Jennifer Pritchett
Northern News Services

BAKER LAKE (Jun 17/98) - Jacob Ikinilik and Barney Uqayuittuq remember what it was like to be within arm's length of two bull muskoxen with only a bow and arrow.

The Baker Lake hunters, who say the experience was the highlight of their lives, were able to get so close after crawling on their stomach for 20 minutes, while a CBC film crew captured the rare moment on camera.

Ikinilik and Uqayuittuq are two of several Baker Lake residents to be featured in a special CBC series produced to celebrate the turn of the century.

The 29-hour documentary titled Canada: A Working Peoples' History will be aired over two years beginning in 2000 and will chronicle the history of the people of Canada.

The Baker Lake segment will be two hours long and will focus on theories that first contact between Inuit and Europeans go back as far as 1,000 years.

Director Andrew Gregg said the material the crew was able to collect in Baker Lake will illustrate how Inuit were able to survive in the harsh environment of the North prior to the arrival of Europeans. He maintains that the muskox sequence and the other footage will set the standard for the rest of the 29-hour documentary.

"I was looking at the footage the other day and I just couldn't believe our good fortune," he said.

He was also impressed by the ease with which the elders of the community took part in the demonstration of traditional life for the camera.

"They knew better than we did what we should do," he said.

In order to illustrate traditional life, the crews, with the assistance of many residents of the community, made sure everything was authentic and didn't use anything that came from the 20th century.

Kyra Fisher, one of two outfitters for the crew along with Frederick Ford, said caribou sunglasses, bone needles, as well as traditional tools were made for the film.

"It wasn't difficult to make things look authentic because enough people know how to make traditional tools," she said. "They couldn't wear anything with beads or fabric or sunglasses -- nothing could be from the 20th century."

The crew did, however, have to take care to eliminate the sound of snowmachines in the piece, added Fisher.

It was because of the people retaining close ties to the land that Baker Lake was chosen by the CBC film crew.

"We knew we wanted to go to a place where people could still do traditional skills," he said.