Karen Mackenzie
Northern News Services
Published Monday, June 9, 2008

PANNIQTUUQ/PANGNIRTUNG - Restoration of a historic whaling station in Kekerten Territorial Park near Pangnirtung will start as early as the summer thaw.

Located about a three-hour boat ride from the community, the site and its artifacts are a regular draw for tourists and local residents in the summertime.

Improvements to the attraction, along with the construction of a skeletal representation of the station, will enhance the experience for tourists, according to Simeonie Akpalialuk, the community's economic development officer.

"When you look at the number of cruise ships and visitors we have to the area this year, its important that the signs are up to date and you provide the best possible information to tourists," he said.

Joavee Alivaktuk, owner of Alivaktuk Outfitting in Pangnirtung, said he made about 14 trips out to the site last summer with tourists. He hopes the restoration will help bring the whaling station's history to life for the visitors.

"It'll bring the artifacts out that weren't really seen anymore. It's going to be interesting to look at, something to see," he said.

The Kekerten whaling station was heavily used during the mid-1850s and 1860s.

Three storehouses were built on the island in 1857 by Scottish whalers, traces of which can still be seen, along with cast iron cauldrons once used for rendering whale fat.

Although Kekerten Island was abandoned by foreign whalers in the 1920s, local hunters continued to access it, and in 1998 it was used it as a base camp for the community's last bowhead whale hunt. A 13-metre catch was hauled onto its shores and butchered that July.

The construction project will provide temporary employment opportunities for the community as well.

Local contractors hauled about six tonnes of steel to the site by snowmobile in February, according to Cameron DeLong, manager of planning and operations for Nunavut Parks.

Once the ice thaws enough to safely travel to the site, it should take just over a week for an Iqaluit contractor and local labourers to put together the skeletal structure.

Funded through Nunavut Parks, the project is part of an overall freshening-up of the site aimed at drawing more visitors, according to DeLong.

A Hudson Bay Company whaling station located in the hamlet itself is another landmark the community would like to see improved, according to hamlet SAO Ron Mongeau.

That site was a blubber station, used to render whale fat once the carcasses had been hauled into shore.

"The community has been interested in preserving this as well, to reflect the whaling history in the area," he said. "There are still a lot of elders in the community who spent time in all those areas, and when they're gone this link will be gone."