Inukjuak - February 5

Well we’re on the road again for a few weeks and right now I’m in Inukjuak, Quebec. Formerly known as Port Harrison, Inukjuak is located about half way up the east coast of Hudson’s Bay. There have been fur trading posts here since the early 1900’s with Revilllons & Freres first, followed by the Hudson's Bay Company and now The North West Company carries on the tradition. Although trapping is not as important as it once was, living in partnership with the land and the animals is still a major force here, as it is in all First Nations communities.

Back in the early 1950’s the government forcibly took people from Inukjuak and moved them north to Grise Fjord and Resolute Bay. This was done in order to create Canadian settlements in the high arctic that would prove our sovereignty and “warn off” other countries that might be tempted to move into our circumpolar regions. I won’t go into detail here but it would have been nice if the government had asked the people if they wanted to move in the first place and also they also might have checked to make sure there was enough animal life in the new communities for people to live off. These transplants had a very hard time and it's quite the story that you might want to investigate further someday.

The weather has been about what I expected it to be, generally in the mid –30’s with the wind chill and even down to –52 walking to the store into the wind Saturday morning. Today is not too bad and the blizzard that started Friday night is supposed to taper off by tonight. The temperature is up to –12 right now so it should be just a balmy stroll up to the store. Cold very seldom bothers me but I must admit that when I got to the house Saturday night and found I was missing one of the two cans of kidney beans that I was going to make chilli with I didn’t bother back-tracking to find it somewhere behind me on the road. I’ve always found that as long as you have something tight fitting so the wind can’t get in that the low temperature won't bother you. A well wrapped scarf around your throat and lower face with a good hood on your jacket should keep you nice and toasty unless you are headed out on the land for several hours. Also important is an ordinary baseball cap worn under your hood. The peak of the cap will channel the wind away from your face even when walking into the wind. Kind of important walking into a blizzard!

I haven’t taken many photos yet this trip so the one you see up top here is one I took while passing through last summer. We’ll do our best to keep Our Manitoulin! up to date while we’re here but my internet connection is a very slow dial-up so please be patient if I get behind occasionally. I’m going to rely on MSN Messenger and all your blogs to keep me up to date on what’s happening down there everyone so you keep on writing and I’ll keep on reading!