Pond Inlet (May 16/05) - When Joanasie Benjamin Arreak Sr. became lost on the land as a young man, he envisioned not only that he'd survive, but he'd live to see the next five generations.

He was right. The respected Pond Inlet elder recently passed away at age 77, but not before witnessing the birth of his great-great-grandson, and leaving behind a long list of accomplishments that touched the lives of many.

At 19 he became an RCMP constable and helped establish detachments around Nunavut. While posted in Cambridge Bay he helped teach Inuit traditional hunting skills at a time when much had been forgotten in the area.

He travelled on the St. Roch during its first successful navigation of the Northwest Passage.

And he saved the lives of more than a few people who accidentally fell through the ice.

But he's remembered by friends and family as someone who was always waiting to cheer someone up with the right words.

"I think the most important thing to him was family," said granddaughter Jolene Arreak, 27, who was raised by Joanasie after his 13 children had grown up.

As a child she'd try to challenge him by asking tricky questions about subjects like the solar system she learned in school, but without luck.

"He had an answer to almost everything," she said.

Joanasie was known for being so resourceful, he could fashion a blade from an old nail.

"He was like the Inuit McGyver," Jolene said, referring to the television hero who could disarm a missile with a paperclip.

"He always carried a comb, nail clippers, an army knife and a little thin pencil - he always sharpened it down - and some paper, and money. And he could pretty much do anything with those things in his pocket."

He was also a pack-rat, and while his family went through his belongings they joked, "I can hear grandfather: 'don't throw that out, you can use that,'" she said.

Joanasie taught Jolene how to hunt, fish, and navigate the land based on the sun's position in the summer sky.

She remembers how he could tell from a little haze in the sky that bad weather was coming.

He also taught her how to treat others.

"He always told me to be a good person and to help others," she said. He never missed church. Even when he was out on the land, everyone would gather at his tent Sunday evenings to sing songs and pray.

Generous spirit

"He was a very generous spirit," said Nasivvik school's co-principal, David Parks, who remembers Arreak telling a distraught student that life is like a carving, where mistakes sometimes become beneficial, and you never end with what you imagined in the beginning.

"Often what comes out of it is something better than what you started with."

Co-principal Meeka Enuaraq, who was Arreak's niece-in-law, remembers how important passing traditional knowledge down to youth was for him.

"He really wanted to help the students, and for them to know their culture and tradition," she said. "I miss him so much."