February 7, 2010 10:25 pm

Life in the Canadian Arctic

Anna Fifield travelled to Iqaluit in the Canadian Arctic for the February 5-6 meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven leading industrialised countries.

IN Visual Journalism

During her visit to the capital of Nunavut – a federally administered territory formed in 1999 – she talked to Inuit people about their traditional way of life.

Flying into Iqaluit, you can see that you are getting close to the Arctic Circle. The sea in Frobisher Bay is partially frozen, and the ice stretches as far as the eye can see.
The capital of Nunavut, population 6,200, is home to Inuit people and migrants from Quebec and New Foundland. There are also residents who have moved from Lebanon, Syria and the Faroe Islands.
The temperature in February often falls to -40°C, and 'summer' – the period when there is no snow – lasts only two months. The rest of the time, some people let their cars succumb to the snow and get around on snow-mobiles, called 'Ski-doos', or take taxis.
The Arctic permeates the psyche and the way of life here, including the car registration plates.
Simon Nattaq, 65, has been living here his entire life, hunting seal and caribou using traditional methods.
Residents wear coats made of harp or seal skins when they venture out on to the ice.
Inuits once used seal blubber to heat igloos but now increasingly use store-bought vegetable oil.
The environment provides natural refrigeration for the catch, which includes char (salmon).
Changes in the ice over the last decade are dangerous for hunters such as Joshua Kango, right, and Pitseolek Alainga, who once relied on dogs to sniff and feel where the ice was thin, but now increasingly get around on snow mobiles.
A new report predicts that the Arctic, which has had sea ice for more than 800,000 years, might lose summer sea ice as soon as 2030.

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Life in the Canadian Arctic

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