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During the 1920s and 30s there was a RCMP detachment at Pearce Point during
the summer months when the Inuit maintained a seasonal hunting camp.

Arctic 2002: Pearse Point

Trish
2004-01-08 21:46:05

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nacho chips lies one of the current threats to the people of
Nunavut. Just seventy years ago, the hunting parties at Pearce Point would
have camped in their traditional manner, travelled by dogsled, and lived a
life of balance at a subsistence level. The advent of 1950s government
policy created vast changes in the North; groups were moved from fertile
hunting areas to large accessible communities where welfare, alcohol, and
the snowmobile drastically marked the culture.
Now junk food is the latest
threat to northern communities, seventy years ago working a dog team across
the arctic demanded a high caloric intake. This cultural and genetic
requirement for a high food intake is no longer needed in the era of
snowmobile transport. Yet the Inuit people are often unaware of the
nutritionally deficient nature of junk food consumed as a replacement to
some traditional food sources and this adds one more health issue to an
already fragile way of life. (Credit for my awareness of this problem goes
to Jim's experience in Cape Dorset).

This is caribou country, but it is also bear country too. Last year a shore
party ran into a grizzly in these hills and we were instructed to travel in
groups and maintain radio contact. I explored with Ryan, a veteran deckhand,
and Kharla, a steward, who was also seeing the Arctic for the first time.
The two of us walked with broad grins plastered onto our faces at the sights
of even the smallest lichen on a rock. I took an entire roll of film in two
hours, attempting to capture just one view of the bay to bring home. The
rocky cliffs form a natural circle, the water deep in the centre and rising
sharply at the cliffs and beaches. The Laurier rested at anchor gracefully
and her bulk was matched perfectly by the bulk of the tower outcropping
rising from the water nearby.

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