Editor:
The Canadian Arctic can be a cold and unforgiving place. There is no growing season; there are no vegetables and, with the exception of a brief two-week period in late summer when the blueberries and cloud berries emerge, there is no fruit.
Inuit have survived for countless generations on a diet of protein harvested from fish and sea mammals, seal, walrus and whales and from land mammals, caribou, polar bear, arctic hare and musk-ox as well as ducks and geese. The skins of these animals and others including fox, wolves and wolverines were trapped and used for clothing and shelters to protect men, women and children from the harsh climate.
Essentially, all of the harvested animals were used in some constructive way. Eaten frozen, as was and remains our custom, caribou meat is rich in vitamin C and the reason Inuit did not suffer from scurvy. Cooking caribou meat destroys most of the vitamin C.
Today, while fresh fruit and vegetables are now readily available in all arctic communities, they are prohibitively expensive (try a watermelon for $45,) many Inuit families continue to supplement modern diets and incomes with traditional foods and trapping.
It’s not bad, it’s just a different lifestyle and one predicated on survival. Additionally, the proliferation of modern highly processed foods, with their hidden sugars, fats and salt has led to an epidemic of type 2 diabetes among Inuit. A traditional diet remains far more healthy.
I was dismayed to recently read a letter to the Outlook describing the issue of the recently stolen polar bear hide and subsequent statement that polar bears are often hunted in Canada for their hides alone and the meat left to waste. This is not meant as a personal attack on the author, rather a clarification of an incorrect statement of fact.
The annual Nunavut polar bear harvest is heavily regulated and strictly enforced. Each community is allocated a set number of polar bear tags, far fewer than the number of eligible hunters and based on scientific counts. Annual quotas are adjusted regularly as required. The tags are allocated by random draw, with the hunter being allowed a set number of days to successfully harvest a bear.
If unsuccessful, the tag goes back into the lottery. If the tags are not all allocated before the end of the hunting season, the community quota goes unfulfilled or if the community quota is met, the hunt is immediately ended. No female bear with a cub or cubs can be harvested.
Selected adult Inuit hunters will often defer their tag to their eligible children as this remains a cultural rite of passage for teenage Inuit. Hunters may also sell their tag to a very limited number of local certified and trained Inuit guides who must then take their paying clients hunting in the traditional way, by dog team.
In the case of an American hunter who is prohibited from importing a polar bear hide, the hide may be given to the guide or the original tag holder when it is then traditionally fleshed, stretched and bleached in the sun and then sold at the annual North Bay fur auction.
The polar bear meat is harvested and given to the family or shared with community members for food, with the exception of the liver, which is highly toxic. Polar bear meat remains a delicacy in the Inuit culture and it is never left to waste. Local hunter and trapper organizations and the Nunavut territorial wildlife officers check this diligently and any hunter or guide found in violation risk heavy fines and may have their general hunting or guiding license suspended. Culturally, leaving meat to waste remains unacceptable.
I share this with people so they can understand that different cultures found different ways to survive and that in the annual Nunavut polar bear harvest, no meat is left to waste. Sometimes a little perspective can be a great educator.
For more detailed information see:
http://env.gov.nu.ca/sites/default/files/2012nuhuntingguide.pdf
Manitok Thompson,
Nunavut Land Claim Beneficiary
