Climate Change 10
EM: “Really?!”
Levi: “Ice out isn’t til later, but this year, we can go.”
As I pondered this, we sat silently bouncing across the whitecaps and watching
the cliffs go by. I knew that we were traveling to the north end of the park fairly early in
the summer season, but Levi’s story made it clear why this was significant. Finally, he
broke the silence with another story.
Levi: When I was a kid, my grandparents got caught out here. (Here he points to the
Penny Ice Cap) they were hunting, but then a blizzard came. They couldn’t get back to
Qik with the dogs...at least right away. So, my grandparents, they went up to there. They
were able to go across the ice to get back. But they couldn’t do that now. There’s too
many (makes a chopping motion) breaks.
EM: “Crevasses?”
Levi: ((shrugs)) yeah.(.) but still there’s no ice in places.
I learned later that he didn’t mean crevasses, but actually that there wasn’t enough
consistency in the ice cap to make travel feasible. I also learned through reflection and
conversation with others that the importance of getting back to a settlement was a cultural
orientation, and one not necessarily shared by Levi and other members of his family. His
story, in this instance, was not so much about the impending danger, but rather was about
the changing environment. The impact of the changing environment led to other stories
in other contexts as well. Consider the following:
I was talking to a friend wearing a seal skin parka. I commented that the parka
was beautiful and asked where he got it. The person replied, “ I got it from my
girlfriend’s mother. She made it and gave it to me.” I asked if she lived in Iqaluit, to
Convention