The Northwest Passage in Canadian History

A major portion of the Canadian Government's Speech from the Throne on October 16, 2007, was devoted to the Canadian Arctic. This is largely because of the strategic nature of the Northwest Passage to Canadian claims of sovereignty in the North.

With Global Warming, it is anticipated that the Northwest Passage will become an increasingly navigable trade route. Commercial ships can shave off some 4,000 kilometers (2,480 miles) from Europe to Asia compared with the current routes through the Panama Canal.

Above, the Canadian Coast Guard is sailing Canada's Northwest Passage where the ice is lessening. Several countries, particularly the United Sates, do not recognize Canadian sovereignty over that body of water.

It is significant that this contested piece of real estate actually runs through the ancestral lands of the Canadian Inuit. If one believes that God establishes the places where people live, and the boundaries of their habitation, then you cannot separate the Inuit from a connectedness to the water and land, and to a spiritual authority over this region.

There is growing evidence that Inuit will use that authority to bless rather than to curse the rest of Canada, and to release forgiveness for some of the historic wrongs and injustices of the past, such as their being blamed by British society for the deaths of the crew members of the John Franklin Expedition of 1845.

It was news that shook the English-speaking world. Celebrated British explorer Sir. John Franklin and his crew of 128 men had perished in the Arctic ice during an ill-fated attempt to discover the Northwest Passage in 1845. More shocking, the evidence was that they had descended into madness and cannibalism.

After arriving back in England following their Antarctic Expedition with James Clark Ross, the ships Erebus and Terror were fitted out with 20 hp steam engines and single screw propellers for a new voyage...

in search of the Northwest Passage in 1845 under the command of Sir John Franklin with an expedition of 128 men to the High Arctic regions.

The ship became trapped in Arctic ice, and the desperate, freezing and starving survivors resorted to cannibalism to prolong their desperate lives.

Here is a map of the probable routes taken by Erebus and Terror during Franklin's lost expedition. Disko Bay, Greenland, (5) to Beechey Island, in 1845. Around Cornwallis Island (on which Resolute Bay, Canada's second most northern community exists today) (1), in 1845. Beechey Island down Peel Sound between Prince of Wales Island (2) and Somerset Island (3) and the Boothia Peninsula (4) to near King William Island in 1846.

Scottish explorer Dr. John Rae determined that Franklin and his expedition had died of starvation and exposure in the Arctic. Inuit at Pelly Bay told Rae of Franklin's fate. Lead poisoning from poorly-canned food and scurvy may have also hastened their death. He acquired the first Franklin Expedition relics from the Inuit, and reported on starvation and cannibalism among the dying crewmen.

The report from Dr. John Rae came in 1851. He was a Scottish doctor working for the Hudson's Bay Company. Travelling thousands of miles on foot and in small craft, Rae had done what six years of searching by the British, Americans, French and Russians had failed to do--discover the fate of Franklin, and unlock the final link in the Northwest Passage--a 300-year-old dream.

Dr. John Rae's report concluded that "from the mutilated state of many of the corpses and the contents of the kettles, it is evident that our wretched countrymen had been driven to the last resource--cannibalism--as a means of prolonging existence. None of the Esquimaux with whom I conversed had seen the 'whites,' nor had they ever been at the place where the bodies were found, but had their information from those who had been there, and who had seen the party when travelling."

But John Rae's horrific news did not sit well with Sir John Franklin's widow, Lady Jane Franklin, and she set out to disprove his findings. She waged a bitter public campaign that would discredit Rae's version of events, banish him to the margins of history, and mark an entire nation of northern Inuit with the horrifying label of murderous cannibals.

Lady Franklin and her ally Charles Dickens waged a media campaign to not only discredit John Rae, but to restore honour and glory to Sir John, and to cast doubt and disgrace upon Rae and the Inuit people.

The campaign was successful, and John Rae, who was formerly hailed as "a genius of Arctic travel," remained on the fringe of Arctic history. He had traveled 23,000 miles on foot and in small boats, mapping and searching for Franklin, and yet he was the only Arctic explorer who never received a knighthood for his accomplishments.

The famous author Charles Dickens wrote that Dr. John Rae wrote his report based on "the wild tales of a herd of savages." He based his own belief that the "sad remnant of Franklin's gallant band were set upon and slain by the Esquimaux" on his stereotyped notion that "the moment the white man has appeared in the aspect of being weaker than the savage, the savage has changed and sprung upon him."

Charles Dickens added that "we believe every savage to be in his heart covetous, treacherous, and cruel; and we have yet to learn what knowledge the white man--helpless and dying--has of the gentleness of the Esquimaux nature." He concluded that "the noble conduct and example of such men, and of their own great leader himself (Sir John Franklin) outweighs by the weight of the whole universe the chatter of a gross handful of uncivilized people, with domesticity of blood and blubber."

The truth is that the Inuit have always been welcoming and hospitable to outsiders, and have used their skills and knowledge of the land to help any human being to survive when they are in need, or are suffering. They have a strong sense of community, and that what they have is to be shared with others who are in need.

John Walker tells the story of John Rae, the doctor who "told the truth that nobody wanted to hear" in his latest documentary film, Passage.

Passage is produced by PTV Productions and John Walker Productions in co-production with the National Film Board of Canada, and the world premier was screened at the Royal Cinema in Toronto on Sunday, April 20, 2008, at 9:45 p.m., and on Wednesday, April 23, 2008, at 4:25 p.m.

With Passage, filmmaker John Walker employs an innovative approach to structuring the incredible, multilayered story of John Rae, and brings it to vibrant life. Using a unique blend of dramatic action, and behind-the-scenes documentary footage, Walker pulls back the curtain on his own research into Rae's life.

Set in the actual locations of Rae's journey, from his boyhood home in the remote Orkney Islands off Scotland's north coast...

to the epic landscape of Rae's Arctic expeditions...

to the boardroom of the British Royal Navy--the centre of power of the British Empire...

Passage is a story of incredible sacrifice, stunning distortion of the truth, and single-minded concern for justice. It challenges the way we have looked at history.

There is an expected twist to this film as it moves towards its climax, with a stunning face-to-face meeting between Charles Dickens' great-great grandson, Gerard Dickens, and Tagak Curley, an honoured Inuit statesman who challenges the fraudulent history. In one dramatic moment, Walker vaults the story from the past into the present, and we are witnesses of history in the making.

In a personal e-mail on April 17, 2008, Tagak Curley wrote, "He (Gerard Dickens) was very kind, and offered his apologies on behalf of his family." Tagak Curley, founding father of Nunavut, and present Member of the Nunavut Legislature, personally told this story to the participants in the training for the Healing of the Land in Canada at the Selah Retreat Centre near Vassar, Manitoba, Canada, on Tuesday, April 15, 2008.

In a touching moment, one of the participants who is of British ancestry, felt led to stand in the gap for the British, and to apologize to Tagak Curley, who freely released forgiveness and freedom from this burden which has hung like a false accusation ove the Inuit for over 200 years now.

According to Tagak Curley, this was the first time among Christian believers that anybody had really taken note of this story, and had really listened to what he had to share. A powerful sense of God's healing presence was released, which some people believe is a harbinger of the authority to release forgiveness that is going to increasingly flow from the Inuit in the far North into the rest of Canada. The original peoples of Canada have an authority to release that.

In an e-mail of April 17, 2008, Tagak Curley wrote, "The Lord led us while down at the Selah Retreat Centre to release this curse that existed for over two hundred years. I see it as very significant and timely. It is not a coincidence that this film about Sir John Franklin and his rival Dr. John Rae is also being released at this time. Notice this that the Lord released the anointing first, and now the film is being released this week."

The History of Pond Inlet, Nunavut

Pond Inlet is a community situated on the shores of north Baffin Island overlooking the waters of Eclipse Sound across to the towering mountains and glaciers of Bylot Island and Similik National Park. Pond Inlet, or Mittimatalik as it is known by local residents ("the place where Mittima is buried") is a place of local beauty and charm where the old traditions of Inuit culture attempt to meet and blend with that of the latest technology.

Pond Inlet is a predominantly Inuit community with a population of over 1,300, and is located at the top of Baffin Island. It is the largest of four hamlets in Canada that are above the 72nd parallel.


The beautiful scenery, mountain ranges viewable from all directions, icebergs, several dozen glaciers, explorable ice caves, and many grand and picturesque inlets have earned for Pond Inlet the name, "jewel of the Baffin." Across from Pond Inlet is the panoramic Bylot Island.



Bylot Island has been a bird sanctuary for many years. The wetlands of Bylot Island are the nesting grounds for over 30 species of birds. The world's largest colony of greater snow geese is found at Bylot Island.




Bylot Island has recently become part of the Similik National Park, one of three Canadian national parks created in 1999. Even in this age of deglaciation, the glaciers of Bylot Island and the northern Baffin region are awesome to behold from the air.





Icebergs are most often accessible from the community of Pond Inlet within walking distance, or a short snowmobile ride in winter, or boat ride in summer. Don't forget that at least 4/5 of these massive volumes of ice are below the surface.



This ancestral homeland of the North Baffin Inuit is rich in archaeology. Thule Inuit lived in the region for centuries and left many interesting sites. American and Scottish whalers frequently visited the area early in the 19th century.

Most whaling activity occurred in the Pond Inlet area from the early 1800's until the early 1900's. Whaling stations were established in Cumberland Sound and near Pond Inlet. A shore whaling station was established by the Scots at Albert Harbour near Pond Inlet in 1903. Everywhere, whaling had a profound impact on Inuit. It changed settlement patterns and provided Inuit with metal, tools, guns and whaleboats.

Changes in the traditional Inuit way of life and settlement patterns meant that instead of travelling inland to hunt in the summer, Inuit began to stay near the coast to work with the whalers. So while the whalers provided the Inuit with trade goods, a dependence on these trade goods began to develop and interfere with the traditional seasonal activities of the Inuit.


By the turn of the century, bowhead whale stocks had severely depleted, and whaling had evolved into what was known as free trading. Small trading companies, all British, bartered with Inuit from shore stations or ships that called in summer. Most whaling was then done by the Inuit, and oil was traded for goods when ships arrived in the sailing season. A Hudson's Bay Company trading post was established in Pond Inlet in 1921, and by 1926, all commercial whaling was over, leaving the Inuit with a different way of life in which many changes were for the worse.

Pond Inlet was established in 1921 with the contruction of a Hudson's Bay Company trading post. Until then, it was simply known as Mittimatalik ("the place where Mitimma is buried"). Only the elders remember now, but that was a time when Inuit still built sod houses for the winter. Winter storytelling centred on the legendary feats of the settlement's ancestors, such as the great Inuit migration to Greenland in the mid-19th century known as Qitlarssuaq.

Over the years, Pond Inlet added features such as a government radio station, a post of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and Anglican and Roman Catholic missions were located here.




It is a tribute to Inuit traditional knowledge that their elders learned how to survive in this cold, Arctic climate with no gardens, no trees, or fuel to make large fires. The Inuit traditional lamp was the kudlik (qulliq), which is a crescent-shaped lamp carved from stone and fuelled by the oil from seal or whale blubber. A wick made of moss or Arctic cotton draws the oil to make a type of liquid candle, and the open stone lamp was used by the Inuit to light and heat their tents or igloos, or to melt snow for water, or to dry clothing and cook food.



Trade goods made it possible for the qulliq to eventually be replaced by the kerosene stove for heat and for cooking.


Inuit first started moving into Pond Inlet permanently in the 1960s so that their children could attend schools. The government has in recent years built houses of standard wood-frame construction that sit on gravel pads or steel piles.


Ulaajuk Elementary School--see building with Nunavut flag above--and Nasivvik Junior and High School), and adult education courses are available. The houses have running water and flush toilets, heating and insulation to ward off temperatures that can fall to -50 degrees celsius. Most homeowners rely on a variety of electronic appliances to simplify household chores. News of the outside world comes through television, radio, computer and telephone.

Pond Inlet is most readily accessible by airplane through a connection in Iqaluit, Nunavut's capital to the Pond Inlet Airport. The main airline is First Air.

Yet Pond Inlet's economy is largely service-based with government as the largest employer. Many government offices are in Pond Inlet, and the structure above is the dwelling place of the foreman for the construction of government offices and the infrastructure for government buildings and houses for government employees.

While all of this has led t0 a more comfortable lifestyle physically, it has also left Inuit more dependent on government programs and government largesse.

While Inuit are thankful for some of the changes, there is also a deep-seated sense that something has been lost, and for a longing for the preservation of the self-determination that they once knew. Inuit are proud to be a part of Canada, but there are also many things in their traditions inherited from their forefathers that have value that have been lost.

It is a timeless tribute to their ancestors that they had developed a traditional knowledge which enabled them to survive in this cold climate from time immemorial, and while materially there is no doubt that Inuit are better off, spiritually and culturally something has been taken from them. Many elders see their traditional knowledge as not holding its own with the whiteman's technology.

While technology can make for an easier life, it does not necessarily produce better human beings. The Inuit never overhunted or harmed the environment. These things along with sicknesses and diseases came with the European immigrants, and yet the government would now put quotas on their whale hunts, and restrict their traditional way of life in other ways.

Many Inuit feel that their traditional knowledge is every bit or even more reliable in assessing the animal patterns, and the cycles of their migration, than some of the "scientific" studies based on short-term research that the government sometimes uses to restrict their hunting and fishing.

Yet, unfortunately, their relationship with the federal government is still seen as too often paternalistic, or that of a parent to a child, rather than a relationship between equal partners.

Our western mindset in the South prides itself in our individualism, and our self-sufficiency in material things alone. Inuit traditional knowledge, on the other hand, can teach us all much about community, generosity, simple kindness, and a humble, gentle spirit.

It is wrong to see one people group as superior to another to the degree that one becomes dependent on the other. What we want to see is a greater inter-dependence in which different people groups can draw on the strengths of one another, and one group can be stronger where the other is weaker.

Every human life has value, worth and dignity, and there is much that we can learn from one another. We really do need one another. And when we travel to Nunavut, we need to respect the fact that while people in the South often see the North as "an unexplored frontier," to the Inuit, this is their "homeland" from time immemorial.