© JOHN HOUSTON
CAREERS
Safely handling the zodiacs from launch to shore to return, is a challenging and rewarding skill that can be learned.
Dave Freeze, one of the founders of Adventure Canada who is now in charge of Guide Training and Development. Dave talks about the need to have both “hard skills” like public speaking, zodiac driving, gun handling, and first aid training, as well as “soft skills”. For example, “You need to be able to talk about your background and share your experience in an engaging way with passengers from many different countries and cultures,” says Dave. Another example of a “soft skill,” Dave explains, is when you take time to help an older person ambling along a beach, staying with that person to make them feel both safe and special. Aaju says that one of the challenging parts of her job is how much talking you have to do. Inuit, she says, don’t talk all that much, but visitors from the south want to talk with you a lot. Even when you are tired and are being bombarded with questions, you have to be courteous and take the time to carefully and sincerely answer all their questions. The up side, Aaju says, is how much you learn from the questions people ask and the perspectives they share. Having a good sense of humour July/August 2014
and not taking yourself too seriously is also very important for the job, she explains, and can lead to a lot of fun — like the dress-up Disco dance at Greenland’s “Disko Bay”! More and more, young Inuit with a gung-ho attitude are being recruited to work in this industry. They are being hired because of the skills, knowledge and experience they already possess, and then they are given further training. Take Jenna Andersen from Nunatsiavut, for example. She joined the Junior Rangers at age 12 and worked up to the level of Sergeant by the time she was 18. Through this program she received remarkable training and certifications: first aid, wilderness first aid, kayaking, zodiac driving and a small craft operator’s certification. She was also taught how to shoot and earned her firearms possession and acquisition licence. The Junior Rangers train in all seasons, learning to camp out on the land, using and maintaining ATVs, skidoos, and qamuti (sleds). But it is attitude more than anything else that matters in this business, after all “gung-ho” is derived from a Chinese expression meaning “work together — work in harmony,”
Resource staffers Anguti Johnston and Ree Brennin Houston laugh with Greenlandic children at their fishing camp on a remote island in SW Greenland (The syllabics on Anguti’s shirt read: “I am Inuk”) Photo taken by one of the Greenlandic children.
which is also an ancient Inuit value. Jenna’s enthusiasm, team spirit, and leadership skills landed her a series of jobs in the cruise and eco-tour business. Through an email, Jenna learned of a sixweek training program with Cruise North. Within the week, she was hired and that summer, and the following summer when she above & beyond
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