ULUKHAKTOK/HOLMAN
Rose Marie Kuptana is sewing sealskin mitts for her children this winter.

Rose Marie Kuptana, 28, of Ulukhaktok harvested her first beluga on Aug. 1 while hunting on the west coast of Victoria Island with her dad, David Kuptana. - photo courtesy of David Kuptana

"This is the first time I'm going to be sewing. I never ever started sewing before so I'm just going to start," she said. "I'm more of a traveller and hunter than sewing."

Kuptana, 28, did not harvest the seal she is using for the mitts - she hasn't hunted seals in a few years - rather, she was given the pelt by the community in recognition of being the only woman in the hamlet to have brought a whale to shore this past season.

"She almost killed it with the second harpoon because it went through the lungs," recalled her dad, David Kuptana, who participated in the hunt.

Rose Marie harpooned the whale in the bay on Aug. 1.

The water was clear and the slight wind was just strong enough to push small waves across the surface. Rose Marie could see the bottom less than four metres below as she steadied herself in the front of her dad's 18-foot Lund boat.

Her heart was racing as a beluga came up alongside the boat.

"And I threw the harpoon," she said.

The solid shot struck the whale in the back near the spine. With floats attached, the whale moved into deeper water. When it began moving underneath the boat, Rose Marie drove in the second harpoon.

"I shot it and we brought it to the shore," said David. "This is her first whale. She's the only lady that got a whale in Ulukhaktok."

Back at shore, their boat was greeted by the whole community. Friends and neighbours helped pull the whale onto land then everyone took part in cutting up the meat.

"Everybody starts cutting it and then after it's cut it's all in little pieces at the shore and we just tell everybody to grab some and the rest we put into buckets or bags and freeze them up," said Rose Marie. "It's delicious. My kids love it for candy."

Rose Marie's husband, Albert Kuneluk, who is originally from Kugluktuk, and her youngest son Carson, 4, enjoy eating muktuk raw. Rose Marie and her other three children prefer to boil their muktuk for 40 minutes before adding soya sauce.

"It's softer like that and the skin is easier to come off when it's boiled. It's really hard to come off when it's not cooked," she said.

This past season, community members harvested about 35 belugas since July 1, including one each brought in by Rose Marie's brothers, Joseph Kuptana and Kevin Kuptana.

"This year they're actually coming through and right into the bay. Other years it wasn't really like that. It was really hard to go hunting whales because they were only way out there just passing through," she said. "This year they were constantly going through. I guess I just had a lucky chance. Everybody is lucky this year with whales."

The beluga is not the first large mammal Rose Marie has hunted. On land, she hunts muskox, caribou and in April 2012, she killed her first polar bear with her dad's .303 rifle. Her sister, Melissa Kuptana, shot her first polar bear the same day.

They sold them to a Yellowknife taxidermist, which allowed them to pay some bills and put money on the new snow machine they had recently purchased, as well as purchase food and camping supplies for future hunting trips.

"I hunt all the animals. I go fishing," said Rose Marie. "I do a lot of harvesting. I think I have caught everything but a wolf."

Rose Marie's children are following a similar path, heading onto the land with their grandpa to hunt and fish and learn the skills their mother learned.

"Me and my kids are learning from my father," she said. "He is very experienced since he was a little kid. He taught me. He is showing my boys to follow along." Rose Marie's children accepted the sealskin from the community on her behalf during a community feast held Sept. 20 by the Ulukhaktok Community Corporation to celebrate the successful spring and summer whale hunt.

The children displayed drawings they did of whales during the event, which was attended by about 125 people.

Muktuk, of course, was on the menu.