Wild Earth

Inuit Art

The art of the Inuit, Canada’s Arctic people, has a history of some 4,000 years. Its means of expression took the form of highly decorated material culture. Whether these objects were used for hunting or personal adornment, their significance is unquestionable. The aesthetic appeal beyond western understanding underlies the amazing collections to be found in the world’s great museums and galleries. For the Inuit, this rich artistic outpouring created a spiritual bond, a means of communicating with the world around them and the spiritual forces that controlled that world. For a non-literate people, art was a means by which they translated isumasi (our thoughts).

Today’s Inuit artist continues the role of communicator. This voice honours the land and its people and initiates a dialogue with those who encounter the works of art. To confront a stone carving of a polar bear dancing to its own music or a mother nursing her newborn is to experience a glimpse of the Arctic rich with both the familiar and the exotic. The raw materials of stone, bone and antler emerge from the Arctic landscape. When we hold a beautifully carved piece we are in touch with this landscape. Paper for limited edition prints and drawings and textiles used for weaving and wall hangings are newer materials for these artists. Both these mediums afford a narrative means of sharing information. Sprinkled with humour and imagination, prints have become sought after by collectors. The excellence with which they are produced is a tribute both to the many artistic advisors who come north to share their expertise and the talent of the artist to capture the idea on paper.

Narwhal

(Monodon monoceros)

A large herd of brilliant white Beluga whales makes an impressive sight, but a ‘procession’ of Nawhal moving along the coast is truly awesome. The body colouration alone is highly unusual, but what is more astonishing however is to see the legendary unicorn tusks thrust above the water as the male breaks the surface. Not only does this large spiral tusk, up to 3m long and three-fifths of the body length, seem out of place on a relatively small whale as it is also off centre protruding from the left upper lip.

Narwhal grow up to 6 meters (20 ft) and weigh on average 1.6 tons. This greyish whale is darkly speckled on the back and has no dorsal fin. Its tail flukes have recurved tips, giving it the shape of an anchor. Narwhals have a toothless mouth but adult males, and in rare cases females, develop one (occasionally two) long spiralled ivory tusk that can grow up to 3 meters (10 ft) long. Its purpose is still a subject of debate but it is thought that the tusk is used for male competition during the mating season in winter. Narwhals can be found throughout the Eastern Canadian Arctic and in northern Hudson Bay. They often form pods of up to twenty and these pods may merge into herds of several hundred animals. It is currently estimated that the worldwide population is 25,000-30,000 individuals and Narwhal are not considered endangered but the population has a very disjointed range due to habitat and hunting pressure.

Musk Oxen

(Ovibos moschatus)

Musk Ox are actually more closely related to sheep and goats than to oxen but have diverged sufficiently in their Arctic realm to occupy their own genus, Ovibus. Males and females are similar in size with the male being on average a little larger, in appearance both sexes are very similar with a long shaggy coat and long curved horns. Their distinctive long matted fur is both waterproof, windproof and exceptionally warm, the under hairs, known as qiviut are exceptionally fine and is highly prized for its softness, length and insulating properties.
Musk  Ox are a social species that grazes the tundra in herds ranging from 10 to over 70 animals, during the summer they concentrate on wetter valley floors moving to higher snow free areas in winter. During the annual mating season the dominant male will drive the other males out of the normally herds through impressive fights which involve repeated head butting. At this time the males are very aggressive and have been known to even chase nearby birds.
Currently the Musk Ox is native to the Canadian Arctic and Greenland but historically it was much more widespread having a circumpolar distribution, and animals from the Canadian Arctic have been reintroduced to a number of areas where they historically occurred including Alaska, Wrangel Island and parts of Northern Norway. These reintroductions have been a success but it is the Canadian Arctic that the vast majority of the estimated 120,000 Musk Ox occur, on Banks Island alone the latest census estimated 68,000 Musk Ox occurred.

THE SEARCH FOR THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE

As the last Norsemen were dying in Greenland, Europe was emerging from its own dark period. Interest in exploration – and territorial expansion – revived, and royal purse strings loosened. Columbus, bound for India, found America instead. Magellan, also in Spain’s service, circumnavigated the world.  Spain and Portugal now held a monopoly on the immensely profitable trade with the east, much to the chagrin of other sea-faring nations, notably England and Holland. Barred from the southern routes to the “worlde of golde, precious stones, balms and spices,” they sought a northern alternative.

The Arctic was not the goal in itself, but a very difficult obstacle on the road to Cathay. “The Voyage to Cathaio by the East, is doubtless very easie and short…” wrote Mercator, the eminent Flemish geographer. Part of the confusion regarding the ease of the passage was the belief, held until the end of the 19th century, that at the top of the world, beyond a narrow belt of ice, lay an open, unobstructed Polar Sea. What they found instead was, as the poet Milton, wrote, “Mountains of ice, that stop the imagined way, Beyond Petsora eastward to the rich Cathain coast.”

Not to be discouraged, however, and inspired by the pioneering voyages of the whaling fleets, the Elizabethan sailors and their successors poked and probed, north, east and west in their tiny ships. Cathay eluded them, but in the course of their efforts, they explored and mapped much of the north. The expeditioners brought home descriptions and sometimes samples of the wildlife and people of the Arctic, and laid the basis for two immensely important companies: the Muscovy Company, which yielded wealth and furs to Russia, and the Canadian Hudson’s Bay Company.

From 1670 to about 1818, it was the fur trade (principally in beaver) that motivated much of the northern explorers, focusing on the Canadian mainland. With the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars, however, national pride and a large unemployed navy turned British eyes, minds and budgets back to Arctic exploration. The journeys undertaken to the Arctic in the 19th century are the stuff legends are made of. Heroic sea captains, fantastic feats of bravery and endurance, tyrannical expedition leaders, lost ships and great manhunts. Yet it was not until the 20th century that a man – not an Englishman but a Norwegian, Roald Amundsen – quietly sailed right through the passage on Gjoa, a humble fishing vessel with a crew of only six.

Polar Bear

(Ursus maritimus)

The Polar Bear is the worlds largest land carnivore, but paradoxically lives most of its life on the frozen ocean and so is considered by some to be a marine mammal. Closely related to the Brown Bear, the Polar Bear is thought to have diverged from a Siberian population of Brown Bears within the last 1 million years. The Polar Bears fur appears white to yellow but is actually translucent, directing light to the animals black skin to generate additional warmth. In recent years naturally occurring hybrids between Brown and Polar Bears have been found, further evidence of this close evolutionary relationship. Polar Bears occupy fast-ice and pack-ice habitats where there principal prey, Ringed Seals, occur year round. In the Canadian Arctic, their density and reproductive success appears to be very closely correlated with Ringed Seal densities.
The primary food of the Polar Bear is ringed Seals, but a number of other species will also be hunted opportunistically including Bearded Seals, Walrus and even Whales. Bears will feed exclusively on blubber when food is plentiful, seals are stalked at their breathing holes or when hauled out on the ice. The bears often wait silently for several hours before pouncing explosively on a seal and they are renowned for their ingenuity by all those who live in the north. The mating season is during the spring with gestation lasting approximately 7 months, in November/December the pregnant females will excavate a maternity den, the pups born in February but mother and cubs will remain inside the den until spring. Cubs stay with their mother learning to hunt and survive for around 2 years.
The Polar Bear’s global population has been estimated at 25,00 individuals but this number is subject to much debate and in recent years many populations appear to have been significantly reduced as a consequence of early sea ice break out and late sea ice formation. Without the sea ice the bears are effectively unable to hunt. Polar Bears are a species thought to be one of those most at risk from global warming and associated changes to the Arctic sea ice, as a keystone predator bears are also at risk from high concentrations of industrial chemicals such as PCBs and heavy metals which are concentrated in their bodies and reduce reproductive success.
A Polar Bear has to be seen to be believed, moving silently over the ice they radiate a level of confidence in their strength, ability and position at the top of the food chain that it is hard to believe that they could ever be under threat.