Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

NUNAVUT
It may well be the most liked Facebook page in the Circumpolar North: Nunavut hunting stories of the day.

What Nick Illauq, 36, started "out of boredom" five months ago now has nearly 23,000 members and currently averages 4,000 new members every week - not just from Nunavut but across Canada's North, Alaska and Greenland.

"It's a good way to connect Inuit from other countries," said Illauq about the site with over 6,000 photos and hundreds of videos. With 150,000 Inuit in the world, Illauq expects the page will soon surpass as many as 40,000 members.

"Most Inuit are addicted to wildlife channels like National Geographic, Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, but in a way this is 10 times better because we know who posted the stories and it's totally raw," he said. "It's maybe the best video there is."

The site captures rare occurrences in nature such as an albino muskox, rare feats such as a traditional harpoon hunt of a bowhead whale hunt in Nunavik, and rare interactions with animal life such as last week when a dozen orcas were trapped in a breathing whole 30 kilometres off the coast of Inukjuak, Que.

Illauq, a former hamlet councillor and hunter himself, said his favourite posts so far are a three-way tie: one, of a man face-to-face with a massive walrus, another of a hunter with a polar bear whose leg is as big as the hunter himself, and a third, a video of two men hunting a narwhal which hits the boat and sends the men dangerously off course.

"This is the only way for some young people or people without equipment to see caribou and wildlife, or for elders who can't go out anymore, it can provide something for them to reminisce upon," he said.

Illauq said he hopes the Facebook page connects Inuit in a way that creates awareness of hunting rights, acts as an advocacy power on the side of hunters when resource development moves in, and teaches young people who have never hunted before to want to go hunting.

"I think it's one of the best ways to gain cultural awareness of what it's really like in the Arctic," said Illauq, adding websites cost money, and since the upkeep of this page and others like it is free, he hopes the Government of Nunavut changes their policy in regards to Facebook access in schools. "For people who don't know why people hunt, this could be the best explanation."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.