The Arctic winter is long — in some areas, the sea is frozen for nine months, and there is snow on the land from September to June. The summer, when it eventually arrives, is short, but very welcome.
Although nowadays most
Inuit
live in permanent
villages rather than small, scattered camps, many families choose to leave their villages and head off to summer hunt- ing places. For the children, it’s a time to have fun — with school holidays and 24-hour sunlight, they can play and explore the tundra all night and sleep all day if they choose. For the men, summer is a busy time for hunting seals, walrus and whales, as well as for collecting birds’ eggs and fishing for migratory species like Arctic char and salmon. On the Chukotka side of the Bering Strait, the Chukchi hunt walruses near their haul-outs, and also grey whales that arrive each summer to feed in the Arctic’s rich waters. Traditionally, Inuit families used umiaks (open skin boats) and sealskin kayaks to travel to their summer camps, and in some Alaskan coastal communities, umiaks are still used to hunt bowhead whales, but these elegant craft have largely had their day, and most Inuit travel in glass-fibre boats with powerful outboard engines.
In one area,
Inuit hunter Avataq tows a seal back to the floe edge. Northwest Greenland, 1980.
Hunters in summer It’s a happy thing To feel warmth,
Come to the great World And see the Sun
Follow its old footsteps In the summer night.
Tatilgak, Inuit elder, early 20th century With the approach of Arctic summer, the thaw sets in. Snow gradually disappears
from the land, and pools of melt-water form on the sea ice. The Sun remains above the horizon for 24 hours each day, compensating for the long months of winter darkness, yet summer temperatures in the high Arctic seldom rise much above 14°C. Despite the sunlight and warmer temperatures in mid-June, there are patches of snow on north facing-slopes. The sea and many of the lakes will still be covered in ice — in the past, I have travelled by snowmobile on sea ice as late as mid-July. The Arctic’s short summer is a frenetic time for nature, with more than 200 species
of migratory bird arriving to make the most of the 24-hour daylight and abundant food the Arctic has to offer. Of these, the Arctic tern is perhaps the most remarkable — it flies between Antarctica and the Arctic, experiencing two summers and completing an annual journey of about 70,900 km. Despite the long winter and extreme sub-zero temperatures, about 760 flowering-
plant species manage to survive in the Arctic, though they become progressively more scarce north of the Arctic Circle. A wide variety of grasses, tubers, roots, stems, fireweed and edible seaweed were traditionally gathered and eaten by native peoples, providing a valuable source of vitamin C. Mountain cranberry, bilberry and cloudberry are both eaten fresh and stored for winter, and many native people still collect these, but they’re no longer so vital to their diet. Today, a year-round selection of fresh, canned, and frozen fruit is available in many shops. In the same way as the midnight Sun makes up for months of winter darkness, the
silence of Arctic winter is compensated for in summer by the clamour of bird song and the sound of running water.
however — the Thule district of northwest Greenland — the kayak is still used for summer hunting. Here, local regulations state that Inuit who hunt narwhal in Inglefield Bay must use traditional kayaks and hand-held harpoons. This and a whole range of other longstanding local hunting regulations are designed to conserve game as well as Inuit culture. In addition, there’s an annual district- hunting quota of 64 narwhal. Traditional narwhal hunting requires a combination of
patience, stealth, skill — and luck. Once the ice has gone and narwhal enter the bay to feed, hunters move to camp- sites along the shoreline that have a high vantage point and a good view of the water. This type of hunting is largely a waiting game during which hunters scan the surface of the bay through binoculars — they may have days, or even weeks, to wait. When they spot narwhal, that they think will pass close to their camp, the hunters take to their kayaks and paddle out into the bay. There, they wait silently — often positioning themselves close to drifting ice floes or pieces of glacial ice in an attempt at concealment. Stealth is paramount, since narwhal are easily alarmed by sudden movement, and even sunlight glinting off a wet paddle can cause them to dive. Generally, these hunts are most successful on dull,
overcast days. When a narwhal surfaces to breathe in front of a hunter, he paddles as fast as he can until he’s within range, then he hurls his harpoon — its toggle head is attached by a long line to an inflated sealskin float on the kayak deck. If the harpoon finds its mark, the hunter quickly throws the float into the water so it gets dragged down by the narwhal. Then, he waits for its reappearance to indicate where the creature will resurface; when this happens, another hunter will try to secure it with a second harpoon and maybe a third, before the narwhal is finally killed with a rifle or a lance. Then, it’s towed to shore for butchering. The muktuk (skin) of the narwhal is very high in vitamin C, with the same content per 100 g as citrus fruit. Among Inuit right across the Arctic, muktuk is considered a delicacy. A bonus for the hunter is the spiral ivory tusk (sometimes two metres long or more) that protrudes from the head of the
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