It is with both sadness and excitement that I write about my last research trip. It is very exciting to be done a long year of much travel and much field work, and to complete a major stage in my PhD research. However, that stage completion is also a bit sad since I have very much enjoyed my time living and learning in all three Nunavut communities, and it’s hard to imagine not being up there for a while.

I arrived in Igloolik on June 6, to still cool temperatures but to glorious 24-hour sunshine. I was very fortunate to once again work with Theo, he is a wonderful teacher and I am always learning. After two days getting oriented and organized, we began the last of our interviews. We were able to conduct two each day, for three days, so getting 6 more interviews done.  This was about the number I had been aiming for – since I also wanted to get out on sea ice trips, and spend a lot of time with terminology and map revisions.

The first Saturday in town we managed a quick day trip to the mainland (Melville Peninsula) to get pictures and video of the floe edge, the shoreline, and an important reef which causes considerable ice pile-up and thus is very influential on the local ice conditions linking Igloolik Island with the mainland.

The second week was mainly spent organizing and reviewing the Inuktitut sea ice terminology. Theo helped to clarify the spellings and meanings, but also to re-evaluate more appropriate ways of presenting these terms in a learning format useful from a community perspective. This involved much discussion, and was very beneficial for me in reflecting on my own perspectives.

After a quiet work weekend, the third week was mostly spent out traveling on the sea ice, and camping, visiting a variety of unique sea ice features as well as just gaining experience with spring ice travel. This was easily the highlight of my trip. Theo drove us through much ice, snow, land, and water on a lengthy snowmobile trip from Igloolik Island to Baffin Island, crossing Fury and Hecla Strait to reach the mouth of Murray Maxwell Bay, and back. Our schedule became mainly traveling at night, sleeping in the early to late morning, and then traveling afternoon and night again, for three full days. This was mainly a function of our late Monday start time (8pm) and the lack of light constraints (the longest days of the year, June 20 – 23). This trip definitely reinforced the importance of learning by experience, to be able to identify particular ice conditions, to evaluate seal holes, to evaluate ice safety (whether water is dangerous to travel on or not, whether snow or ice is dangerous or not), to identify distant land or ice features as navigational aids, to experience the evolution of a polynya as the tide became stronger and it wore out from the warmth, currents, rain, and wind, and to watch/film part of a seal hunt. During our time on the ice, and from strategic land lookouts, we also met up with various other people camped in different spots along our travel routes, including a 2-week elder/youth camp organized by the Igloolik elder’s society. It was a constant learning experience, but I enjoyed every minute of it and wished that I had more opportunities like this throughout previous trips. I had always tried very hard to get out as much as possible, but weather, equipment, and guide constraints are not always easily controlled. I could say so much more about this amazing trip, but I’ll leave it at this in consideration of length, and would happily discuss it further with anyone who is interested.

The last few days in Igloolik were spent clarifying the maps that interviewees had drawn to make sure that features were labeled correctly, as well as soaking in the last few days of 24-hour sunshine.