1st week of March, an Igloo tour and Feel you Inukness

Hi All

Check out this you tube. It's been the talk of CBC North and is guaranteed to make you smile. Enjoy.

http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&cts=1331514081593&ved=0CCYQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nunatsiaqonline.ca%2Fstories%2Farticle%2F65674feel_the_inukness_on_iqaluit_filmmakers_short_film%2F&ei=NEtdT4uQLc3C0AG0rdXqAQ&usg=AFQjCNEyqjncKBCs2hObV-Pf28XBAIqwng&sig2=JUocYfu_XWldqip7L6xkmg

It's been a few days past a month since the moving van loaded up my stuff in Tofino and this week I learned that my belongings have arrived in Ottawa. This is actually not bad. One of my co-workers waited for 3 months. The most challenging legs lay ahead so I'm not going to get my hopes up. My duffle bags took 2 weeks from Ottawa.

I'm very busy at work learning the intricacies of the purchasing process as fiscal year-end approaches. No field work this week. Theo, the CO here really wanted to get to Hall Beach, 50km away to attend to some work matters. I was hoping to go with him and maybe lay eyes on my new snow machine. It's waiting in storage at the co-op for me. The forecast for the week was in the mid -30s throughout but they are not able to predict windchill more than 1-2 days ahead. Theo said "if it warms up to warmer than -40 maybe we'll go for it". Every day the wind came up and plunged the temps to -45 to -52. The last hope day it wasn't too bad here but hit -60 in Hall Beach so that took care of that week.

The dramatic events of this past week involved a polar bear and a wolf. Arviat is down the coast from us on the western shore of Hudson Bay. In recent years it has proven to be a hotspot for polar bears. For my purchasing, the Arviat COs have requested many times more hazing rounds than anywhere else. The polar bears right now are supposed to be out on the sea ice hunting their preferred prey, seals well away from villages. Unexpectedly a young male showed up in Arviat and didn't leave again. The details will be following shortly. The bear encountered some young children right in town and was shot outside a house.

The other wildlife news has been reports of tracks and one possible sighting of a wolf around Igloolik. I asked Theo when the last time there were wolves around town. He thought for a moment and said it was a while ago. Specifically it was 1979 when a pack arrived in town and started killing dogs. 3 were shot.

Time will tell if there is a wolf around. I hope for it's sake it has continued travelling. Wolf fur is prized for parka trim.

As I write this there is quite a raucus of dogs howling and yipping in the dark. There is a team staked outside of town near our street. The most likely explanation is that their owner has shown up to feed them. I don't know the way the dogs normally bark but apparently they bark differently when wildlife is stirring them up. They've gone quiet now. If it was something odd, I'm sure I'll hear from Theo tomorrow.

Yesterday I went for a ramble for a couple of hours on the tundra close to town. Town itself always seems to be buzzing with activity, even late into the night. There are always snow machines zipping around, kids out playing road hockey, people walking to from the Co-op or Northern Store. As soon as you step out of town though you are suddenly in this immense, stark, open landscape. I wandered around for quite a while with no one else in sight out of town. Finally 2 people showed up. I was up on Cemetary Hill, the view is great up there and they appeared coming in from the direction of the sea ice driving snow machines and towing qamutiiks. Despite fresh arctic fox tracks everywhere, I couldn't spot a one. I glassed for a few minutes but needed to keep moving to stay warm. On my way down the hill I came across a strange looking snow drift which turned out to be an igloo of many colours. Check out the picture.

I've posted the pictures I took this past week as albums 5 and 6. You can see them by clicking on the Flickr Photostream link on the side of the blog page. I checked out 2 other igloos that are beside the High School. The High School is named after Theo's great-grandmother who is known for amongst other things, her survival skills including one tale of successfully fending off a pack of wolves. She was alone in an igloo with a pack trying to dig through the walls. As the opening grew she went after them with her ulu and after injuring several they decide to go elsewhere. He told some other hair raising stories about his great grandmother that I won't go into here but they are part of the lore in this region.

Beside the school are 2 igloos. One is very large and unfortunately when I went by the entrance was sealed off. Reportedly on the inside it is set up just how it would be for a family including sleeping benches covered with skins, a seal oil lamp and other camping equipment. The students and any resident are encouraged to sign up and spend a night in the igloo. I'm going to check into it once my camping gear shows up from Ottawa.

Some of the other pictures are from a night with a full moon, a morning of thick ice fog, a visit to the office by a family of local carvers, an evening where a family went by pushing/pulling a qamutiiq heavily loaded with furniture, some pics of the remains of 2 giant arctic beasts and finally some shots from my living room window.

Twice I've taken the excellent camera I received as a gift out on my walks. The only way I can use the camera is to keep the battery inside my parka and then quickly take off my gloves and pop it in to quickly get some shots before the cold kills the battery. Not the easiest arrangement so I will keep it indoors until warmer weather arrrives. My small camera I can keep inside my oversized skidoo glove which works well.

 That's all for this week. Have a good one and stay warm.

Bob 

Today's news. Igloolik hunters rescued when a piece of sea ice the size of Igloolik broke away and other news

Monday, March 05, 2012 – 12:30

CBC North Iqaluit Regional Radio English News

*Lead: Igloolik hunters rescued from drifting ice

2^nd:       Nunavut has two new judges

3^rd:          Facebook page credited with boosting Nunavut's economy

4^th:         GN says it's working on updating energy strategy                                     

5^th:          Sanikiluaq hunter encounters rabid fox

                                                                                                                                                                     

*Lead: Igloolik hunters rescued from drifting ice

(*Correction: The correct name of the S&R Coordinator is Celestino Uyarak)

                                                                                                                                  

Three hunters from Igloolik are safe after being rescued from drifting ice over the weekend. The three men used a satellite phone to call for help after realizing they were drifting away from the floe edge. Local searchers left Igloolik on Saturday evening to try to reach the men. *Celestino Uyarak is a search and rescue coordinator in Igloolik.

"They were about 6 miles off from the floe edge. And we noticed the ice was drifting a bit. So we had to do something. The best option was the airlift. We couldn't use a boat because of the coldness and weather, movement of the waters."

Uyarak says a helicopter used by a mining company was able to come from Hall Beach to rescue the hunters. He says the three men were a bit cold but otherwise in good condition. They had to leave two snowmobiles and all their hunting equipment on the floating ice.

2^nd: Nunavut has two new judges

                                                                                                                                  

People who work in Nunavut's legal system are preparing for change today. Two new judges to the territory were appointed late Friday afternoon by the federal Justice Minister. Andrew Mahar and Bonnie Tulloch take over their new positions immediately. Peter Harte is a defence lawyer in Cambridge Bay. He says the new judges will help Nunavut's legal system run more smoothly.

"More important than anything else, both of these judges have a terrific work ethic. And Nunavummiut can rest assured they're going to get great service from these new judges."

Andrew Mahar has worked as a defence lawyer in Iqaluit for more than a decade. Before that he practiced law in Yellowknife and was the Director of the Kitikmeot Law Centre in Cambridge Bay. Bonnie Tulloch started working as a Crown prosecutor in Iqaluit in 2004. Before that she worked with the Nunavut Legal Services Board and the Keewatin Legal Services Centre. As judges, Mahar and Tulloch will be based in Iqaluit, which means Nunavut now has six resident judges.

3^rd: Facebook page credited with boosting Nunavut's economy

                                                                                                                                  

An auction group selling Inuit arts and crafts on Facebook has gone viral. Since it popped up in November, its membership has exploded to well over 7,000. And the page is now being credited with boosting the territory's economy with a little help from the south. Xueying Fan explains.

Liz Fulumeiter (sp) lives near Toronto. She's never been up north. But that hasn't stopped her from splurging on items on Iqaluit Facebook auction bids group.

"I bought a couple of carvings. I've also got some kamiks that I purchased and a hat."

In four short months the page has drawn more than 7,000 members. David Alexander created the group.

"The average normal cost of kamiks were running I'd say my guess is anywhere from low as 200 to 500. And now it's going as high as 1,500 now."

Alexander estimates this drives the wages of seamstresses up more than 50 per cent. And customers like Fulumeiter aren't fretting.

"When you're buying direct from the people who are making them, and it's worth it to support them."

This also supports local business owners. Lori Idlout is the owner of Carvings Nunavut.

"We've definitely seen more interest in items that are usually seen on that page."

She says the group hasn't negatively impacted her store sales - that the market for Inuit art is only growing. Xueying Fan, CBC News, Iqaluit

4^th: GN says it's working on updating energy strategy

                                                                                                                                  

The Government of Nunavut says it's working on updating its energy strategy, but no one knows when it will be done. At the Legislative Assembly on Friday, some MLAs were urging the government to reduce its reliance on imported gas and diesel. Tagak Curley is the MLA for Rankin Inlet North.

Curley says that with the increasing global demand for oil and rising prices, Nunavummiut will have to pay more for oil and gas in the future. He says the government needs to find efficient solutions.

5^th: Sanikiluaq hunter encounters rabid fox

Many Nunavummiut have been reporting rabid foxes around their communities this winter. And it's the same in Sanikiluaq. Moses Apakaq Sr. says he came across two this winter while out hunting. And one got pretty close to him.

He says he was shoveling snow off the end of his fishing net when a fox approached and started to attack him. He hit it with a shovel several times and finally the person he was hunting with shot it. Apakaq says he has heard of a lot of dogs that have been bitten and had to be destroyed.

First work trip onto the frozen land and seascape

-51C and clear. 26kmph wind. 

 

I went out with the local Conservation Officer. He was part of the expedition in the 1980s with dog teams to Greenland. He has done other expeditions and is a living legend in the Arctic. I couldn't have a better teacher and mentor. Our first stop was a summer camping area that had a walrus meat cache last Fall. We also visited where he and 2 friends were attacked by a polar bear. The bear had him by the hand at one point. As his friend distracted the bear with a hammer he got his opportunity to shoot the bear before he could do more damage to his friend. 

 

A bit surreal to be out on the barrengrounds following him tearing along by skidoos across this very dramatic frozen land and seascape. He is a real joker. He always has a smile and is always pulling your leg. We continued on to where his extended family camps and hunts and fishes out of in the summer. His family walrus caches are in an electric fence or are covered with heavy wire. They are all empty now but both measures seemed to work at that site when they did have meat. We cruised even further to check the furthest camping area and fence. There were amazing ice formations/natural sculptures - some were 2-3 meters high. See the one behind me in the picture.

 

Ran into a complication when we turned for home. I had many layers of clothing and had been very comfortable heading out - no exposed skin anywhere as you can see in the picture. As soon as we turned back to towards town and into the wind, my ski goggles fogged up, and then quickly froze up on the inside of the lens. I finally had to stop when I could no longer see. I could only see him as a black dot ahead of me. He pulled up beside one of the electric fence sites and I headed straight toward the blurry image of him and proceeded to run over the fence which I couldn't see through my googles. I quickly stopped once I heard something odd. He thought this was hilarious and it was. I'm the one who has to put the fences back up in the summer so I'll have a bit of extra work there.

 

There was solid layer of ice on the inside. He thought it was due to the peaked insulated hat I was wearing. I bought it at Mount Washington and I thought it'd be perfect. It has full ear flaps. He thought the baseball type peak was causing my moist breathe to recirculate around my face and caused the icing. Any ways I ran the rest of the way back, only about 1/2 an hour with no googles. By tightening up the park hood around my face that worked just fine.

 

So the learning about how to travel on the land and frozen sea has begun. It was a great first trip. The scenery as we sped along surrounded by ice formations and drifting snow is something I'll remember for a long time.

 

pic_hawg's photostream

pic_hawg's photostream on Flickr.

Hi All;

I hope this works as an easy way to share Nunavut Pics. Enjoy.

Bob