Capturing the thaw
Timelapse video by Students On Ice alumnus used for safety in Kugaaruk
Beth Brown
Northern News Services
Monday, September 19, 2016
KUGAARUK/PELLY BAY
A timelapse video of ice patterns in Kugaaruk, created by 23-year-old Inuk Pauli Illuitok, is going to be used as a safety tool by Canadian Rangers and the community.
Pauli Illuitok, 23, of Kugaaruk was awarded a $5,000 grant through Polar Knowledge Canada and Students on Ice to create a timelapse video showing changes in spring and summer ice conditions. - photo courtesy of Lee Narraway, Students On Ice |
The project was sponsored by a Polar Knowledge grant, made available to Students On Ice alumni from the North.
The one-minute, 26-second video titled Melting Ice for Safety shows the breaking up of ice around Kugaaruk during the spring and early summer.
Illuitok filmed the video between May 4 to 6 and Aug. 8 to 10.
He was aided by his uncle, Canadian Ranger Sgt. David Illuitok.
Pauli will be presenting the video to Kugaaruk Rangers, who will be able to use the video to better understand shifts in current ice patterns while planning patrols or hunting routes.
"It will give them a clue," said Pauli.
He watched the video for cracks in the ice, monitored changes made by the tides and took note of times and places where the integrity of the ice was compromised.
"In the spring, some parts are really thick and some parts are really thin," he said.
To create the sequence, he set his Canon Rebel camera to hour-and-a-half increments.
"It took me a while to set up the camera," he said, due to soft ice and poor weather.
The project was inspired by similar footage from Oceans North Canada of patterns around Pond Inlet that Illuitok saw while travelling with Students on Ice last summer.
"I wanted to do one in my community."
He collaborated with Oceans North Canada to learn about needed equipment and the cost of such a project. Pauli was already an amateur photographer.
The grant program that funded the video was launched in 2015 as a partnership project by Polar Knowledge Canada and Students On Ice, in a special effort to increase support for Northern youth.
The video project received one of three pilot POLAR Inspiration grants, each worth $5,000.
"We really wanted this to be Northern focused and driven," said Caitlyn Baikie, Arctic youth and partnership program manager at Students On Ice. "His (application) was very full of passion and community based."
She said mentorship is key to student success in remote projects like these.
"One thing we look for is community need and support. That was very strong in his application. He spoke very strongly about his uncle and the Canadian Rangers."
The two additional projects by Northern Students on Ice alumni include one involving the Iqaluit Qajaq Society, which was established to teach the sport of qajaqing among Iqaluit youth and to promote active lifestyles and traditional knowledge.
A Kangiqsujuaq-based photography initiative titled Northern Lights, created to equip youth struggling with mental illness with a positive creative outlet, as well as increase awareness and understanding of mental illness in the community, also received a grant.
The grant project is wrapping up, but that doesn't mean Pauli is finished capturing climate change on his Canon.
"I'm planning to do another project this year, maybe at the end of this month when it starts freezing up," he said.
