Kevin Wilson
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Oct 08/01) - Stephane Cloutier never realized how much of his own heritage is bound up in the North Baffin.

"I had to come up here to find my own roots," he says with a laugh.

A native of L'islet Sur-Mer, 45 minutes east of Quebec City by car, Cloutier had often seen references to a Captain Bernier while growing up.

"But I didn't know very much about the man," he said.

When Cloutier's mother visited him in Iqaluit a few years ago, a chance encounter with an elder from Pond Inlet proved revealing. Cloutier's mother's maiden name is Bernier. The elder, upon discovering that, "asked us, with big eyes if she was related to Captain Bernier."

The answer is maybe, distantly, although Cloutier never found any evidence of a direct relationship.

What Cloutier did find was a fascinating tale. In 1904, Joseph Bernier received a mandate from the federal government to assert Canadian Sovereignty in the Arctic. His ship, the Arctic, plied the North Baffin until 1925, wintering often in Pond Inlet and Iglulik.

"When he departed, he left barrels of maple syrup," said Cloutier, adding that the Inuit he made contact with, "enjoyed maple syrup for a long time after."

Cloutier began researching the life and voyages of the sailor from L'islet. The result has been a veritable historical bonanza from an early chapter in the relationship between French Canadians and the Inuit.

Unlike the ill-fated Frank-lin expedition, Bernier and the crew of the Arctic adopted Inuit methods of survival in the Arctic.

"They wore caribou clothing, and ate traditional foods," said Cloutier. Members of the ship's company got on easily with the North Baffin Inuit, occasionally marrying and having children.

In addition to lengthy interviews with elders in the North Baffin region, Cloutier also unearthed photos obtained from the Bernier Museum, the Museum of Civilization in Hull and from relatives of Bernier and his crew.

The research is, "as much about the men and women who helped him on his expeditions," as it is about Bernier, said Cloutier.

Cloutier has gathered some of the best photos together into a set of postcards, with excerpts of interviews conducted with elders on the back in Inuktitut, French, and English.

The idea, "is to generate some revenue to continue the research," he said.

The completed postcards will be on sale next month.