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Street views launched on Nunavut Day Images of Iqaluit now on the Internet for the world to see
Danielle Sachs
Northern News Services
Published Friday, July 12, 2013
IQALUIT
In honour of Nunavut Day on July 9, Google launched its new Street Views featuring the sights of Iqaluit.
Chris Kalluk, a geographic information system (GIS) and mapping expert with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., hikes the streets of Iqaluit in March with the Trekker, a camera worn as a backpack to capture images for for Google Street View. - photo courtesy of Google Canada
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Iqaluit became the second Nunavut community to get mapped, after Cambridge Bay, and the gear used here was slightly different than the camera-equipped car that people in southern communities are familiar with.
Iqaluit was mapped over three days in March using a 'trekker,' a camera worn like a back pack so the user can stroll around talking pictures.
Chris Kalluk, from Cambridge Bay, works as a mapping expert with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.. He partnered with Google to help make the detailed map a reality.
"Hiking Iqaluit with the Trekker and working as a community to make the map more complete offers us a unique opportunity to share our people's land and culture with the rest of the world," said Kalluk.
In March, a community map session was held where elders, youth and others in the community were invited to make changes and edits to the map, including highlighting local places of interest and important landmarks.
They used Map Maker to add roads, trails and points of interest to the Google Map of Iqaluit. Map Maker supports Inuktitut, so residents were free to work in their own language.
"The Street View imagery lets users take a virtual dogsled ride across Frobisher Bay, or to walk right into the Nunavut Legislative Assembly," said Aaron Brindle, the Arctic project manager for Google Canada.
While in Iqaluit, the Trekker was worn by members of the Google Maps team and Kalluk. It was taken past important landmarks and even inside government buildings so people who have never visited the capital can get an idea of what it looks like.
"Our aim was to help the people of Canada’s most northern territory build a map that accurately reflects the land they know so well," said Brindle.
One of the street views includes a walk past the old Hudson Bay buildings near Apex.
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