Paul Begins His Journey
Paul became interested in the Arctic and its people in the early 1980’s after discovering the joys of Inuit stone carving and after reading Jean Malaurie’s, “The Last Kings of Thule”, Malaurie’s book described his year-long stay with the Ellesmere Island Inuit in the 1950’s. At that time, the Inuit people were on the cusp of modernism, nearing the end of the period in which they were dependent upon a nomadic lifestyle for food. Paul’s first visit to the Arctic came some 30 years later in 1988 when he travelled to the hamlet of Pangnirtung on Baffin Island as part of a hiking trip into Auyuittuk National Park.
It was immediately clear that Inuit life was significantly different from when Malaurie visited. The people living there were no longer nomadic, living in heated wood framed homes, pushing their boats along with outboard kickers instead of paddles, replacing dog teams with snow machines, and even providing the Disney Channel and M-TV to their children.
However, is was apparent that, even though they had adopted certain types of modern technology, they clearly remained identifiable as Inuit people, clinging tenaciously to important traditions, such as including Arctic mammals in their diets, wearing mixes of modern and traditional clothing, highly valuing their environment and worrying about its future, maintaining their history through stories and art, and continuing to be the friendly, gentle people described widely in the writings of 19th Century Arctic explorers.
They have also worked energetically alongside the Canadian government to proactively preserve their traditional cultures. Most notably, the Nunavut Territories were established in 1999, giving aboriginal people governmental control of the largest Territory in Canada. In addition, customary Canadian laws, such as those of adoption had to be modified, because they sometimes clashed with those of aboriginal traditions.