TAKING THE PLUNGE

Most people would find it hard to walk away from a steady paycheque. f or r oger k uptana, it was not a hard choice to make. h e came back to s achs h arbour with his wife Jackie in the spring of 1976, after having worked as an aircraft engineer outside of s achs h arbour and traveling globally as a board member of I rC.

r oger’s parents first moved to s achs h arbour in the summer of 1955, from the East Coast of Banks Island. “The white fox trapping was very very good then,” said r oger, “and prices then were high for white fox pelts.” It has been decades since that fur boom, and s achs h arbour is largely dependent on government support. What attracted r oger to move back to his childhood home?

“ The outdoors, the freedom. I wanted to be my own boss. I can go hunting anytime I want. I like being out on the land, getting my thoughts together,” Roger said. He spent the first few years of his return as a trapper. “We had planned to stay only for six months but we ended up traveling in the summer, fishing and camping along the coast. I just fell in love with the land again. I couldn’t go back to a job because I grew up this way, on the land.”

While some might say it is not easy to make a living in s achs h arbour, r oger believes “There’s so much opportunity here. you can just tap into it. you just have to start working.” r oger began a tourism and sport hunting business, making use of the natural resources already present in s achs h arbour to create a business close to his heart. The big game hunt guide business expanded and diversified. r oger now owns and operates a guesthouse with his wife Jackie. h is tourism related services also include truck rentals. h e attributes his success to self-discipline, which his parents taught him as a young boy. “Like anywhere else, you have to look after your business. you have to get your priorities straight. There is a demand for the kind of business that I run – sports hunting, tourism, it goes with the guesthouse,” said Roger. “a t first we had people stay at our house here, and then I thought of expanding. This was back in 1992. I developed a business plan and it went from there.” r unning a business is not easy, but r oger enjoys the work. “To hunt polar bears, you go anywhere from 15 miles to 150 miles. you have long days, tedious days, but it’s great. I get a lot of freedom and a lot of exercise. I get to make a lot of contacts from all over the world.” Roger shares stories about his culture and life with the tourists.

“a lot of them are amazed. I guess in the s tates, Europe or Japan, they don’t have many wide-open spaces anymore. I took a group of Japanese tourists to see the muskoxen, they really enjoyed it.” r oger’s wife, who is originally from London, helps out with the business. s he runs the guesthouse, and came up with marketing ideas like the polar Grizz merchandizing. r oger was featured internationally in media as the big game hunting guide who led Jim Martell, a hunter from Idaho to capture a half-polar bear, halfgrizzly hybrid on the southern tip of Banks Island. The merchandize is very popular even amongst local residents. r oger’s son Jeff also helps with the sports outfitting business.

This March, reporters from n ational Geographic will come to s achs h arbour to do a story with r oger about the polargrizzly. r oger has also been featured in the media with his climate change observations for s achs h arbour. h is view on climate change is pragmatic.

“Well, if climate change is going to happen, it will. It will affect us, but it doesn’t do us any good to worry about it. The only thing we can do is to try to make more people aware of what changes are going on around the world.”