The hungery economy
Hunting for the dinner table

by Jennifer Pritchett
Northern News Services

NNSL (DEC 02/96) - Dave Akeeagok of Grise Fiord wouldn't be able to survive without country food.

"I'd be broke," he said. "If the country harvest was banned and we had to live off store-bought food, people would live in poverty."

Akeeagok, like most aboriginals across the Arctic, depends on wild game, such as caribou and seal, to live.

In 1996, aboriginals in the NWT alone will harvest more than 50,000 caribou for food.

That figure doesn't include non-aboriginal residents of the NWT who have caribou licences or those who hunt commercially.

Indeed, most aboriginals subsist on caribou meat, by all accounts.

"We get a caribou once a month," said Akeeagok. "It will only last us for two weeks. We have it every day for dinner and supper -- even a midnight snack sometimes."

As one of the staples of the Northern diet, Akeeagok gets a relative in Pond Inlet to bring his family caribou when it's unavailable in Grise Fiord.

Isaac Kalluk, president of the Hunters and Trappers Association in Resolute Bay, isn't so lucky. He is already experiencing the financial effects of a caribou shortage.

A decrease in the caribou population in the High Arctic has forced the territorial government to enforce a ban on caribou hunting in the area.

Kalluk said that substituting chicken, beef and pork is expensive and causing people in the area serious hardship.

"There's only one store here and it's very expensive," he said. "This is hurting us, and it's getting harder every year just to get food on the table."

Kalluk predicts his weekly grocery bill has drastically increased -- to $500 from $100 since the ban came into effect.

He said meat is so expensive that his family of four often has to eat food that isn't nutritious.

"Sometimes, before the next cheque, we have to buy food that isn't really good, just to fill our stomachs," he said.

Without the natural "underground" food economy, many aboriginals are left to eat store-bought food, causing them financial ruin. Their lifestyle is also profoundly affected, according to Akeeagok.

He said he even notices a major difference in the way he feels if he doesn't eat traditional food.

"If I don't have seal meat on a regular basis, I'd freeze to death," he said. "Even after a week, I have to wear warmer clothes."

Country food, he said, is their livelihood.

Aboriginals across the Arctic also consume quantities of duck, ptarmigan, geese, rabbit and other wild game -- all contributing to the country food economy.