Gjoa Haven -
Uqsuqtuuq
ᐅᖅᓱᖅᑑᖅ
Galerijtentoonstelling; Foto's: Sacha de Boer.
Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde
Steenstraat 1, 2300 AE Leiden
www.sachadeboer.com www.volkenkunde.nl
De
fotoserie ‘Gjoa Haven’, in april 2008 gemaakt tijdens een avontuurlijke reis
voor het Wereld Natuur Fonds, geeft een kijkje in de Inuit-gemeenschap van
Uqsuqtuuq (Overdaad aan vet) en de ervaring met de harde wekelijkheid van het
Arctische klimaat.
Uqsuqtuuq ofwel Gjoa Haven ligt op het King Williams eiland in Nunavut,
Canadees Noordpoolgebied.
De Noordpool is een punt gelegen in de Arctische Oceaan (Noordelijke IJszee).
In 1904 ging Poolreiziger Roald Amundsen met het
schip de Gjøa bij King Williams Eiland voor anker en verbleef er twee winters samen met zijn
bemanning. Hij vond dit 'het mooiste haventje ter wereld' en
noemde het plek Gjoa Haven. De Gjøa, die nu bij het Noorse Maritieme Museum in
Oslo ligt, is ook de naamgever van een olieveld in het Noorse deel van de
Noordzee.
Amundsen, die als eerste door de Noordwestelijke Doorvaart voer, leerde veel
van de Netsilik Inuit, die in het gebied rond King Williams Eiland,
rondtrokken. Tijdens zijn Zuidpoolexpeditie had hij daarvan veel profijt. Amundsen,
bekend met de reizen van dr. John Rea, die als eerste de Noordwestelijke
Doorvaart gezien had en waarvan dit jaar zijn 200ste geboortedag herdacht wordt, heeft
terecht de sleutel tussen King William
eiland en het Boothia schiereiland, boven het Rasmussen Basin, de Rae Strait
genoemd. Ook heeft Rea vastgesteld dat King Williamland een eiland is.
Eerst
in 1927 vestigde de Hudson's Bay Company een post bij Gjoa Haven en groeide het
uit tot de huidige nederzetting.
Ken
McGoogan schreef o.a. het fascinerende boek: Fatal Passage. The Untold Story of John Rae, the Arctic Adventurer Who Discovered the
Fate of Franklin. McGoogan
selecteerde en introduceerde ook: The Arctic Journals of John Rae.
Tegenpool
Fotoboekje:
Sacha de Boer + Raymond Rutting
Uitgeverij:
Atlas-Contact (1-2011); 64 blz.
ISBN:
9789045019178; Ramsj € 7,99
Het
boekje bestaat uit twee delen: foto’s van Gjoa Haven (Sacha de Boer) en van een
toeristenreis naar het Zuidpoolgebied (Raymond Rutting, verslaggever de
Volkskrant). Doordat het kan worden omgekeerd, wordt de achterkant een nieuwe
voorkant. Hierdoor wordt het werk van beide fotografen, dat opvallend
verschillend is, gescheiden. Aan beide kanten staat een beknopte inleiding, de
foto's zijn voorzien van korte bijschriften, met o.a. uitleg over de manier van
fotograferen, bijvoorbeeld praktische tips hoe je met de apparatuur moet omgaan
in extreem koude omstandigheden.
De
opbrengsten gaan naar een goed doel om klimaatverandering tegen te gaan.
Eerder
verscheen het fotoboek: Gjoa Haven.
Foto’s:
Sacha de Boer. Tekst: Babs Assink.
Uitgeverij:
Veenman Drukkers (2008); 194 blz.
ISBN:
9789086902262
Gjoa Haven whalers seek bowhead in Gulf of
Boothia
Crew
travel by boat to Taloyoak and portage to hunting site
nunatsiaqonline.ca
NEWS:
Nunavut September 12, 2013; Peter Varga
Whalers
in Gjoa Haven, Nunavut’s third and final community permitted to hunt a bowhead
whale this year, finally set sail on their whaling expedition Sept. 9, after a
series of delays.
The bowhead hunt is the community’s first in recent memory. In fact, no members
of the whaling crew have ever hunted such an animal.
“We’re all hunters, but none of us have
ever been on a bowhead hunt,” said James Qitsualik, chairman of the Gjoa
Haven Hunters and Trappers organization and captain of the whaling party. “We’re all new to this.”
In preparation, the whaling party took advice from experienced bowhead whalers
in other communities of the Kivalliq region that have performed such hunts,
including Kugaaruk, Rankin Inlet, and Taloyoak.
“We’ve heard a lot from other communities
on how to hunt and butcher [bowheads],” he said. “We’ve been studying the anatomy of the whale too.”
Twelve other communities of Nunavut have had bowhead hunts since 1996, when Fisheries
and Oceans Canada and the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board first agreed to
allow a limited hunt of the animal in the Nunavut Settlement Area. Since 2009,
no more than three bowhead hunts per year are permitted in Nunavut – one to a
given community in each region of the territory.
The communities of Pangnirtung and Repulse Bay caught this year’s two other
bowheads in August.
Gjoa Haven hunters originally planned to do their hunt in mid-August, Qitsualik
said, but a visit from Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who came to see
the Canadian Rangers in the community, wiped out those plans.
“That’s when they got all the Rangers and
we had trouble finding boats and hunters. So we had delay after delay,” he
said. The captain originally assigned to the hunt backed out for the Rangers’
work, and a second captain resigned before Qitsualik took the post.
Meanwhile, the whaling party changed their choice of hunting location. Ice and
wind conditions in James Ross Strait ruled out their first choice, 289
kilometres of Gjoa Haven. The hunters’ second choice - to hunt for a whale in
the Gulf of Boothia - is now underway.
Although the second choice is closer, little more than 160 km away, the whaling
party has to portage boats and equipment over a narrow section of Boothia
Peninsula, just east of the community of Taloyoak, to get to the site.
“The people of Taloyoak kept encouraging
us to come here and they’re willing to help. That’s why we just said OK, let’s
go,” Qitsualik said from the community on Sept. 11, where the party was
planning the next stage of their journey after having spent the night.
Qitsualik and his crew of 15 expect to find many whales on other side of the
portage at Lord Mayor Bay, he said, which faces the Gulf of Boothia.
“There’s a lot of whales on the other
side, and there’s not many on this side,” Qitsualik said. Arctic waters
between Gjoa Haven and Taloyoak “can be
hazardous,” he said.
“We feel we’ll be safer here and we can
get more help while we’re here also.”
Qitsualik and his whaling party are taking advice from the captain of last
year’s bowhead whale hunt in Taloyoak along the way, he said. Taloyoak
whale-hunters caught their bowhead last year with captain Abel Aqqaq.
The party has a lot of heavy lifting to do on the portage. Four hunting boats
will hit the waters of the Gulf of Boothia some time after Sept. 11, said
Qitsualik, transported by ATV-towed trailers.
Once the whalers set up camp and set out into the water, they will search for a
“small” bowhead, he said, 30 to 40 feet (nine to 12 metres) long.
“We don’t want a huge bowhead. The bigger
they are, they’re stiffer and tougher, and not as tender and tasty,”
Qitsualik said, ideally a “32-footer.”
“Our goal is to get a young one, as long
as it’s not a calf or its mother.”
The whaling party hopes to meet their goal quickly, as temperatures drop and
shallow waters begin to freeze. Qitsualik expects his group will also come
across polar bears, which adds some urgency.
“We want a quick kill and we want to
butcher it [the bowhead] as fast as possible, because the polar bears are going
to come around,” he said. “The sooner
we get it done, the better.”
If all goes well, Qitsualik expects the whale to be caught and butchered
some time between Sept. 16 and Sept. 21, he said.
Once done, the whaling party’s priority will be “getting the maktaaq on this side of the ocean [Taloyoak and James Ross
Strait], and bringing it to the community,” he said. “That’s the hardest part — and hauling our gear from one side of the
ocean to the next.”
The whaling party planned to set up camp at Lord Mayor Bay in the Gulf of
Boothia by Sept. 12, and hunt for their bowhead in those waters.
In
Norway, Aglukkaq visits Gjoa exhibit, promotes Arctic Council
“Amundsen’s
story and this ship are very meaningful to me"
3 September 2013
 |
Nunavut
MP Leona Aglukkaq
speaks Sept. 2 at the Fram Museum in Oslo. |
While in
Oslo, Norway for the United Nations-linked Climate and Clean Air Coalition
meeting, Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq, who is also Canada’s environment minister
and minister responsible for the Arctic Council and the Canadian Northern
Economic Development Agency, stopped by the Fram Museum Sept. 2 to praise
Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen — and talk about Canada’s Arctic
Council chairmanship.
In June 2013, a new wing of the Fram Museum opened to house the Gjøa, the ship
used by Amundsen to navigate the Northwest Passage in 1906.
Amundsen became trapped in the ice off King William Island, near the community
now called Gjoa Haven. There, he and his crew spent two winters and developed a
close relationship with the Netsilik Inuit.
“Amundsen’s story and this ship are very
meaningful to me. I grew up in the small Arctic community of Gjoa Haven. My
family lives there today, and I still call it home,” Aglukkaq said. “The traditional knowledge, expertise and
cultures of the people living in the Arctic were critical to Amundsen’s success
in reaching the South Pole in 1911. And I believe they will also be key to the
future success of the Arctic region.”
Aglukkaq repeated her message that the overarching theme of the Arctic Council
under Canada is “development for the
people of the North,” that is, she said, responsible Arctic resource
development, safe Arctic shipping and sustainable circumpolar communities.
“Very simply, Canada will put the interests of those who live in the Arctic
first. During Canada’s chairmanship, the council program will include the
creation of a circumpolar business forum, recommendations for incorporating
traditional and local knowledge into its work, and the development of actions
to address black carbon and methane emissions,” Aglukkaq said, referring to the
goals of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition meeting.
Geplaatst: 21.09.2013. Gewijzigd: 2013 09 24
Minister Koenders (Buitenlandse Zaken) brengt eind
augustus een bezoek aan het Arctisch gebied. De reis begint vrijdag 28 augustus
2015 op het Noorse eiland Spitsbergen, waar de minister een ontmoeting heeft met
leden van de grootste Nederlandse Noordpoolexpeditie ooit. Koenders reist
daarna naar de Amerikaanse staat Alaska, waar hij op uitnodiging van de
Amerikaanse minister van Buitenlandse Zaken John Kerry op 30 en 31 augustus
deelneemt aan een internationale conferentie over klimaatverandering en het
Arctisch gebied.
