Ship Time
Ship time is always a major event in every northern community, usually involving at least three types of ship: the coastguard/icebreaker, the oil tanker...
Fox Trapping – Trade goods for the fashion industry
Foxes were not of prime interest to Inuit in pre-contact times due to their fur being too fragile for external use and were seen...
Inuit Carving – Sharing a culture’s stories
Carving has long featured in the culture of northern indigenous peoples in their production of weapons and utensils in a variety of materials. The...
Caribou People
The Sacred Place Where Life Begins
I sit with Gwich’in hunter Charlie Swaney outside under a classic blue camping tarp, rain silently drumming. Thin, tall,...
An Artifact Mystery
A Netsilik (“Nattilik”) compact qajaq
Museums collect artifacts that tell a story, sometimes in concert with other items, sometimes alone. Unlike a good mystery novel...
Summer Rendezvous – Gathering at Shingle Point
It is mid-summer on the Arctic Ocean and the sun will not set for another 40 days. I’m riding in a motorboat with the...
Polar Bear Sleep Over – Choosing a Camp Site
A polar bear decided to have a sleep over while I was a 15-year-old boy on a summer outing in a canvas tent with...
Diving and dancing – Tales of the hunter’s knife
I think more so then anywhere else in the world knives hold a great fascination for Inuit. The hunters all have their preference and...
A Gathering Place
Piqalujaujaq, which means “the iceberg shaped building,” is a magnificent new building located at the shoreline in the heart of the community of Qikiqtarjuaq,...
Historical Traditions
The concept of inuat — an Inuktitut word roughly translatable as ‘inhabitants,’ or ‘dwellers’ — once provided the foundation for Inuit belief and lifestyle....