What do you call a bear with no teeth? A gummy bear! Who knew?

OK, OK, back to business.

Hearty people have made this area home for thousands of years. These enterprising groups established age-old trading networks and had invaluable knowledge of the land which was later leveraged to the benefit of fur traders and trappers and later the movement of European goods and technology. By the 18th century HBC had established Fort Churchill. Soon after it became a port city with a railway connection. In fact it is Canada’s only deep water Arctic port. Quite an interesting history for a spot on the map this far north.

We had a FULL, fun day. The bear squad saw no sign of bears in town, so after breakfast we were turned loose to explore the few blocks that comprise downtown. We started with the gift and craft shops where I chose a mini-inukshuk and a framed, tufted thistle. The stem is made of moose hair and the thistle is made of dyed caribou hair. I have never heard of tufting, so it was fun to learn about this craft. The grocery store, always a favorite with Dan, was interesting in that it has a section for liquor, toys, T-shirts, groceries, and snow mobiles. The prices are eye popping. One lime is 2 CAD; a pack of three heads of romaine is 12 CAD! With no roads in or out, everything has to arrive by plane or train making things like produce sky high and not always irresistibly fresh. We enjoyed touring the small but very impressive Itsanitaq Museum and hearing from the curator how she acquired individual pieces.

A quick (and delicious) bison burger lunch and then we were on our way to visit Wapusk Adventures, a dog kennel owned and run by a fourth generation Métis musher, David Daley and his wife. He explained his operation, introduced his son, a fifth generation Métis musher, and then took us each on a mile-long ride through the Boreal forest around his property. He calls these rides the Ididamile (get it?).

Before dinner we managed to squeeze in a very interesting lecture by Florence, the daughter of a Sayisi Dene woman who was forced to leave home as a child and attend one of the many church-run Indian schools. Being away from home most of the year her mother did not learn the ways of her people and therefore could not teach her children. Florence shared her journey from total ignorance of Sayisi Dene ways to becoming an advocate for teaching today’s youth.

One elk meatloaf dinner later and we were off to the nicest community center I’ve ever seen. With 220,000 square feet at the town’s disposal it was no problem to include a library, basketball court, ice rink, playground, swimming pool, auditorium, and who knows what else. We were there for a local variety show put on just for us. It started with a land acknowledgement which was followed by three songs played by five girls on a large traditional drum, an enthusiastic children’s choir, and then the headliner, an Australian singer songwriter who now calls Churchill home.

We climbed into our undersized beds after our wonderful day.

… Odds and Ends …

The boreal forest is a wide area of evergreens that circles the Northern Hemisphere.
Being able to withstand frigid temperatures year-round is its superpower. 
Canada’s boreal forest …drum roll please… is the world’s largest intact forest ecosystem,
even larger than the Amazon rain forest.

Tundra, dry like a desert, is the coldest biome.
It can support minimal tree growth due to extreme weather and its foundation of permafrost.
Low-growing plants thrive however.

A land acknowledgment honors the original inhabitants of the land where an event is taking place.