᕋ. ᐊᑖᑕᒐ ᐃᖅᑲᐅᒪᑦᓯᐊᓚᐅᖅᑕᕋ ᑲᔪᓯᑎᓪᓗᒍ ᐱᔭᕇᖅᑐᓂᒃ ᐃᓕᑕᖅᓯᓂᖅ, ᖃᐅᔨᒪᓪᓗᖓᓗ ᐅᐱᒍᓱᒻᒪᕆᒐᔭᓚᐅᕐᒪᑦ. ᐅᕙᓐᓄᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕈᑎᒋᕙᓚᐅᖅᑕᖏᑦ ᐊᒃᓱᕈᕆᐊᒃᑲᓐᓂᖁᕙᓚᐅᕐᓂᖏᓪᓗ ᒪᒃᑯᒃᑲᓐᓂᖅᑎᓪᓗᖓ ᐊᔭᐅᕈᑎᒋᖃᑕᐅᓚᐅᖅᑕᒃᑲ ᐅᓪᓗᒥᒧᑦ. ᐊᓈᓇᒐ, ᐊᐃᒐ Igah, ᐊᔪᙱᓂᓐᓂᒃ ᐱᔪᖕᓇᖅᑎᑦᓯᓯ-

atausirmik pijumaniqaq&unga kajusitsiarutigilaurakku — pijariirumallunga ilitarijaujjutitaarlungalu — sapiliqtailitsiarlungalu pijariirasuktillunga qiakatainnaraluarlunga. Qanukiaq ilunnik sannginiqarungnalauqtunga qaangiutijungnarutigilauqtannik tulurutauqattalauqtunik.

Silattuqsarvigjuarmit ilinniarniq pijariakiktuungittuq. Kinatuinnarmut pijariirutaunianngilauqtunga, kisiani nangminiq uvanga tamanna uqariaqalauqtara ilitarijauliqtillunga pijariirninnik, inuusinnik anginiqpaamik pijariatuniqpaamik pijariiqtutut ikpigijaqalauqtunga. Suurlu taanna ulluq tikimmat, Nuvipiri 9, 2013, aksurummarik&unga pilirinirilauqtannik ilitarijaulilaurama.

Iqqaumalauqtara ataataga, Euan (inuujungnaiqsimaliqtuq), sivulliqpaallaringmik ullurmik ilinniarialisaaqtillunga. Uvannut angijualuulauqsimajuq ilinniarialisaarniq ammalu iqqaumajunga quviasummarilauqsimagama ilinniarungnaqsinialirama qatanngutikkatitut angajuk&iit tautulauqsimagakkit upigillukkillu.

Immaqaa taikkua sivulliqpaarmik ikpingniarilauqtakka ilinniarviup miksaanut asinngitainnaqsimajut, ammalu taimaimmat silattuqsarvigjuarmit pijariirninnik ilitarijauliqtillunga upinnarutigimmarilauqtara. Scotland-miutitut nijjausijaqtit sivuliuqtiullutik Carleton Silattuqsarvigjuarmit ilisaijimmaringit itiqtiqpallialiqtillugit, ataataga iqqakautigilauqtara. Ataataga iqqaumatsialauqtara kajusitillugu pijariiqtunik ilitaqsiniq, qaujimallungalu upigusummarigajalaurmat. Uvannut ilinniarutigivalauqtangit aksururiakkanniquvalaurningillu makkukkanniqtillunga ajaurutigiqataulauqtakka ullumimut.

Anaanaga, Igah, ajunngininnik pijungnaqtitsisimangmijuqtauq. Ilinniaqtitsijiungmijuq ilinniaqtitsivak&unilu Inuktitut uqausilirinirmik Carleton Silattuqsarvigjuarmit. Pijariiqtunik ilitaqsiniq isulittillugu ijingit takutuinnaq&ugit nalunalaunngittuq: uvannik upigusummarialungninga pijariirninnik ammalu qaujimagami aksuruq&unga pilirijjutigisimalaurakku ilitarijaujjutiga. Tunilauqtaanga piujummariingnik kamiingnik tungujuqtuullutik anaanatsiarma miqsuqtavinigik ilitarijauniaqtillunga tunirrutiksauniaq&utik. Taakkuak kamiik tukiqarutiJanuary/February 2014

special dinners on two separate occasions to celebrate my success. She gave me a pair of the most beautiful blue kamiik my grandmother made as my graduation gift. These sealskin boots are a symbol of all that I had to go through to get here — they are stylized, traditional with a modern twist.

The narrative today in the North — more so than ever — is the need to educate young people.

I believe that to also include continuing to find ways to inspire young people, showing them the power of education and following through on giving young people the emotional and financial support and tools that will help them succeed.

I strongly believe in ingraining seeds of knowledge about educational philosophy, as this can really help young people attain their desired goals in life. I think it is foundational that young people know that it is an imperative to receive as much education as they wish in whatever sphere or aspect of life that interests them the most. Through that quest they will find independence and satisfaction, true benefits that are life-changing.

Financial support is available for Inuit wanting to pursue a post-secondary education and I believe Inuit should understand this and make use of what is there for them. I also want to encourage parents to support their children to succeed in school, which of course means attending school regularly. Setting an example for my daughter has been part of my determination to complete my degree. The power of setting an example to our children can never be underestimated. I encourage all young people to dream big, aim high in their goals and work hard to do well in school. The rewards of an education are incredible.

January/February 2014

ᒪᖕᒥᔪᖅᑕᐅᖅ. ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᖅᑎᑦᓯᔨᐅᖕᒥᔪᖅ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᖅᑎᑦᓯᕙᒃᖢᓂᓗ ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᓕᕆᓂᕐᒥᒃ ᑳᔪᑕᓐ ᓯᓚᑦᑐᖅᓴᕐᕕᒡᔪᐊᕐᒥᑦ. ᐱᔭᕇᖅᑐᓂᒃ ᐃᓕᑕᖅᓯᓂᖅ ᐃᓱᓕᑦᑎᓪᓗᒍ ᐃᔨᖏᑦ ᑕᑯᑐᐃᓐᓇᖅᖢᒋᑦ ᓇᓗᓇᓚᐅᙱᑦᑐᖅ: ᐅᕙᓐᓂᒃ ᐅᐱᒍᓱᒻᒪᕆᐊᓗᖕᓂᖓ ᐱᔭᕇᕐᓂᓐᓂᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᖃᐅᔨᒪᒐᒥ ᐊᒃᓱᕈᖅᖢᖓ ᐱᓕᕆᔾᔪᑎᒋᓯᒪᓚᐅᕋᒃᑯ ᐃᓕᑕᕆᔭᐅᔾᔪᑎᒐ. ᑐᓂᓚᐅᖅᑖᖓ ᐱᐅᔪᒻᒪᕇᖕᓂᒃ ᑲᒦᖕᓂᒃ ᑐᖑᔪᖅᑑᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᐊᓈᓇᑦᓯᐊᕐᒪ ᒥᖅᓱᖅᑕᕕᓂᒋᒃ ᐃᓕᑕᕆᔭᐅᓂᐊᖅᑎᓪᓗᖓ ᑐᓂᕐᕈᑎᒃᓴᐅᓂᐊᖅᖢᑎᒃ. ᑖᒃᑯᐊᒃ ᑲᒦᒃ ᑐᑭᖃᕈᑎᒋᔭᒃᑲ ᐊᑐᕆᐊᖃᓚᐅᖅᑕᓕᒫᓐᓂᒃ ᐅᓪᓗᒥᒧᑦ ᑎᑭᒐᓱᒃᑎᓪᓗᖓ — ᑲᒥᓕᐅᖅᑕᐅᕙᒃᑐᑐᑦ ᒥᖅᓱᖅᓯᒪᔫᒃ ᑭᓯᐊᓂ ᓄᑖᖑᓂᖅᓴᒥᒃ ᑕᖅᓴᖃᖅᑑᒃ. ᐅᓪᓗᒥ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᕐᒥᑦ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᐅᖏᓐᓇᖅᐸᓕᖅᑐᖅ ᒪᒃᑯᒃᑐᕐᓂᒃ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᖅᑎᑦᓯᒋᐊᖃᕐᓂᖅ. ᒪᒃᑯᒃᑐᕐᓂᒃ ᐃᓱᒻᒥᑦᓯᐊᖅᑎᑦᓯᒐᓱᐃᓐᓇᕆᐊᖃᕐᒥᔪᒍᑦᑕᐅᖅ, ᑕᑯᑎᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕐᓂᐅᑉ ᓴᙱᓂᖓᓂᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᑲᔪᕈᑎᒃᓴᖏᓐᓂᒃ ᑐᓂᓯᒪᑦᓯᐊᖃᑕᐅᖕᒥᓗᒋᑦ ᐊᔭᐅᕆᑦᓯᐊᕐᓂᕐᒥᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑮᓇᐅᔭᑎᒍᑦ ᐊᓯᖏᑎᒍᓪᓗ ᐱᔭᕇᑦᓯᐊᒐᓱᖁᓪᓗᒋᑦ. ᐅᒃᐱᕆᔭᖃᒻᒪᕆᒃᑐᖓ ᐃᒃᐱᒍᓱᒃᑎᑦᓯᒻᒪᕆᖕᓂᕐᒥᒃ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕐᓂᐅᑉ ᒥᒃᓵᓄᑦ ᐃᓱᒪᑦᓯᐊᕈᖕᓇᕐᓂᕐᒥᒃ, ᑕᒪᓐᓇ ᐃᑲᔪᕐᓂᖃᒻᒪᕆᒍᖕᓇᕐᒪᑦ ᒪᒃᑯᒃᑐᕐᓂᒃ ᐊᙳᑎᒐᓱᒃᑎᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᐃᓅᓯᖏᓐᓂᒃ ᐱᔪᒪᔭᖏᓐᓂᒃ. ᑕᒪᓐᓇ ᑐᙵᕕᐅᓱᒋᔭᕋ ᒪᒃᑯᒃᑐᑦ ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔭᕆᐊᖃᕐᒪᑕ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᑦᓯᐊᒻᒪᕆᒋᐊᖃᕐᓂᖏᓐᓂᒃ ᖃᓄᑐᐃᓐᓇᖅ ᐱᔪᒪᔭᖏᓐᓂᒃ ᒪᓕᒡᓗᑎᒃ. ᑕᐃᒪᐃᒃᑯᑎᒃ ᓇᖕᒥᓂᖅ ᒪᑭᑕᒍᖕᓇᑦᓯᐊᓕᓛᖅᑐᑦ ᐃᖢᕐᕆᓂᖃᑦᓯᐊᕐᓗᑎᒡᓗ, ᐱᕚᓪᓕᕈᑕᐅᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᐃᓅᓯᕐᒥᒃ ᐊᓯᔾᔩᔪᖕᓇᖅᖢᑎᒃ. ᑮᓇᐅᔭᑎᒍᑦ ᐃᑳᔫᑎᒃᓴᖅᑕᖃᖅᑐᖅ ᐃᓄᖕᓄᑦ ᓯᓚᑦᑐᖅᓴᕐᕕᖕᒥᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕆᐊᒃᑲᓐᓂᕈᒪᔪᓄᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐅᒃᐱᕈᓱᒃᑐᖓ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᑖᑉᓱᒥᖓᑦ ᑐᑭᓯᐊᒋᐊᖃᕐᒪᑕ ᐊᑐᑦᓯᐊᕐᓗᑎᒡᓗ ᐊᑐᐃᓐᓇᐅᔪᓂᒃ. ᐃᑲᔪᖅᑐᕈᒪᖕᒥᔭᒃᑲ ᐊᖓᔪᖅᑳᑦ ᐃᑲᔪᖅᑐᐃᖃᑕᐅᑦᓯᐊᖁᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᓄᑕᕋᖏᓐᓂᒃ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᑦᓯᐊᖁᓪᓗᒋᑦ, ᖃᐅᑕᒫᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕆᐊᖅᑎᑕᕐᓗᒋᑦ. ᐸᓂᓐᓄᑦ ᑕᑯᔭᒃᓴᑦᓯᐊᖑᒐᓱᖕᓂᕋ ᑲᔪᓰᓐᓇᑦᓯᐊᕈᑎᒋᓯᒪᖕᒥᔭᕋ ᐱᔭᕇᕋᓱᒃᑎᓪᓗᖓ ᓯᓚᑦᑐᖅᓴᕐᕕᒡᔪᐊᕐᒥᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕐᓂᓐᓂᒃ. ᓄᑕᕋᑦᑎᓐᓄᑦ ᑕᑯᔭᒃᓴᑦᓯᐊᖑᓂᐅᑉ ᓴᙱᓂᖓ ᐅᔾᔨᖅᑐᖅᑕᐅᑦᓯᐊᖏᓐᓇᕆᐊᓕᒃ ᑐᑭᓯᐊᔭᐅᑦᓯᐊᕐᓗᓂ. ᒪᒃᑯᒃᑐᓕᒫᕐᓂᒃ ᐃᑲᔪᖅᑐᐃᔪᖓ ᐊᖏᔪᐊᓗᖕᓂᒃ ᐱᔪᒪᓂᖃᖁᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᒃᓱᕈᕐᓗᑎᒃ ᐱᓕᕆᖁᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᑦᓯᐊᕐᓂᐊᕐᒪᑕ. ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᑦᓯᐊᖅᓯᒪᓂᒃᑯᑦ ᐱᕕᒃᓴᑦ ᐅᐱᓐᓇᒻᒪᕆᒃᑐᑦ.

NORTHERN YOUTH gijakka aturiaqalauqtalimaannik ullumimut tikigasuktillunga — kamiliuqtauvaktutut miqsuqsimajuuk kisiani nutaanguniqsamik taqsaqaqtuuk.

Ullumi ukiuqtaqturmit uqausiunginnaqpaliqtuq makkukturnik ilinniaqtitsigiaqarniq.

Makkukturnik isummitsiaqtitsigasuinnariaqarmijuguttauq, takutillugit ilinniarniup sanngininganik ammalu ikajurutiksanginnik tunisimatsiaqataungmilugit ajauritsiarnirmik ammalu kiinaujatigut asingitigullu pijariitsiagasuqullugit.

Ukpirijaqammariktunga ikpigusuktitsimmaringnirmik ilinniarniup miksaanut isumatsiarungnarnirmik, tamanna ikajurniqammarigungnarmat makkukturnik anngutigasuktillugit inuusinginnik pijumajanginnik. Tamanna tunngaviusugijara makkuktut qaujimajariaqarmata ilinniatsiammarigiaqarninginnik qanutuinnaq pijumajanginnik maliglutik. Taimaikkutik nangminiq makitagungnatsialilaaqtut i&urriniqatsiarlutiglu, pivaallirutaullutik inuusirmik asijjiijungnaq&utik.

Kiinaujatigut ikaajuutiksaqtaqaqtuq Inungnut silattuqsarvingmit ilinniariakkannirumajunut ammalu ukpirusuktunga Inuit taapsumingat tukisiagiaqarmata atutsiarlutiglu atuinnaujunik. Ikajuqturumangmijakka angajuqqaat ikajuqtuiqatautsiaqullugit nutaranginnik ilinniatsiaqullugit, qautamaat ilinniariaqtitarlugit.

Paninnut takujaksatsiangugasungnira kajusiinnatsiarutigisimangmijara pijariirasuktillunga silattuqsarvigjuarmit ilinniarninnik. Nutarattinnut takujaksatsianguniup sanngininga ujjiqtuqtautsianginnarialik tukisiajautsiarluni. Makkuktulimaarnik ikajuqtuijunga angijualungnik pijumaniqaqullugit ammalu aksururlutik piliriqullugit ilinniatsiarniarmata. Ilinniatsiaqsimanikkut piviksat upinnammariktut.

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A whale-sized history book The oldest living mammal on earth Text by David Reid Photos by Doc White

We are amazed and fascinated when we encounter any ancient building or structure, or read a centuries-old text. History speaks to us; it tells us where we’ve come from. The lessons learned from studying history enable us to look forward and (one hopes) plan for the future. Where we are going is tied inextricably to where we’ve been.

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Our history books speak loud and clear about the relationship between ourselves and other animals. This relationship is complex, undefined, and open to interpretation, cultural respect and nuances.

Putting on a spectacular show of power a bowhead breaches off Baffin Island.

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Ancient texts, buildings and structures do not, however, connect with us the same way as our fellow human beings or animals (with whom we share this planet) do. We (humans and animals) tend not to live as long as the aforementioned — or do we?

The oldest human was a French woman, Jeanne Calment.

Passing away in 1997, she lived for an incredible 122 years.

Animals, such as elephants and some of the great whales, can live between 70 and 90 years of age. The oldest animal (on record) is a giant tortoise that lived on Tonga, an island in the South Pacific. At the time of its death in 1965, this remarkable animal was verified as being 189 years old. Quite remarkable by any standard!

In the Arctic, as long ago as the early 1600s, the commercial hunting of one of the truly great whales, the Bowhead whale (Balaena mystictus), Arviq or Arvik (Inuktitut and Inuvialuktun), Agkhovik (Inupiat), Akhgvopik (Yupik) and Ittiv (Chukchi) began in earnest. Whaling continued on a massive scale until the early 1900s primarily in and around the Norwegian controlled Arctic Archipelago of Spitsbergen (Svalbard).

These islands located between Greenland and Norway are surrounded by some of the coldest, deepest and most food-rich waters in the world, the perfect environment for these large, slow moving whales to exist. To supply the

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insatiable demand from the ever-growing towns and cities of Europe, hundreds of thousands of whales were killed, harvested by fleets of increasingly efficient ships using the latest in tracking and harpoon technology. By the late 1800s the number of Bowheads being caught in nearly all Arctic waters was falling off significantly. So much so, in fact, that the number of whales being caught, and the revenue derived from them, barely covered the costs associated with provisioning and crewing the ships setting sail for the hunt.

The Bowhead whales officially became a protected species in 1937 when the International Whaling Commission granted a moratorium on commercial hunting, with the objective to allow its decimated numbers a chance to make some kind of recovery. Rights and permission were given to Native people throughout the Arctic regions (particularly in Alaska and Canada) to continue and maintain sustainable hunts.

In Nunavut, as part of the negotiated land claims agreement, Bowhead whales continue to be harvested. The hunt(s) are strictly regulated and controlled and, given the increasing numbers of Bowheads in Nunavut waters, the annual hunt of two or three animals is considered sustainable. For the annually chosen communities, the hunt brings many things, including a connection to a rich and historic past. In many of the communities involved, Bowhead muktuk hasn’t been tasted

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in over 70 years. Being such a large animal, many hunters are involved, often bringing together several generations within the community that might not otherwise hunt together.

Upon finding, harvesting and then landing such a great whale, no one can question nor doubt the purpose, pride and passion involved. In a modern society with all its distractions, issues and problems, the hunt brings into clear focus all that is culturally real, meaningful and true. While in Nunavut the days of hunting the (often massive) Bowhead by traditional means (qajaq) have long gone, there is no question it still requires an enormous amount of patience, skill, experience and knowledge. While many of the hunters in Nunavut utilize fabricated aluminum boats with powerful twin outboard motors, a chosen modern adaptation, the Inupiat people off the North slope of Alaska still remain true to tradition, using walrus-skin handmade boats called Umiaks.

The Bowhead has a nearly circumpolar distribution in the Northern hemisphere, being found mostly between 54 degrees and 85 degrees latitude. The present number of Bowheads being harvested in the Arctic regions (bowheads are not found in Antarctica) is considered to be sustainable.

Recent studies and observations by those living in the Arctic all point towards a species growing in number. While specific numbers are hard to come by, it is known there are between 8,000 and 12,000 animals.

The Bowhead is one of the largest and heaviest whales in any ocean, occasionally growing to 30 metres in length and weighing in at an incredible 60 to 70 tonnes. Despite its size, the Bowhead’s presence is often heard first before it’s sighted. Having a unique double blowhole, the larger individuals exhale a V-shaped breath that can be heard (and sometimes seen) from several kilometres away.

To combat the extreme cold waters in which it calls home, the blubber layer possessed by Bowheads can reach over a foot thick, providing incredible insulation against water that rarely gets above zero. This thick layer of blubber also helps the whale to break through thinner areas of sea ice in order to breathe. Given thicker ice, these massive

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animals will also use seal breathing holes. The top of their heads, near the blowholes, are slightly conical in shape.

Utilizing only a tiny fraction of its huge body to breathe, this enables the whale to take a breath.

Bowhead whales feed on crustacean zooplankton such as euphausiids and copepods, which they filter through 300 to 400 keratin plates or baleen. The animals sometimes swim great distances through clouds of plankton with their mouths open. They then close their massive mouths forcing the water out and the prey is caught. The tongue is used to lick the plankton off the baleen and the whale swallows its food.

Females reach sexual maturity at about 10 years old.

Once pregnant, gestation is 12 months and one calf is born every three to four years. Newborns weigh around 2,000 to 3,000 kilograms and can be four metres long when they emerge from their mothers. For the first few months, newborns will stay close. Killer Whales (Orcas) have been known to go after these smaller whales but often that means getting past or distracting the protective mother.

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Black in colour at birth, the young Bowhead develop white markings on the chin and tail fins as they mature.

Along with photographing those tail flukes, this has become one of the most useful ways to identify individual whales — similar to facial features on a human being. During normal swimming, these chin markings are not easily seen, however, when the whales demonstrate what is called spy hopping, they can be clearly seen. The whales are thought to be “looking around” and can at times extend half their massive head out of the water.

Another behaviour worth noting is what’s called “breaching”. Many of the world’s large whales demonstrate these fascinating acrobatic leaps and at times almost their entire bodies emerge clear of the surface. It remains unclear why they do this. Some see it as purely celebratory; some regard it as another means by which the whale communicates with others. If this is the case, then breaching is used in conjunction with the enormous vocal range that the great whales possess. Given calm conditions, a breaching Bowhead can be heard several miles away. The sound resembling something close to a “boom,” is unlike anything else heard in Arctic waters.

Reported recently in the Baffin region of Nunavut, a large Bowhead whale was observed breaching consecutively over 50 times! One explanation provided by local Inuit hunters was that the whale “had problems going to the bathroom” — an interesting take on equally interesting behaviour. At the same time, it appeared there weren’t any other whales in the area. Was the whale attempting to communicate with other whales that might be close-by?

Was it just having fun? Was it trying to cure an itch it just couldn’t scratch? Did it have difficulty digesting its food?

We just don’t know.

Along with the Beluga and Narwhal, the Bowhead makes up the trio of true Arctic whales. Adapted to navigating life

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amidst Arctic ice, all three whales have no dorsal fin. In the case of the Narwhal, they have a dorsal ridge that does, on occasion, reach an approximate one-inch in height and several feet in length, extending along the whale’s spine.

Beluga and Narwhal are relatively close in size (12 to 16 feet long) but the Bowhead truly dwarfs both.

Perhaps, though, the most interesting and intriguing fact about the Bowhead whale is that it is believed to be one of the oldest living animals to exist on this planet. With unique collaboration between the Inupiat Inuit whale hunters of Northern Alaska and biologists, it is now estimated that adult Bowheads can, and some likely do, live more than 200 years.

Within the past few years, a giant Bowhead whale was caught off the coast of Alaska. Embedded in the neck of the whale was a harpoon head. Biologists claim this important find helps prove the Bowhead is the oldest living mammal on earth.

The 13-centimetre arrow-shaped fragment dates back to around 1880, meaning the 50-ton whale had been around, living in the frigid cold Arctic waters, since Victorian times.

Previously the oldest whales were believed to be southern hemisphere blue and fin whales, which can live up to 114 years. In the past 30 years however, six ancient harpoon heads have been reported found, embedded in the blubber of newly harvested Bowhead whales. The local Inupiat talk of hearing stories from their grandfathers, and in some cases great-grandfathers, about the type of harpoon heads that were used at a particular time. It’s hard to imagine the reaction and impression such a discovery would have on modern day hunters. As the whale was being cut up to distribute amongst fellow villagers, those participating and in attendance would be able to look back in time and ancient history.

The age of Bowhead whales can also be estimated by studying the changes in levels of aspartic acid, an amino acid found in the eye lens and teeth. Using Bowhead eyeballs (the size of a snooker ball) scientists say they can tell the whale’s age by the amount of acid, which increases in quantity in conjunction with the years.

It is both fascinating and amazing to think that such an ancient animal is swimming around in nearby Arctic waters.

Each new tiny door of knowledge opened shows us inside an unseen and undiscovered great hall and we can appreciate just how much we still have to learn. What has that whale experienced in its lifetime? What knowledge lies deep beneath that thick shiny black exterior? Think about what the world was like over 200 years ago — certainly a very different place than it is today. So, somewhere, around the very early 1800s a whale was born — that same whale could very well be alive and well today.

For the past 18 years, David Reid has been involved in the Arctic expedition and travel business. He has led, organized or participated in more than 300 Arctic (and Antarctic) expeditions, trips and projects and travelled thousands of miles by dogsled, skis, snow mobile, boat, kayak, ship and on foot.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, CULTURE AND EMPLOYMENT, GNWT

LIVING ABOVE & BEYOND

Minister names Culture and Heritage Circle Award recipients Five Northwest Territories residents and organizations were honoured in October at the third annual Minister’s Culture and Heritage Circle Award Ceremony. The event recognizes the important and lasting contributions of those dedicated to the arts and cultures of the North.

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The recipients were: Justin Memogana from Ulukhaktok in the Youth Category, Emily Kudlak from Ulukhaktok in the Elder Category, David Gon from Behchoko in the Individual Category, the Gwichin Social and Cultural Institute in the Group Category, and the Yellowknife Choral Society for the Minister’s Choice Award.

Minister’s Culture and Heritage Circle recipients pose for a group photo with the Honourable Jackson Lafferty, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Back row (L-R): Constantina Tsetsos, Minister Lafferty and Margo Nightingale. Middle row (L-R): Margaret McKeon, Justin Memogana, Emily Kudlak and Robert Alexie Sr. Front row (L-R): Jesse James Gon, Ingrid Kritsch, Lorne Gushue, Bertha Francis and Alestine Andre.

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Aboriginal songwriter of the year from Nunavut Well-known Northern accordion player, Nancy

traditional and contemporary musical styles

Mike from The Jerry Cans, recently received a

to create a unique sound that is true to their

Canadian Folk Music Award for Aboriginal

Northern roots. The Jerry Cans share their love

Songwriter of the Year. The award was for her

of the North, its culture and language when

work on the band’s first album, Nunavuttitut.

playing their music across Canada — in Toronto,

The Jerry Cans, known as Pai Gaalakkut in Inuktitut, are a four-piece band from Iqaluit, Nunavut, who blend northern and southern,

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Ottawa, Yellowknife, and many Nunavut communities.

© EDWARD STEWART

LIVING ABOVE & BEYOND

New Heritage Centre in Gjoa Haven opens Gjoa Haven’s new Nattilik Heritage Centre officially opened in October. The new Centre’s purpose is to strengthen culture and heritage in the community and draw visitors from elsewhere. 14 elders, artists and craftspeople created sculpture, wall hangings, and camp scenes and five local people helped complete the exhibit space.

As visitors enter, they learn the story of the Nattilik through different interpretative exhibits, historical objects and photos, texts and art depicting local legends. Exhibits include some of Amundsen’s tools, modern collections of art, tools and jewellery from the 1970s and 1980s on loan from the Government of Nunavut, an old skin tent, traditional parkas and a replica of an igloo.

The Heritage Centre also has a large gallery and retail section for local Ullulaq Inuit Arts.

The Centre will also serve as a training ground for Nattilik artists, young and old, offering mentorship programs in tapestry, carving and traditional tool making.

Visit www.ullulaqinuitarts.com.

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LIVING ABOVE & BEYOND

CETA will help boost Nunavut’s economy Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq says the new Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European Union will benefit Nunavut mines and fisheries.

It’s the biggest trade agreement Canada’s been a part of since the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper signed an agreement-in-principle in October with Jose Manual Barroso, the president of the European Commission.

CETA will make it easier for foreign companies to open mines in the North. However, they will still have to comply with the same rules for safety practices, guidelines for assessments and environmental standards as any investor in the North. In Nunavut, the elimination on tariffs on metal and mining products will increase sales.

As for the fishing industry in the North, Nunavut will be better able to access the EU market, the world’s biggest importer of fish and seafood. Before, exports from Canada to Europe faced tariffs of 25 per cent in many cases.

CETA could boost Canada’s income by $12billion annually, create almost 80,000 new jobs and increase the average Canadian annual household income by $1,000.

Alice Aglukkaq

Leah T. Kooneeliusie

Liza Ningiuq

Mary Tuktudjuk

2013 Elder Recognition Awards Inuit Heritage Trust has announced the recipients of their 2013 Elder Recognition Awards. These Inuit elders are honoured for their dedication to practice, teach and promote Inuit traditions to help keep Inuit culture alive.

This year’s recipients are: Alice Aglukkaq from Gjoa Haven, Liza Ningiuq from Grise Fjord, Mary Tuktudjuk from Repulse Bay, and Leah.T. Kooneeliusie from Qikiqtarjuaq.

Alice Aglukkaq promotes Inuit heritage, language and culture by storytelling at the schools of Gjoa Haven and teaching students about Inuit games, songs and activities. Liza Ningiuq is a passionate advocate of Inuit culture and traditions through her work developing the Quttinirpaaq National Park Management Plan and in many community leadership roles

Canada’s Leading Retailer of Inuit Arts & Crafts

over the years such as a mayor, a healer, a Canadian Ranger, a member of the Board of Directors of the Coalition of Nunavut District Education Authorities, and a member of the Inuit Qaujimajatqangir Kitimajiit. Mary Tuktudjuk passes on knowledge to the next generations through her leadership and her commitment with the Ukkusiksalik National Park Inuit Knowledge Working Group. Leah T. Kooneeliusie visits the local radio station twice a month to tell stories on the radio and visits the schools in her community to inspire students with her knowledge about Inuit traditions and stories and teaches skills like baking bannock.

The Elder Recognition Award is remunerated with $1500 per elder.

“Grazing Caribou”

by Esa Kripanik, Igloolik, Nunavut

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www.northernimages.ca January/February 2014

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LIVING ABOVE & BEYOND

Permafrost experts plan ahead to protect infrastructure Warming temperatures affect permafrost and have an impact on infrastructure. The NWT has been seeing evidence of these affects over the years, causing the ground to heave and slump in some areas, such as the Inuvik Airport Runway; damaging roads, bridges, and buildings.

There are 2,200 km of all-weather roads and over 1,400 km of winter roads that connect 33 NWT communities and essential supply routes linking them to the rest of Canada.

Decision-makers from all three territories met in Yellowknife with permafrost researchers © PHOTO COURTESY PARKS CANADA

and other experts in November to share knowledge, network and explore ways to deal with climate change impacts on permafrost in Canada’s North. Attendees discussed what is being done and what can be done in the future.

The government is focusing on research and development to support new technologies and engineering solutions such as developing a project focused on the effects of permafrost on the new Dempster Inuvik-Tuktoyuktuk Highway corridor. An Online Mapping tool from the GNWT Spatial Data Warehouse maps disturbances and their densities. The Capital Asset Retrofit Fund is helping to reduce green house gas emissions, lessen the North’s environmental footprint and reduce the cost of utilities. Ventilation and heating programs are using thermosters, thermo models and insulation to protect the infrastructure.

The workshop provided an opportunity to inform future infrastructure planners and target appropriate mitigation measures. The event was co-sponsored by the governments of the Northwest Territories, the Yukon and Nunavut. The Aboriginal and Northern Development Canada Climate Change Adaptation Program and the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency provided financial support.

For more information about climate change adaptation, permafrost and impacts on Northern communities, consult the Pan-Territorial Adaptation Strategy at www.anorthernvision.ca.

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LIVING ABOVE & BEYOND Dramatic changes to sea ice can be detrimental to the flora and fauna living in the Arctic, such as polar bears.

Life Linked to Ice

Š GARRY DONALDSON

The Arctic Council and the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) working group have released the report Life Linked to Ice: A guide to sea-ice-associated biodiversity in this time of rapid change. It presents an overview of the state of knowledge about sea-ice-associated biodiversity. The report is intended as a briefing and reference document for policy makers.

Canada Claims North Pole

Maritime jurisdiction and boundaries in the Arctic region.

SOURCES: International Boundaries Research Unit at Durham University, U.S. Geological Survey, National Snow and Ice Data Center

International competition for the North Pole and the vast resources estimated to lie beneath the waters that surround it is heating up.

Canada too has laid territorial claim to the North Pole, maintaining that the Lomonosov Ridge extends along the ocean floor to include the Continental shelf off Ellesmere Island.

Mapping of the ocean floor and mountainous ridge to support our claim is planned in the very near future.

January/February 2014

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© ROYAL CANADIAN MINT

LIVING ABOVE & BEYOND

Mint unveils Arctic inspired coins The Royal Canadian Mint has released some new coins of interest to those who enjoy all things northern. New commemorative 25-cent coins have been designed to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Arctic Expedition and “Life in the North”. A total of 12.5 million “Life in the North” quarters by Artist Tim Pitsiulak from Kinngait (Cape Dorset), Nunavut, will be produced along with 12.5 million quarters by Canadian artist Bonnie Ross depicting explorers preparing for their northern journey.

As well, the Mint has 14k gold and silver dollar coins celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Canadian Arctic Expedition. The gold coin beautifully depicts a survey team, dressed for Arctic weather, with a

stylized globe of the Canada’s Arctic behind them. The silver coin shows three men aboard a dogsled, the dogs waiting for the command to move across the Arctic tundra. The skyline and horizon behind are filled with a stylized image of a compass. Both coins come with a serialized certificate.

“We are pleased that our new circulation coins help Canadians learn even more about the Arctic’s past and present, as well as its unique Aboriginal cultures,” says Ian Bennett, president and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint.

For more information, visit the mint.ca.

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January/February 2014

RESOURCES

Gahcho Kue mine to go ahead

Peregrine Diamonds Ltd.’s Chidliak site.

The federal government has advised De Beers Canada and Mountain Province Diamonds that they can go ahead with the Gahcho Kue mine.

The mine will be located almost 300 km northeast of Yellowknife. It will take two years to build the mine and about 700 workers will be needed to help build it. The mine is estimated to be in operation for 11 years, employing 400 workers.

NWT rare earth mine approved Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Bernard Valcourt has approved the Avalon Rare Metals’ Thor Lake project. The project received a recommendation in favour of the mine by the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board. Avalon will still have to obtain several operating permits before beginning work.

Thor Lake is about 100 kilometres east of Yellowknife. It is potentially the most productive rare earth site in North America. Rare earth metals are used in everything from cell phones to electric car motors.

Peregrine Diamonds bulk samples to drive future exploration program Peregrine Diamonds Ltd.’s Chidliak project in Nunavut continues to extract bulk samples to analyze for diamond content. The mineral concentrate produced by processing these samples is sent to the Saskatchewan Research Council for analysis.

Peregrine will use the information to help plan their 2014 and 2015 exploration programs.

Chidliak is located about 120 kilometres northeast of Iqaluit.

Greenland moves to extract rare earths

Denedeh Investments is exploring the history of their recent acquisitions of old silver, gold and diamond mine properties south of Great Bear Lake in the NWT. The corporation consists of five Dene groups in the Northwest Territories who hope to become the first aboriginal-owned company in Canada to operate a mine.

Darrell Beaulieu, CEO of Denendeh Investments, says there’s a lot to investigate before they can even begin to operate a mine, but that aboriginal-owned mines will create job opportunities for the more than 60 aboriginal businesses that service the mining industry.

January/February 2014

© ILUZIA / FOTOLIA.COM

NWT mining properties get new owners

A sample of ore in which rare earths are found.

Greenland’s parliament has voted to move ahead with the mining of rare earth minerals and uranium. Greenland’s minister for industry and minerals, Jens-Erik Kirkegaard, said the signing of the licensing agreement is a “historic moment for Greenland.”

The vote means that large mining operations involving rare earths can be developed.

“I’m really proud that the government has been successful in carrying through the largest

commercial project to date in Greenland. It will undoubtedly affect employment and state revenue in a very positive direction,” Kirkegaard said in a press release.

The Australian-based company, Greenland Minerals and Energy Ltd., can now remove uranium from the Kvanefjeld site in southern Greenland to extract rare earths. The Kvanefjeld site is said to be one of the top 10 largest rare earths deposits in the world.

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ON THIN ICE THE STATE OF ARCTIC SEA ICE Text and photos by Dr. Christian Haas

A gorgeous day out on the ice.

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My arms and back are sore and eyes and face are burning as we tackle the last 50 kilometres of our 400 km, five-day snowmobile survey from Resolute Bay to Grise Fjord, the two northern most communities in Canada’s Arctic. But a bright sun shines through the crispy air as we cross Jones Sound and approach the grand views of the mountains and fjords along the southern coast of Ellesmere Island. It is mid May, and behind us lie long days of negotiating rough snow drifts and ridged sea ice. We have camped among polar bears and seals, and enjoyed good company with our Inuit guides. Nothing seems to be able to ever change this pristine landscape.

However, in our tow are qamutiit equipped with electromagnetic ice thickness sensors and snow radars, which can map ice and snow conditions continuously as we move along on our snowmobiles. The data are required to evaluate the state of the sea ice in the sounds, straits and channels of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, where little is known about sea ice and oceanic change and consequential impacts on the ecosystem and local residents.

Most sea ice information comes from satellite sensors, which show the areal coverage, but not the ice’s thickness or snow cover characteristics. In winter and spring, Canada’s Arctic is completely covered with landfast ice, and changes are invisible from space.

Over the Arctic Ocean, data have been obtained systematically for over 30 years, and reveal a sobering picture: During September, the month with the minimum annual ice coverage, the Arctic-wide areal extent of sea ice has declined by 13.7 per cent per decade.

In 2012, a record minimum was reached with only 3.63 million square kilometres ice extent, only 55 per cent compared to long-term mean conditions between 1981 and 2010. In winter, Arctic sea ice extent has declined less dramatically, but still significantly with a trend of -2.5 per cent per decade in March. It was 15.13 million square kilometres in March 2013. Although these trends are superimposed by strong year-to-year variability of plus or minus one million square kilometres and more, nothing seems to be able to stop these trends, and ice free summers seem inevitable in the coming decades. This will have consequences for the global and Arctic climate and ecosystem, as well as for Northerners and shipping and resource exploration in the Arctic.

Satellite data also show two other important changes of the Arctic’s sea ice: the ice has become younger overall, as thick, multiyear ice has been replaced by thinner, firstyear ice, and the ice cover’s drift and deformation have accelerated. Novel satellite laser and radar altimetry observations also show that the ice has become much thinner. In summer, mean thicknesses in the central Arctic have decreased from around 2 m before 2000 to just over one metre in 2009.

With funding from the European Union, the European Space Agency, and the Federal and Provincial Governments, we have performed independent airborne ice thickness measurements north of Ellesmere Island since 2004. This region possesses the thickest and oldest ice in the Arctic, as it is located downstream of the major ice drift streams,

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Hauling a sled-based electromagnetic ice thickness sensor across a giant, multi-year sea ice pressure ridge north of Ellesmere Island.

Drill-hole measurements are performed during helicopter landings on sea ice to calibrate the airborne measurements.

Qamutiq equipped with electromagnetic ice thickness sensor to provide continuous ice thickness readings along snowmobile tracks.

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the Beaufort Gyre and Transpolar Drift. Pushed by prevailing northerly winds, sea ice is continuously moved from the region of the North Pole towards Canada, where it thickens by deformation and compression, thrusting up against the northern coasts of the Queen Elizabeth Islands. The ice thickness in this area is therefore sensitive to changes in the intensity and direction of this ice drift, and integrates over climate conditions in much of the Arctic Ocean.

Based out of the Canadian Forces Station Alert, and using helicopters and airplanes provided through the Polar Continental Shelf Project in Resolute Bay, we have performed ice thickness surveys up to a latitude of 86째N with a so-called EM bird, a tethered electromagnetic induction sounder. This method is sensitive to the electrical conductivity distribution in the underground, and takes advantage of the strong conductivity contrast between the resistive ice and conductive sea water underneath.

Our results show that mean ice thicknesses in the region have decreased from more than 5 m in 2004 to less than 4 m in 2012. This is still thick enough to support assertions of the regions surrounding Ellesmere Island as the last refuges of sea ice in the coming decades, or the Last Ice Area as promoted by the World Wildlife Fund in Canada.

January/February 2014

The scale of the changes reported above have come as a surprise to many and exceeded the worst expectations of climate change experts and sea ice forecasters.

Although coinciding with observations of increased air temperatures in the Arctic, most climate models have underestimated the rapidity of the Arctic’s sea ice demise. This demonstrates the complexities of the sea ice climate system and the involved feedback processes, including the impact of short and long wave radiation, clouds, precipitation, winds, and ocean currents and heat flux, which make understanding and predicting the sea ice system very difficult.

The situation is even more complicated in Canada’s Arctic and along the Northwest Passage. Lying downstream of the ice drift systems described above, Canada’s Arctic’s ice cover is a mixture of thick multi-year ice incurring from the north, and locally formed first-year ice. Within the islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago the ice is landfast and immobile from October or November until June or July. In summer, multiyear ice can be imported to or exported from the region depending on prevailing winds and currents, thus strongly modifying late-summer ice extent. The redistribution of ice from one region to another complicates interpretation of sea ice changes caused by changes in air temperatures or radiation. According to statistics provided by Environment Canada’s Canadian Ice Service, ice coverage in Canada’s Arctic has strongly decreased as well, albeit at smaller rates than observed Arctic-wide. However, the region is subject to much larger interannual variability and years with minimum ice coverage in Canada rarely coincide with minimum years in the Arctic Ocean. 2012 was an exception in this regard when both Arctic-wide and Canadian ice coverage reached record minima, with Canadian sea ice covering only about 30 per cent of its long-term average extent.

The large interannual variability hampers predictions of the opening of the Northwest Passage and its suitability as a routine shipping route during summer. More ice thickness information is needed at the end of winter to predict the break-up of the landfast ice and opening of shipping channels, to estimate the following decay of the ice, and to evaluate the hazard potential of the remaining ice. Unfortunately, airborne surveys are expensive and Canada’s Arctic is vast. Therefore, comprehensive ice thickness mapping has not been feasible so far.

However, local residents and Canadian rangers travel frequently over the ice between and beyond communities. It is our goal to equip communities with sledge-based EM sensors like the ones described above, such that valuable ice thickness data can be

Satellite observations of Arctic summer (September) ice extent between 1979 and 2013.

(Source: National Snow and Ice Data Center, Boulder, Colorado).

Homing in to CFS Alert after an ice thickness survey over the Arctic Ocean.

Last preparations before take-off with the “EM Bird,” a tethered ice thickness sensor slung below the helicopter.

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Camping on the land (sea ice) during ice thickness surveys in the waters of the Canadian Archipelago.

Snowmobile ice thickness survey in South Cape Fjord.

The EM ice thickness sensor is mounted on the second qamutiq towed by the first snowmobile.

continuously obtained during those journeys. The gathered data will complement more dedicated but time- and range-limited airborne surveys to comprise a network of Canada’s Arctic sea ice mass balance observatories. In turn, local communities will be able to observe first-hand the changes happening to their region and affecting their usage of the sea ice environment. First successful collaborations have been established with the Canadian Rangers.

So far we haven’t performed our snowmobile surveys long enough to observe any significant change within the Canadian Archipelago. In addition, the large spatial variability of ice conditions due to varying freeze-up conditions in different years and at different locations requires good spatial coverage of measurements to be representative for a larger region. However, we have collected several thousand kilometres of ice thickness data, which form the basis of and reference for a more extensive data set to be gathered in the future.

And there are still “discoveries” to be made. By surveying the fjords along the south coast of Ellesmere Island, we have mapped regions of very thin ice. According to climatological records, the ice in Canada’s Arctic grows between 1.6 and 1.9 m every winter. However, the ice in some of these fjords was only less than half as thick.

Although known and avoided by some hunters as regions of early ice break-up, the extent and thickness of these areas was not well known. Salinity and temperature measurements in the water under the ice have revealed that there is increased oceanic heat flux in these regions, due to tidal upwelling of deeper, warmer water above shallow sills within or in front of the fjords.

Such observations are important for evaluations of future ice conditions in a warming climate. The regions of thin ice are most likely to open up first and to form year-round polynyas of open water, as occur already today in some narrow channels between islands, for example the Hell Gate and Cardigan Strait polynya between Ellesmere and Devon Island. Occurrence of more polynyas would have important consequences for the microclimate and ecosystem in these fjords. Intermittently, thinner ice is more prone to seawater flooding under a snow cover, which depresses the ice surface below the water level. Flooded snow significantly hampers over ice travel by snowmobiles and qamutiit, and may be a first immediate, negative consequence of continuing melting sea ice for northern residents. Similar conditions are frequently encountered further south on Baffin Island where the ice is thinner and the snow is thick.

Dr. Christian Haas is Canada Research Chair in Arctic Sea Ice Geophysics at York University in Toronto, Ontario.

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CANADIAN POLAR

© COURTESY THE SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE, MCGILL UNIVERSITY (2)

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COMMISSION

A GATEWAY FOR NORTHERN RESEARCH

By Tim Lougheed

In 1958, when pioneering American submarines passed under the ice of the North Pole and surfaced there, it was big news. In 2007, when a much more modest Russian submersible left a titanium version of its national flag on the North Pole site of the Arctic Ocean floor, it was even bigger news.

Advances in robotics play an important and increasingly vital role in surface and sub-surface scientific field research efforts conducted in Canada’s Arctic.

January/February 2014

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PHOTO: PAUL SOKOLOFF © CANADIAN MUSEUM OF NATURE

Dr. Jeff Saarela collects plants on a hillside overlooking the headwaters of the Soper River, on southern Baffin Island, July 2nd, 2012.

and a homeland to part of the country’s population, himself included. He emphasized that this latter role should be uppermost in the minds of all Canadians as they consider the disposition of the country’s remote northern outposts.

“If you want to engage in a thought exercise, think about how a person living in Ottawa would react if northerners were having almost daily, around the planet, conferences on how people in Ottawa should structure their affairs and how they should be more environmentally responsible or more economically responsible,” he told the committee. “That’s the pressure that people of the North feel.”

© COURTESY THE SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE, MCGILL UNIVERSITY

The intervening five decades have witnessed a range of significant changes in the Arctic environment, with warming temperatures and declining sea ice that could open up the region to commercial shipping within the next five decades. The flag-planting might have amounted to a stunt, but it put everyone on notice that these changing conditions are making it possible for countries and corporations to take advantage of the Arctic as never before. The indomitable Northwest Passage that devoured sailing ships and their crews is long gone, supplanted by a fresh, promising landscape that is still harsh, but increasingly manageable.

“People around the world recognize that although they don’t live there and they have never been there, things are very different there, and maybe that’s got an impact on the global system in which we all live,” says David Scott, Executive Director of the Canadian Polar Commission.

This federal organization was created in 1991 to help Canadians manage the growing body of news and knowledge about both of our planet’s polar regions. Unfortunately, it began to suffer from a steady bureaucratic neglect, so that by the time Russia was demonstrating its own Arctic intentions at the North Pole, the Commission was heading into two full years of bare-bones operation without even a board of directors.

This lean period came to an end with the advent of Canada’s Northern Strategy, published in 2009, and the Commission found itself with a revamped, high profile board the following year. By the end of 2012, when the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development sought expert input on the country’s Arctic policy, they approached the Polar Commission. Scott testified for the committee, as did Bernard Funston, the prominent lawyer and lifelong Northerner who chairs the Commission’s board.

When asked about the nature of Canada’s activities in the Arctic, Funston outlined different roles presented by the region: a pristine wilderness, teasing our imaginations; a frontier, packed with economic opportunity; a laboratory for scientific investigation;

Dr. Gregory Dudek demonstrates a field robot to fellow research scientists and journalists.

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PHOTO: JEFF SAARELA © CANADIAN MUSEUM OF NATURE PHOTO: LYNN GILLESPIE © CANADIAN MUSEUM OF NATURE

Dr. Lynn Gillespie, Roger Bull, and Paul Sokoloff repack the canoes used to traverse the Soper River, Baffin Island, after portaging around Soper Falls, July 19th, 2012.

Dr. Jeff Saarela paddles towards a camp along the Hornaday River in Tuktut Nogait National Park, Northwest Territories, July 2009.

For Scott, such direct clarification of complex issues is integral to the Commission’s revitalized mandate.

“We’re a knowledge brokerage, essentially,” he explains.

“Our stock in trade is understanding what’s happening in the North, what the knowledge needs are in the natural sciences and social sciences, what’s happening with traditional knowledge. We very much pride ourselves in being aware of what the North is saying about various things, and then trying to turn that around in Ottawa, in the federal system.”

He credits the turnaround in the Commission’s fortunes to a keen interest in the North by many members of the current government, especially Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has gone to the Arctic at least once in every year of his term. “He’s absolutely passionate about it,” notes Scott.

As a further measure of the Commission’s renewed status, Scott points to its recently added responsibility for the Northern Scientific Training Program, which provides more than $1 million annually to hundreds of students at some three dozen Canadian universities who are pursuing research work in the North. Established in 1961, the program is aimed at building a cadre of Arctic expertise commensurate with the expanse of Canada’s northern territory.

The Polar Commission has also taken over the administration of the Northern Science Award, a prestigious medal presented to individuals whose work represents a distinguished contribution to the region’s research work. Created for the centennial of the original International Polar Year in 1982, the medal became another victim of neglect and had not been awarded since 2006, until 2013 (See Sidebar p. 39).

He also anticipates greater public outreach to enhance the Commission’s profile.

While the organization answers directly to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, and collaborates with other branches of government such as Natural Resources Canada and Environment Canada, it has also built relationships with the Canadian Museum of Nature and the Royal Canadian Geographic Society.

Nor does Scott want to stop at institutional links. Earlier this year he showcased the Commission’s activities to the country’s science writing community. The Canadian Science Writers’ Association and the Association des communicateurs scientifiques, which have a combined membership of more than 600 people engaged in some aspect of communicating science and technology, held a joint annual meeting in Montreal at the beginning of June. The program included presentations by Scott and four researchers affiliated with the Polar Commission. Each of them was peppered with questions from an audience made up of people who regularly delve more deeply into research questions than most journalists would ever care to do. And Scott, for his part, promised that the answers would be more complete and candid than journalists have come to expect from government sources.

The Arctic is “a pristine wilderness, teasing our imaginations; a frontier, packed with economic opportunity; a laboratory for scientific investigation; and a homeland to part of the country’s population.”

— Polar Commission Board Chair Bernard Funston January/February 2014

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© DR. CHRISTOPHER M. BUDDLE © CRYSTAL M. ERNST

“The federal government doesn’t create this knowledge to keep it in a box; generally they want to get it out the door,” he said, answering an initial question about the notorious “muzzling” of scientists in the public sector. He added that official scripts these scientists are to follow in their public comments are not necessarily a means of stifling the flow of information, but instead intended to ensure that those comments do not stray into the thorny field of personal opinion.

“The line that is drawn there is that the scientists should talk about the scientific results and make an attempt to explain why it’s relevant, but not make policy,” he explained, noting that a health researcher’s observations should stop short of setting health guidelines, which is a different matter altogether.

This distinction was put to the test during the subsequent four presentations, which captured the diversity of the work that passes through the Polar Commission’s hands.

Jeff Saarela, a botanist with the Canadian Museum of Nature, recounted his 2012 expedition to collect plants in a seldom visited territorial park on Baffin Island. A local caribou survey was taking place at the same time, so rather than using aircraft that might disturb these animals, Saarela and his colleagues travelled by inflatable canoe.

At first glance, his pictures of the journey looked downright romantic, but he

A “Jumping Spider” photographed along the Dempster Highway, Yukon.

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© CRYSTAL M. ERNST

Doctoral student, Crystal Ernst, (Entomology) Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, conducting field work in the Yukon.

Carrion Beetle (Thanatophilus lapponicus) on caribou hide.

Kugluktuk, Nunavut.

cautioned that insects and weather made for some uncomfortable conditions. More importantly, they were able to take hundreds of specimens and visit a stand of willows touted as Nunavut’s tallest forest, featuring shrubs as tall as 3.5 metres with trunks up to 15 centimetres across. A sheltered, moist location has prompted this remarkable growth, though Saarela suggested a warmer climate is foreshadowing the expansion of this kind of ground cover.

“We know that shrubs, for example, are getting bigger,” he said. “There’s not a lot of evidence so far that plants are extending their ranges within Arctic Canada, but if we have a good solid baseline, we’ll be able to track that in the future, if it happens.”

Crystal Ernst, a doctoral student in entomology at McGill University, offered another aspect of tracking change in the Arctic. She argued that while large animals such as bears and seals capture the most public attention, a much greater scope of activity could be monitored amongst arthropods, the wealth of insect life that exists in the Arctic.

January/February 2014

© CRYSTAL M. ERNST

“Terrestrial arctic biodiversity is dominated by arthropods,” she said. “There’s a couple of dozen species of birds and mammals up there, there’s 2,000 species of arthropods living above the tree line in Canada. When it comes to biodiversity in the North, polar bears are sexy, I know. But we humbly have to suggest that the spiders, the insects, the mites are where the real excitement is to be found.”

And for others, that excitement is found at an even smaller scale, examining the microbiological makeup of the Arctic. Wayne Pollard, a McGill geography professor, described his multidisciplinary research into how the dynamics of frozen ground determine the nature of the organisms found there. The results of this work have implications for the ambitious quest to identify some other part of the universe where life may have gotten a start, a quest that has focused intensely on the planet Mars.

“Mars is the logical place to go,” he said. “It’s the nearest planet, it has a similar geology, it has very similar history in terms of geologic evolution.”

That similarity extends to physical features found in many Arctic and Antarctic landscapes, where liquid water — an essential component of life as we know it — is tucked into the most unlikely places.

“We build a story about the evolution of ground ice,” said Pollard. “We look at everything from the chemistry, noble gases, isotopes, stratigraphy, crystallography. Knowing the origin of the ice, the age of the ice, is a really important part of understanding where ice might be in any landscape, including Mars.”

And just as automated explorers are standing in for us on Mars, a fourth speaker pointed out that robotic technology is making similar inroads in the ongoing exploration of the Arctic environment. Gregory Dudek, who directs McGill’s School of Computer Science as well as a national field robotics research network, outlined some of the practical devices that are being designed to travel almost anywhere in the North, collecting scientific data that might otherwise remain unobtainable.

“For me, building self-aware, moving organisms is the most provocative, imaginative thing I can imagine doing

Black Fly larvae under water on the Coppermine River, Kugluktuk Nunavut.

with my life,” he said, adding that he is not alone, and there is a broad spectrum of international activity in robotics for various applications. “It’s a real challenge for Canada to keep up. The attempt is not to build robotic systems that span the country, but to link together researchers across the country who can do robotics as this field matures.”

Nevertheless, even the most sophisticated tools of scientific discovery can only go so far in telling us how we might want to live our lives. Just as Scott offered up the distinction between information and opinion with respect to the comments journalists should expect from the scientific community, Polar Commission Board Chair Bernard Funston made the matter even clearer to members of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. When asked about how the ecosystems of the Arctic should be managed, Funston reminded the Committee that it is people who make the ultimate decisions about management, decisions that science merely informs.

“It helps make choices, but politicians are the people who make the decisions about competing interests,” he explained. “As I said, I use that analogy of frontier, homeland, laboratory, and wilderness. Those are all valid ways of looking at the North. How do you decide whether you’re going to drill for oil or allow polar bear hunting?

There’s a political decision and a choice in that, and sometimes you don’t have the information. Sometimes the science doesn’t tell you what to do.”

Tim Lougheed

© BONNIE FINDLEY

2013 Northern Science Award recipient

Gérard Duhaime (centre) receives the Centenary Medal from His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada (right). At left is Royal Canadian Geographical Society president Paul Ruest.

January/February 2014

The Royal Canadian Geographical Society held its annual awards ceremony in November. There, the Canadian Polar Commission presented Gérard Duhaime with the 2013 Northern Science Award.

Duhaime, a sociologist and political scientist, has been a professor and researcher at Laval University since 1988. His work compares the socio-economics of the various regions of the circumpolar Arctic. His efforts have been instrumental in the creation of the Canada Research Chair on Comparative Aboriginal Conditions and the Nunavut and Greenland governments use his economic monitoring methods in their statistical research. He has recently led the Nunavik Comparative Price Index, a study comparing the cost of goods and services in the region to southern Quebec.

He is deserving of the award for his socio-economic research that has improved life in northern communities. The award includes a $10,000 cash prize.

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ARTS, CULTURE & EDUCATION

W

hen I first met Lucy Tulugarjuk, in 2007, I was immediately reminded of the character she played in the highly acclaimed, award-winning Isuma Productions film based on ancient Inuit legend: Atanarjuat The Fast Runner (2001). She appeared as Antanarjuat’s feisty second wife Puja., a performance that launched her acting career globally. Indeed, at first glance, she looked just like Atanarjuat’s mischievous second wife — with the same beguiling smirk and playful twinkle in her eye.

Tulugarjuk was in Kuujjuaq with Atanarjuat director Zacharias Kunuk to present his newest motion picture, The Journals of Knud Rasmussen (Fall 2006). Her contributions to the project were many. In addition to playing a small on-screen role in this drama depicting the sorrowful disappearance of shamanism at the hands of Christianity, Tulugarjuk played an even larger role behind the scenes as first assistant to Kunuk, as casting director, make-up artist, and helping with the Inuktitut transcription of notes from the historic journals.

Born February 28, 1975 in Churchill, Manitoba, Tulugarjuk spent her earliest years in Iglulik, Nunavut, with her paternal grandparents, whom she called Anaana (mother) and Ataata (father).

At five years of age, she moved with them to Sanirajak (Hall Beach) until both passed away. Only 12 at that time, she moved back to Iglulik and eventually found a home with her birth parents.

Inuk Actor Lucy Tulugarjuk Sharing her talents with the world “Being one of the oldest in a house of nine children, I soon learned that you have to work to get where you want to be,” she confides.

Tulugarjuk still spends many weekends and most summers camping out on the land. Her biological mother teaches her how to sew her own pualuuk (mittens) and how to chew walrus skin to make the bottoms of her kamiik (boots). These are times she is most aware of how important traditional knowledge and skills are to her own Inuit identity.

While attending Iglulik’s Ataguttaluk High School, she was active in sports; playing basketball, volleyball, soccer, even wrestling.

Sports proved a good way to stay out of trouble. Having gone through a difficult time from the loss of her grandparents and moving to a “new” family, Lucy candidly admits:

© HEIDI SELZLER

Lucy Tulugarjuk in Fort Smith, NWT.

January/February 2014

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ARTS, CULTURE & EDUCATION

Tulugarjuk (right) and talent extra Pasha Sequaluk (left) from Kuujjuaq, share a breather between takes on the set of Maïna.

© ISABELLE DUBOIS (2)

“There was a time where I was becoming a person I didn’t like, so I had to find a way to get rid of that negative energy and get my anger out of my system. Sports taught me to be strong, emotionally and spiritually,” she explained, “and gave me confidence to compete with others and challenge myself.”

She also joined the Army Cadets.They taught discipline and valuable outdoors survival skills.

Cadets also gave her a sense of real belonging, something she found marching in uniform representing her community.

Inuit tattoos make-up done, it’s time for Tulugarjuk to get her traditional hairdo styled by the film project’s chief hairdresser, Réjean Forget.

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With her life on a much better track, Tulugarjuk joined her school’s dance club, which also offered drama. Performing with the group during the Christmas concerts, or at the end of the school year, she took those first steps to performing on stage.

The late Paul Apak, co-founder of Iglulik’s Isuma Productions, involved with Nunavut’s Inuit Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) at the time, spots her talent and recruits Tulugarjuk to play a friend of the main character in an episode of the television program, Friday with teenagers.

Here her acting career takes root.

High school graduation came in 1994.

Wanting to improve health services for Inuit, Tulugarjuk enrolled in a nursing program in Yellowknife, but after one semester realized

January/February 2014

COURTESY ISUMA PRODUCTIONS

ARTS, CULTURE & EDUCATION

Tulugarjuk, cast in the role of the irresistible “Puja” on the set of 2001 northern film blockbuster, Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner).

nursing is not her calling. She returns to Iglulik in 1997 and gives birth to her first child, Kayla, whom she also names Nattikuttuk, to honour the memory of her beloved grandmother.

Soon, she is hired by Zacharias Kunuk to work for Isuma Productions, managing the local cable show Tarriaksuk (shadow people).

In 1998, Isuma starts shooting the winter and spring scenes for Atanarjuat, and Tulugarjuk is cast in the role of Puja, but by summer the production stalls due to lack of funding.

That same summer, two Iglulik teenagers (one of them a close friend) commit suicide.

The tragedy shatters the small community of 1500.

Through an Isuma Productions initiative, a Youth Drama Group called Inuusiq (“life” in

January/February 2014

Inuktitut) is formed by local youth. Their idea is to produce a television series about the reality of youth in today’s Arctic. Tulugarjuk, a member, becomes a co-writer and actor in the series, along with Guillaume Saladin.

Studying at the National Circus School in Montreal, Saladin, along with Lucy and a few others, later form Artcirq, with the support of Isuma and Cirque Éloize. This popular Inuit Performance Collective’s mission is to provide Inuit youth with a vehicle for creative expression through theatre, performance and circus arts, while maintaining a strong link to Inuit traditions, a mandate to which Tulugarjuk and others attach great importance.

By 1999, the cameras are again rolling on Atanarjuat and Tulugarjuk finds herself quite taken with her part as Puja.

“I found it challenging and exciting at the same time, having to draw different emotions to portray my character.”

Tulugarjuk enjoyed learning the old ways of Inuit alongside elders like actor Madeline Ivalu, artistic director Susan Avingaq and head seamstress Atuat Akkitirq.

“I was learning more about my culture: how to look after kamiit so they won’t dry, the proper way to handle caribou clothing, how to light the qulliq (traditional soapstone lamp), names of old tools that were new to me, drum dancing, traditional songs and the stories behind them, etc.”

“While looking for someone to teach us how to throat-sing, I found out my birth mother knew how, but had kept it to herself.

She had been told by missionaries that it was

bad, a connection to evil spirit,” she adds.

Tulugarjuk learns from her mother and in return teaches girls in high school how to throat-sing and drum dance.

“Thanks to Atanarjuat, we got the younger generation interested in learning all that again,” applauds Lucy.

This motivated her to pursue further studies, and in 2000 after son Damon was born, she enrolled in Nunavut Sivuniksavut in Ottawa, a unique eight-month college program designed especially for Nunavut Inuit youth to learn about Inuit history, organizations, land claims and other issues toward a future career in Nunavut. Upon graduating in 2001, she travelled to Tokyo, Japan, with other students to promote Inuit culture through drum-dancing and throat-singing performances, Inuit games demonstrations and more.

“We also talked about our people, and the fact that we don’t live in iglus anymore, that we live a modern life, like everyone else,” elaborates Lucy. With the Tokyo International Film Festival also taking place at the time; it was also an opportunity for her to promote Atanarjuat.

Lucy then moved her family to Edmonton, but she didn’t stay in one place, travelling here and there to promote Atanarjuat. The film won award after award, including a Best Actress award from the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco for her own performance as Puja.

All the while, she continued to take courses — cooking lessons, parenting, etc. “It was a good time for me to see what I wanted

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ARTS, CULTURE & EDUCATION Always up for a good laugh, Tulugarjuk, as “Aasivak” in Maïna, is all smiles showing off the stunt-double doll “newborn,” hidden in her amauti.

to accomplish in my future for myself and my children,” says the actress who remains, first and foremost, a mother.

In 2004, Tulugarjuk moved back to Iglulik with her children to continue working with Isuma Productions, as well as the performance troupe, Artcirq. Later that year, she was invited to France to act in the climate-change inspired comedy role as the last Inuk on earth, who came to save the day in the Belgian production L’Iceberg. Around the same time she also became involved in Isuma’s, The Journals of Knud Rasmussen.

By spring 2012 she is back in Kuujjuaq, this time with her four-year-old daughter Nuvvija, named after her great grandmother, who was the sister of Avva, the shaman described in Rasmussen’s journals. In the film, Tulugarjuk portrays Nuvvija. This time she is in town to take on the role of Aasivak in the major Québec film production, Maïna: a feature film storyline that brings Innu and Inuit together for the first time on the big screen. (See above&beyond March/April 2013) Although I haven’t seen the final edit yet, I can definitely say that Tulugarjuk is much more like her Maïna character, Aasivak.

Tulugarjuk is not afraid to say what she thinks or befriend a stranger without pre-judgment.

She is generous and patient in sharing Inuit ways with those wanting to learn.

Tulugarjuk now lives in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, working as a Coordinator at the Community Justice Office while studying toward a Bachelor in Business Administration degree at Aurora College. Her goals are to promote Inuit arts and crafts through her own business and to build a bright future for her children.

“My concentration is now on my children, to be the best that I can be in life, and through all its challenges and obstacles, to live a positive life.”

Perhaps we’ll see Tulugarjuk in another film in the near future. Determination and talent such as hers seldom stay hidden for long.

© ISABELLE DUBOIS (2)

Isabelle Dubois

Before dressing in costume, mom takes time to kiss her youngest daughter. Then four-year-old Nuvvija travelled with Tulugarjuk on the set of Maïna and made her own film debut on the project.

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Author’s Note: A powerful tale of love and survival, Maïna, which recently won an award for Best Picture at the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco, will be released in Québec theatres the end of March 2014. Filmed entirely in Innu and Inuktitut, the movie will be presented with French and English narration and subtitles. A dubbed version in French is also planned.

Visit mainathemovie.com for details and trailers.

January/February 2014

January/February 2014

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ADVENTURE

© MIKE LAIRD (5)

Keeping fingers nimble in the cold was essential.

F

or some, to reach, attain or visit one of the earth’s polar regions is a lifelong ambition.

For me it was a goal fixed firmly onto my radar over two years ago. The span of time preceding the trip was spent building the skills necessary to accomplish the feat.

Possessing the right skills is one of three core factors needed to be safe on any expedition into extreme, unfamiliar territory. Training and having the best possible equipment are the other two. First aid, gun handling, navigation and general camp craft were the necessary

building blocks. Sat Com handling, polar bear psychology and frostbite treatments were added to our survival skills arsenal. Together, these would keep us in one piece and ensure our safe return.

The initial legs of our journey ran long — flying on aircraft large and small all the way from Edinburgh, Scotland, to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada — then heading North to Iqaluit and onward to Resolute Bay, Nunavut, via the smaller hamlets of Iglulik and Arctic Bay. Stepping off the last plane at Resolute, the change was dramatic — the mercury showed a not so balmy -30C or less. Down jackets were hastily put on over fleeces. All of us were suddenly wearing two layers of hats and gloves, trying, somewhat comically I admit, to come to terms with the fact that our nostrils were feeling quite frozen.

To reach the Magnetic Pole The allure of a challenging journey

On more than one occasion the team battled fierce winds.

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January/February 2014

ADVENTURE

Feeling a sense of personal satisfaction at reaching the Magnetic Pole.

Surrounded by snowdrifts while hunkered down in a blizzard.

Most of us on this expedition were generally pampered folk, living in large cities or towns.

Still, we were a diverse group with plenty of experience on other types of expeditions or extreme outdoor sports: mountaineering, ultra runners, martial arts instructors, and several who merely gravitated to the challenge.

Some had devoted many months of physical training.

My GPS confirms our mission accomplished.

The first four days were spent in and around the South Camp Inn. It served as our jump-off base. There we tested the new kit, finalized logistics, test-fired the shotguns and sorted and bagged up all the food rations for the weeks ahead.

The day we left setting out on foot across the ice proved very deceiving. The sun shone and the wind had dropped to a mere whisper.

We unzipped our wind suits; we all only wore one layer of gloves. It seemed like an idyllic dream.

That comfortable calm was short lived and brutally broken only two days later however.

Plummeting temperatures, fierce head-on winds and swirling snow soon enveloped us.

While some ideal blue sky and sunny days were magnificent many others were harsh.

The Arctic is a very real challenge — not one to be underestimated!

In total we walked and skied nearly 600 kilometres harnessed to sledges weighing between 50 and 55 kilos. An easy day on the ice would be eight or nine hours long, but towards the end, and largely due to having been unable to move for three days, because of adverse weather, we realized that we had to considerably increase the distances we covered.

Most of the time we were walking over the frozen ocean, a reality that struck me on occasion as an unsettling thing to be doing.

Other times we skirted the edges of Bathurst Island and Ellef Ringnes. The terrain in this area varied greatly from sheet ice to deep snow, ice rubble to icebergs and on the islands we saw mountains and towering rock formations.

January/February 2014

The sky was only ever blue or white. The near total absence of both animals and trees was strangely conspicuous. On two occasions we did see seals from a distance as well as polar bear tracks and evidence that they’d been feeding on seals on the ice. Towards the end of our expedition we saw a lone wolf and only one bird. We never did see any bears.

The last few days we walked up to 13-anda-half hours. These were utterly exhausting.

Thankfully, morale was generally good in large part due to an amicable group dynamic.

Great guys — every one of them.

The wear and tear experienced by our bodies, particularly our feet, evidenced mainly by huge blisters, slowed us down as well. Pulling on your boots and standing in the morning was often the greatest trial of

the day. My feet suffered terribly as did those of several other teammates.

Finally, just 0.1 miles from our goal, The Pole, we stopped and formed a line so that we could all reach it at precisely the same time. Everyone had their GPS in their hand, looking at it intently. Once the GPS confirmed we’d made it, we all unharnessed ourselves from the sledges, shook hands, hugged and took the obligatory photographs with our respective national flags.

The Magnetic North Pole is a place that will surely continue to hold its strong allure for many a future adventurer for decades to come.

For all of us, to have made it to this very point on earth was without doubt a challenging adventure, but also a huge privilege that will be hard to top for many of us in years to come.

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ADVENTURE

© MIKE LAIRD (2)

Our expeditionary team poses proud and elated.

Trekking across low-lying pressure ridges along the way.

The unforgiving wind sapped energy and stung any exposed skin.

You could never really be sure or predict what the day would bring when you first ventured out from the tent each morning.

Over the course of our journey, three entire days were spent staying safe and snug under ‘canvas’.

It wasn’t all about cold temperatures, high winds and blizzard conditions however. There

were other unexpected challenges. Over the course of the expedition, condensation accumulated in our gear. Damp sleeping bags packed on the sledges for the daily marches across the frozen landscape tended to freeze solid. Cooking meals and finding new ways to keep our clothes, boots and sleeping bags as comfortable as possible kept us engaged.

Functioning in steady -40C and -50C temperatures has a nasty habit of punishing

the human body no matter how good the kit is, or how hardy you believe you are. A daily diet of well over 5,000 calories seemed fine at outset, but significant weight loss caught up with us all. I lost 20 pounds in less than a month.

One of the team members lost 29 pounds.

True to form, as history has proven time and time again, the slimmest, most athletic in the group, those who started out with the least body fat, were having serious difficulties maintaining any semblance of body warmth by the end of the trip.

Mike Laird

KIKIAK

C ONTR AC T ING LT D.

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January/February 2014

© WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

COMMUNITY

The First Talentshow Salluit A

new bridge capable of spanning the generational divide was built on the night of October 30, in the small northern Nunavik community of Salluit. Acclaimed singer, songwriter, Elisapie (Elisapee Isaac) returned to her hometown of Salluit, Quebec, on that day.

The purpose of her visit was to join in celebrating the community’s wealth of music talent and to help strengthen the bond between youth and elders.

This very first edition of Talentshow Salluit (a take-off from the America’s Got Talent series) proved to be an immediate success.

Virtually the entire community turned out to see a total of 20 musicians and show contestants from three different generations step into the limelight to share their musical talents and promote a dialogue among the generations.

While there, Elisapie also had the opportunity to mentor some of the aspiring singers before their performances. She helped by passing along professional tips on stage presence, fighting nervousness on stage and

January/February 2014

vocal projection. Betsy Koperqualuk, a singer and drummer followed her advice and it worked.

Betsy beat out all the other contestants to become the evening’s overall winner of the Talentshow. She, along with two runners-up, Vilisi Pinguatuq and Calai Padlayat each won a free flight to Montreal and tickets to see a Montreal Canadiens hockey game — all from a private box.

After her weekend in Montreal, Betsy commented, “I worked very hard practicing my drumming and I was very happy to win Talentshow Salluit, and get to go to Montreal.

For sure I will enter next year and I will play even better. I really like to play music!”

A total of 18 different musical acts that ranged from gospel music to the modern rap musings of Larry Thomassiah, who’s original composition spoke of the problems that modern youth face today, all the way to include traditional Inuit throat-singing of Calai Padlayat and Charlotte Angnatuk. The entertaining pair would one moment test and the next

© GAÉTANNE NOEL (2)

Forging a bond between generations

Salluit Talentshow guest performer, Elisapie, signs autographs for her many fans in the community.

encourage each other during their performance, pushing the pace, or changing up the tenor until one or both of them would start to laugh.

The local portion of the show ended with an impromptu invitation to the members of the Sugluk Band to come up on stage and play a couple of songs for the crowd. The band above & beyond

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COMMUNITY

Always a hit with the crowd, Calai Padlayat and Charlotte Angnatuk perform traditional Inuit throat-singing.

© GAÉTANNE NOEL (5)

(L-R): George Kakayuk and Betsy Shemi Koperqualuk share the stage to perform with Elisapie.

Multi-talented Betsy Shemi Koperqualuk on the drums.

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is Salluit’s original rock-group (formed before Salluit was recognized as a village). At one time during one of its earlier incarnations the band featured a 12-year-old Elisapee Isaac as its back-up singer.

A highlight in the evening beyond the excellent performances by contestants during the four hour show came when Elisapie, Koperqualuk and members of Sugluk joined together on stage to sing a song that offers advice to young people. A powerful moment of the show, it had many in the crowd either roaring with excitement or welling up with tears as they witnessed the past, present and future of Salluit join together in song on stage, to highlight the bond shared by all in the community.

“Singers like Betsy represent the next generation of Nunavimmiut and the influence of positive role models such as Elisapie and the Sugluk Band can have a dramatic effect on their lives,” said Barbara Grant, one of the Coordinators of the show. Grant put in long hours with many of the contestants practicing their songs and working out arrangements.

Elisapie, a Juno winner, performed twice during the evening selecting songs from her first CD, ”There Will Be Stars,” and her latest, “Travelling Love,” released last year. Her

song called “Salluit,” from her latest CD, drew a rousing round of applause from the audience.

Talentshow Salluit is the brainchild of Emmanuel Morin, a local social worker who recognized the need to create new avenues for dialogue between the youth and elders of Salluit. He found that all generations shared a love of music and decided to use that as a vehicle to promote the importance of communication, understanding, and respect between the generations. A musician himself, Morin decided to combine his skills as a social worker, and his love for music into the project.

“One of the goals of this project was to bring the youth and the community together.

The youth here have something to say and they need a way to express themselves. They also need to connect with the community and the elders,“ Morin said.

Beginning in April, he solicited funding from a variety of organizations such as Air Inuit, The village of Salluit, Raglan Mine, and Pivallianiq and began spreading the word through local radio, posters and social media. Instruments, P.A. equipment, all had to be purchased for the Talentshow well in advance so that they could be used for practice and rehearsals.

Ikusik High School, with a student population January/February 2014

COMMUNITY

The trio of (L-R): Quincy Kuananack, Emalla Owpaluk and Adamie Kadjulik was one of the evening’s highlights.

of 205 students, was eager to get on board with the project providing some funding as well as being fertile ground for most of the talent participating in the show.

“Our school was eager to support the event because a project like this can have a very positive effect on the student population as well. All over the school you could feel the excitement in the days before and after the show. You only had to read the comments on Facebook to realize the immense pride that the students and the community had in participating in this project,” said Bernard Lefebvre, Ikusik principal.“We were also fortunate to receive some autographed CDs and posters from Elisapie for our recognition awards program at the school,” he added.

Elisapie is a graduate of Ikusik High School.

“A show like this could not have been done without the support of the teachers and the school community,” Morin emphasized, adding, “Several teachers embraced the project and provided many volunteer hours helping with fundraising and administrative duties, working

January/February 2014

with the contestants and backup musicians and taking photographs. A guitar club was created to teach guitar to some participants, students created the banner under the direction of the art teacher, slide shows and videos were created. Many, many people worked very hard to put this together. Local musicians really came through to help out and make this a success.”

One of those local musicians, guitarist Quincy Quananack, put in many hours learning all the songs as well as promoting the show within the community in the early stages. He will take over the reins for next year’s show. “I look forward to building on the momentum that this year’s show has created,” he said.

The effects of this year’s Talentshow Salluit will continue to be felt as the village has supplied a small building that will house the sound system and instruments. This will be a practice hall that will continue to support local talent in preparation for next year’s talent show. Also, a music performance has been added to the presentation portion of

Singer Larry Tamusai put on a strong performance.

the regional science-expo being held in Salluit in late February.

As for the future, plans are already in motion for a repeat in 2014 and if organizers have their way, the popular event may be expanded to include musicians and performers from across the Nunavik region and to make it a weekend long event.

Alan Dicknoether

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NORTHERN BOOKSHELF

My Arctic Summer Agnieszka Latocha, NBN Books August 2013 My Arctic Summer is a personal account of the author’s experiences during three polar expeditions to the High Arctic. For those who visit the Arctic regularly this will be a welcome reminder of their own experiences while for others it will open a window on the world of Arctic nature and let them experience the joy and adventure of polar exploration. The landscape, nature and day-to-day life of people on Spitsbergen — the Svalbard archipelago, is highlighted, complete with their joys and sorrows as they work under harsh conditions in remote Arctic areas. Full-colour photos of majestic glaciers are included.

In the Shadow of the Pole: An Early History of Arctic Expeditions, 1871-1912 S.L. Osborne Dundurn Press December 2013 In the Shadow of the Pole tells the history of how the Arctic became part of Canada and how the Dominion government established jurisdiction there. It describes the early expeditions to Canada’s North, including the little-known Dominion government expeditions to the Sub Arctic and Arctic between 1884 and 1912. This book delves into the story of the remarkable Canadian men who led these expeditions to conduct scientific research, meteorological studies, geological explorations, and hydrographic surveys.

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Death Wins in the Arctic: The Lost Winter Patrol of 1910 Kerry Karram Dundurn Press November 2013 Kerry Karram uses the handwritten diary of Inspector F.J. Fitzgerald to chronicle the harrowing ordeal of four North-West Mounted Police officers who were lost in the Yukon wilderness for 52 days during the winter of 1910-11.

The drama of their 670-kilometre journey and struggle to survive is an account of courage against the forces of nature. Death Wins in the Arctic tells of their willingness to face unthinkable conditions and their dedication to fulfill their oaths while dealing with conservation, law enforcement, Aboriginal peoples, and sovereignty.

January/February 2014

INUIT FORUM

Inuit knowledge is not a footnote to “real” science s some of you might know, I sit on the Board of Directors of ArcticNet, which, in just under 10 years, has become the preeminent source of Arctic research in both the natural and social sciences. I am proud of the linkages that have been created between ArcticNet and ITK, and the work we have done to engage young Inuit in research that serves the informational needs of Inuit communities.

But I still get comments, from some of the highest offices of science, which make me realize that our work is far from done. Questions such as,“Is Inuit knowledge still relevant?” And off-the-cuff remarks about the “anecdotal” nature of Inuit knowledge, which is so puzzling to researchers unaccustomed to seeing beyond the methodology of western science.

I think we need to reframe the discussion.

Rather than “How can Inuit knowledge be best integrated into western science?” we need to ask, “How can science be best integrated into our system of knowledge generation?”

To understand how these two ways of knowing can co-exist and intertwine, consider the DNA molecule. The discovery of the double helix structure is in itself an amazing example of what science can do. It has helped us understand the animals that live among us and to manage wildlife populations. And, while the two strands of the double helix are equal in every way, they need to separate from time to time, to keep the mystery of life alive and moving forward.

Too often, to even some of the most enlightened scientists, traditional knowledge (TK) is seen as a kind of fireside chat, or as one researcher described it to me, “like learning from my father.”

“Like most of us from the South with an academic background, I didn't really get it for years,” he confided. Now he realizes that “TK

© PATRICIA D’SOUZA/ITK

© ITK

A

The ArcticNet Annual Scientific Meeting in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in December 2013, was an opportunity to engage top Arctic researchers in working to enhance, not simply borrow from, Inuit knowledge of the natural and social sciences.

is more than just some stories about Inuit lore that turned out to be true. It is not entertainment. It took me awhile to appreciate it, but eventually it changed the way I see things.”

A couple of years ago, Fisheries and Oceans Canada prepared a synthesis of narwhal scientific advice and Inuit knowledge collected during community consultations in Nunavut.

We need more of this kind of work. The analysis noted that there was some divergence of ideas in the information collected.

Is such divergence a bad thing? No, it is not. I don't think we should assume that our two systems of knowledge should always deliver duplicate results. They are not carbon copies, as in the case of the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. Sometimes they separate and go their own way.

The authors wrote, “Inuit knowledge has the potential to complement scientific advice and to enhance our current understanding of narwhals.” This is a good start, but it misses the point. It asks how Inuit knowledge can help southern scientists, rather than asking how science can serve Inuit communities.

At Inuit Qaujisarvingat, ITK’s research arm, we have found that by providing equal space and opportunity for southern scientists and Inuit to work together, that new and important questions arise that would never have emerged had it not been for this collaboration.

Inuit Qaujisarvingat asks what knowledge is needed for better decision making. Inuit have much to provide — and this is often the missing element in sound policy development.

So Inuit Qaujisarvingat ensures that Inuit have the opportunity to take on increasing responsibilities to conduct research and influence science funding decisions and priorities.

We have much to gain from working together. But, often, working together is only the beginning. The Inuit knowledge system is an open system. We adopt and we adapt. I challenge all scientists working to understand the vastness of Canada’s Arctic to do the same. Help us to build our science, rather than engaging us to help build yours.

Terry Audla

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

January/February 2014

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arctic exotica

Š PIERRE DUNNIGAN

Arctic Floe Edge A place to contemplate life, to find inner peace and to be at one with nature. With life in balance the floe edge offers up its ethereal balm for the soul.

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January/February 2014

ᓄᓇᓕᓐᓅᖓᔪᖅ, ᐊᑲᕐᕆᓇᖅᑐᖅ, ᐊᑐᐃᓐᓇᖃᑦᓯᐊᖅᑐᖅ

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ᑲᓲᑎᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᓄᓇᕐᔪᐊᑉ ᖄᖓᒍᑦ

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ᓄᓇᓕᓐᓂ-ᓇᒻᒥᓂᕆᔭᐅᔪᑦ ᑐᔪᕐᒥᕖᑦ, ᑲᑐᔾᔨᖃᑎᒌᑦᑐᑦ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᓕᒫᒥ.

Nunalinni-namminirijaujut tujurmiviit, kajjiqatigiittut upiuqtaqtulimaami.

Locally-owned hotels, working together across the Arctic.

Introducing the latest 400 The newest addition to the First Air fleet, the Boeing 737-400 passenger-cargo combination aircraft promises a greener, smoother, more comfortable ride.

Servicing flight 7F864/865 daily from Montreal to Kuujjuaq and return.