Community Visits

Community visits

Clearing Canadian customs is required before we can land on Canadian soil, so today, clutching our passports, we line up to be interviewed and, hopefully be granted entry…not exactly sure what happens to rejectees!  All’s well and we sail into the narrow inlet that leads us to Kimmirut, a community on Baffin Island, rich in Canadian history having been an outpost for both the Hudson Bay Company and the RCMP.  And our first ‘wet’ landing –

Community visit 1…A very warm welcome awaits us …only 3 ships will visit this summer, all “Sea Adventurer” on different itineraries.  A group of local folk are waiting to ‘guide’ us and our guide, Padliuk, is one of 7 or 8 children - there is some confusion in the translation! – but the whole family is active in the community. 

Two supermarkets, both very well stocked,  receive only 2 deliveries of ‘dry’ goods by ship each year due to the harsh and remote nature of the area, but fresh foods come by plane once a week, or so.  We go by the grade school…it is school holidays now and it seems the  total school community is ‘helping’ to guide.  The school has an extra building which is the ‘university’ with only one teacher/tutor, but visiting teachers come as required.  St Paul’s Anglican Church (1909) is the only seat of religion and is apparently well attended, “especially at Christmas.”  

 

A fun session of Northern Games takes place in the school gym, and a performance of Inuit throat singing.  Local artisans show their products, which are for sale, Arctic Shark cooked over hot stones is served with Balik(local bread.)  A harp seal skin is cleaned, using a traditional woman’s knife, a handmade weapon!  Seal skin is still used domestically, e.g. for items of clothing.  Piece de resistance has to be the seal skinning demo, a work of art to say the least, and the tasting of ALL parts of the animal…yes, ALL!!

On our return to the ship, we find that Alex has invited all the local guides to lunch – a very nice touch and typical of the respect that Quark and its staff have for the folk of these remote communities.

The evening programs on board are many and varied – expedition staff relate some of their non-Quark experiences, like driving a tour bus from Helsinki to Beijing (Dave the Irishman) or a voyage to the Antarctic on a very small yacht (Colin the Scot), a movie night WITH POPCORN!, a ‘Welcome to Canada’ dress up event, a Trivia Night, and a CrazyHat competition.

 Highlight (1)…Early morning wakeup call over the PA!!...a huge tabloid  iceberg is spotted  - approx.. 1.8km long and of indeterminate width  & depth.  From high on deck we can see the top is textured with crevasses, but very clean with only minimal dust and debris.  Colin, our glacier man, believes it almost certainly originated in Greenland, most likely the Petermann Glacier  – such a specimen has never been seen in this area by this most experienced expedition staff or crew.

Highlight (2)…same morning, interruption to lecture on Inuit Art…2 bowhead whales spotted ‘blowing’ and exposing their flukes as they dived, resurfacing again and again.

Community Visit 2…Dorset Island and the small community of Cape Dorset, the “home” of Inuit Art, where remains of an ancient Thule settlement were found, dating back to 1000BC.  Once again the community is most welcoming and we are a little surprised to find that the driving force behind tourism is a Finnish lady who married a Dorset man, a fisherman, and together they have built 2 hotels and a beautiful house that doubles as a gallery.  She also organises the tour guides for visiting groups. 

We see artists plying their (arts and) crafts and, of course, have many opportunities to purchase original works, both a t the community hall where the actual artists are selling their works, and also in the shops and galleries.   A little disappointed to find that one artist we spoke to sells a polar bear carving to a gallery owner for $30 who then charges $100. That’s business, I suppose.  

We make a short zodiac crossing to nearby Malik Island for a very stony walk around remains of ancient Thule housing , flowers, mosses and lichens growing on and around rocks of variable colours,  and a very impressive Inukshuk, the Inuit totem, built on the shoreline. 

Once again the local folk are invited to dinner and we have a very entertaining meal with Christina, well-travelled Wendy from Sydney and equally well-travelled Gene and Karen from Toronto.

 

 For more photos go to https://www.flickr.com/photos/112494332@N04/sets/72157646610262266/