Warning. This post does NOT contain graphic images.
Every year the community is allocated a certain amount of Polar Bear tags for which to hunt Polar Bear. The community decides how the tags are to be handed out, and normally the community tags are allocated by a draw. If your name is drawn you have three days to kill your bear, and if you don’t the tag is drawn again to give someone else an opportunity. Polar Bear is one of the most sought after country foods up here, and one of my favourites.
Four nights ago Leah’s name was drawn for the first time in five years. Five years ago when she was drawn we decided that I would go do the hunt (Inuit, under the terms of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, can assign some or all of their hunting rights to a spouse or someone they live with). To make a long story shorter, it was fall and a three day gale made travel by boat, and the hunt, impossible.
This time Leah wanted to do the hunting (her younger sister shot her first bear this year), and started making plans to go out on the land. Given that she has a full time job, and we both have other full time responsibilities, dropping everything for three days was not an option. Yesterday, the last day of her tag, was the only day she could go out, and her parents took time off their jobs so they could go out with her. Alas, although we had no clients yesterday other commitments and a lack of an available sitter denied me my first opportunity to really get out on the land in a couple of years.
Komatik being all packed and ready to go they headed out around 8 am. They had hoped to head a little south on Admiralty Inlet where friends and seen two sets of large tracks the previous day but once again the weather decided not to co-operate and the blowing snow was too bad in that direction so they turned north. The only sign they found all day (they returned about 12 hours later) was a set of tracks from a young bear that they decided not to follow. They did manage to get some seal hunting in, but again were not successful. Although it was a little cold, she had a great day out on the land.
One of the points on Admiralty Inlet (I had originally thought it was Ship Point but it isn’t. Possibly the mouth of Elwin Inlet).
Leah’s parents hunting seal.
Another hunter from town seal hunting.