2024 Northwest Passage: Day 12 Cambridge Bay

August 30 - Friday

 3426 km / 2141 miles

Iqaluktuuttiaq, also known as Cambridge Bay, is a hamlet in the newest Canadian territory, Nunavut. The Canadian map was redrawn on April 1, 1999, carving out the new territory from the Northwest Territories as a homeland for Canadian Inuit. That Nunavut was officially created and recognized is a tribute to both the tenacity of Inuit leaders and sensitivity of the Canadian government. 

The village is several times larger than Ulukhaktok, with around 1,760 inhabitants. It’s the largest Inuit community we will visit, compact and easily walkable. We’re roughly due north of the Dakotas. 

Peter, an eighth grade basketball player happy to be out of school to guide, led our group around town. He dutifully led us from point to point, trailed by a pair of seventh graders who made sure no one was unintentionally dropped.

Scrap metal muskox facing off against two Arctic wolves. 

We peeled off after the second stop to stroll around on our own. 

Perhaps the dwelling of a very successful caribou hunter?

We learned that kayaks were used for caribou hunting. The women and children would imitate wolves, driving the caribou into the water where the hunters could spear them from their kayaks. 

Incongruous to the rest of the town, the Canadian High Arctic Research Station (CHARS) is a gleaming copper-colored structure. The state-of-the-art research facility is 52,500 square feet. 

CHARS was officially dedicated in August 2019. The facility has brought jobs, tourism and grants to the community, not without some controversy. Time and effort are slowly working out the kinks in communication and culture.

The buildings to the left are barracks for staff and soldiers. 140 military personnel rotate through on 3 week missions. They work with Canada’s coast guard, and are charged with protecting 40% of the country’s land mass in a most inhospitable environment. As Russia and China consider part of this area to be international waters, constant vigilance is required to maintain Canadian sovereignty. 

 

A woman gave a brief overview, standing before curbed etched glass panels. It’s a beautiful building, inside and out. Most of it was off-limits to us, dedicated to research space (much on climate change), administrative and military offices, a sick bay, etc. 

Aeroponic plant experiment

A signal sounds across the village each day at noon. Everyone - workers and students - goes home for lunch. 

We visited a modern high school, but didn’t enter the school itself. Just inside the entrance were cubbies for students to store their boots. Most public buildings in town ask you to remove boots when you enter. 

Tucked into a front corner of the high school is the library and cultural center. They had beautiful handiwork for sale. 

The children’s section of the library included a plastic igloo, with a cuddly spotted seal and sweet little caribou stools. 

These outfits were mounted on the wall above a sewing and craft area. They illustrate the progression of Inuit clothing over the last hundred years. The far left shows attire before 1920 just before interactions with outside cultures became more common. 

The community center had plated small dishes of local delicacies to sample. I tried a bit of narwhal and a kelp spread, then a bite of cookie to cleanse the palette. 

Then, back to our ship for dinner.