Laura Power
Northern News Services
Monday, June 18, 2007

POND INLET - When Bob Kussy spent the summer in Pond Inlet last year with his son, he never expected the chain of events that followed.

Kussy said he didn't know about the regulations in place before harvesting some bowhead whalebone, an action which he said has put him under investigation.

Kussy's son, Joe Ashoona, is the grandson of Kiugak Ashoona, an artist from Cape Dorset. Many members of the Ashoona family built their livelihood around producing carvings from materials such as whalebone, and this is the first problem the family has encountered with harvesting materials.

"We've been going out for half a century... it's nothing new in this family," said Kussy, who resides in Yellowknife with his wife - carver Goota Ashoona - and his two stepsons.

Kussy said he called the Cambridge Bay office of Nunavut Tunngavit Incorporated (NTI), before the trip to ask if there would be any trouble with gathering bone, and he said the man he spoke to told him there wouldn't be a problem. Later, when Kussy brought this to their attention, he said they told him their position was that he never called.

"Shame on them," he said.

Laurie Pelly, legal counsel for NTI, said Nunavut archeological regulations prohibit the collection of materials over 50 years old which show evidence of human activity, and that in order to harvest such items, one would need an archeological permit first.

The Nunavut land claims agreement, she said, has some tension between certain provisions. Though there is an effort to protect these archeological sites, under the section on harvesting, it is stated that "an Inuk shall have the right to harvest that stock or population in the Nunavut settlement area up to the full level of his or her economic, social, and cultural needs, subject to the terms of this article."

Ezekiel Mucktar, a Pond Inlet resident, hadn't heard about the incident but is clear on the regulations regarding collecting whalebone.

"Not without a permit," he said, adding he believes that's common knowledge.

Kussy said a resident of Pond Inlet publicly complained about Kussy's harvesting of bowhead bone last summer. Not long after that, he said he received a call from the government of Nunavut's office of archeology and paleontology which told him they had asked the RCMP to investigate the matter.

Nearly a year later, he said he is in the dark as to what is going on, despite his efforts to communicate by sending his account of the ordeal in a letter he wrote to the authorities in question.

"I got one lousy letter saying thanks for the paperwork, you're under investigation, no comment," he said.

"They want to investigate me... but they don't talk to me. I find that overwhelming."

Cpl. Charlene Rogoschewsky of the Pond Inlet RCMP detachment confirmed last week that there is an ongoing investigation but was unable to disclose further details.

The bones harvested by Kussy and his son last summer now sit in his friend's garage in Pond Inlet. Kussy said he is unable to bring them back to Yellowknife without a transport permit, and not having the materials for carving is costing his family a lot of money.

He said one of his wife's larger whalebone carvings, which would take about a week to produce, would sell for thousands of dollars. During the past year, while the whalebone he has collected sits in limbo, he said the loss has added up.

Kussy said he feels that racism is a driving factor behind the situation.

"Guess who's being charged - the white guy," he said.

He said he believes whalebone carving is "one of the more dynamic art forms" and that "its continuation is being seriously jeopardized." He said he would like to ensure that Inuit families can harvest the material in the future without difficulty.

"If I have to go through this to have that happen, good for me," he said.

Archeologists at NTI were unavailable for comment on the matter.