Panniqtuuq (July 07/03) - With his camera at the ready, Tosh Gierek looks more like a photojournalist than the university student he is.

He watches a few Pangnirtung locals slicing seals for a community feast and stops for a minute to take it all in.

As one of 10 students travelling with the University of Manitoba's Native Studies program, Gierek has a lot to absorb in the next five weeks.

The students are immersing themselves in Pangnirtung, a community of 1300, living in tents on a hill high above the town, spending days out on the land and learning some Inuktitut.

"I wanted to be in the environment I was studying," said student Melanie Meade during a group interview with other students taking the course. "You can't get this from books."

Chris Trott, director of the Pangnirtung Summer Program, is also a assistant professor at the University of Manitoba and has seen this course work wonders for students in the seven years the course has been running.

He has also been inspired by the place, and presented a paper last year at U of M about decentralization and devolution and the impact of the Nunavut government on communities on Baffin Island.

The course was created by Peter Kulchyski, head of the department of Native and Environmental studies at U of M. It's intended to give curious and ambitious students a chance to experience the places they are studying in school.

"Until you have the blood on your hands, you don't really know what it's like," Gierek said. There were plenty of bloody hands and new and exciting foods for them to try on June 30 at the community feast when fresh seals, Arctic char and stew were served in early celebration of Canada Day.

The students had just arrived two days before, so they were still getting used to the cold, the friendliness of the people in the town, and the spread of country foods in front of them at the feast. All of this, surrounded by stunning fiords and small bits of icebergs out in Cumberland Sound, unlike anything you would see in Manitoba.

"The sheer beauty is just amazing," said religious studies student Liz Cooper, "The cultural involvement is so interesting."

This is not a cheap course to take. Each student paid close to $4,000 for the five week program.

"Going to a community that accepts us is an exciting experience," Meade, an environmental studies student, said.

Floriza Gennari, a student in International Development studies and history, attends Queen's University, but heard about the course through a friend who did it last year.

"It's really exciting learning in that context," she said.

Cooper couldn't get over the welcome they have received.

After seven years of history with the town, the students are slowly becoming part of the summer scene in the community. Some of them even admitted that after living much of their lives in larger southern places, the sense of community in Pang surprised them.

"The affection in public, I noticed that here," said Cooper.

"There are beautiful, charismatic people in the community."