Reflection Post

Wow, time sure does fly by! Can't believe it's already Reading Week. What a relief though, I just finished four midterms over the course of a week and a half so it is a much deserved break from school :) I thought I would get this reflection post done right away so I could enjoy the week away from school work.

I have to admit, it has taken me awhile to get used to blogging, but I find this style of learning to be much more beneficial than writing a paper. I feel like I am able to learn extra about the topics I choose to blog on as I generally do additional research of my own after class for my blog.

One topic that I haven't yet discussed is the aspect of a presentation that I haven't understood or viewed as controversial. My classmates so far have chosen pretty neutral topics so if someone in the future were to write about something controversial then maybe that is something that I could address in a post.

I like to blog the topics that I feel I have learnt the most from. So far, I have chosen topics that I had no little background knowledge of and I find this beneficial when it comes to my learning and progression and this course, as well as my degree. 

My favorite part of the blog experience so far has been adding videos and pictures to my posts. I feel that they add to what I am typing, and are a good tool of really getting the point across.

Overall, I feel as though the blog has been going well. I am keeping up to date and I am always happy with the posts I make. It has been an enlightening experience to date and I hope you all continue to read my blog throughout the semester as I'm sure there will be great posts to follow :)! 

Until next time,

Janelle

February 12th- Aurora Borealis and Traditional Hunting Tools

Another thing on the bucket list.. See the Aurora Borealis, or more commonly referred to as the Northern Lights!

The presenter started off the day with describing what the Northern Lights are. They are lights of green, purple, pink and white that dance in the icy skies on the North. There are many legends and myths behind these lights as signals of changing weather and signals of impending doom. There was a long held belief that sunlight was being reflected off of the polar ice caps to create the Aurora Borealis but actually, energized particles entering earth's magnetic fields from the North and South Poles make up the aurora. The best time to see these astounding acts of nature are between 10pm-3am daily, and they are best seen in late fall, winter and early spring. 

I truly hope to be able to see these in person someday. I find it so amazing and surreal that the Earth that I am apart of is capable of such beauty 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcfWsj9OnsI

A beautiful time-lapse video of the Northern Lights.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc3FxNXjBs0

The Northern Lights in Finland.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/northernlights

So beautiful!

Joe was the second presenter of the day and chose to do his topic on Traditional Hunting Techniques and Tools in the Arctic. Hunting and trapping techniques throughout the region have remained quite similar. Trapping became very extensive during fur trade, especially for the Arctic Fox. To catch one, the traditional Inuit would build an igloo structure out of rocks and leave a hole at the top, and once baited, this would become the trap. When hunting for wolves, the Inuit would take a knife and cover it in layers of frozen seal blood and this would cause the wolf to bleed to its death. Caribou were a vital part of their hunting and they would use everything from their skins, bones, antlers and meat. When fishing, the lure was the most prominent tool used. The Inuit would craft many different lures using various bones, shells and antlers. Seal Hunting was the largest and most important aspect of the Inuit diet. The hunters would use their dogs to track down seals through their breathing holes. Once the seal resurfaced to these holes, they would would spear it to death with a tool called a "unaq". 

Joe raised two good discussion questions. He asked "What are the positive and negative aspects of the traditional techniques?" and "Does the invention of the rifle and new techniques help or kill the Inuit culture?". I feel that there are many positive aspect of the traditional techniques, including the fact that the Inuit can live so close off of the land. They aren't using anything high-tech to catch these animals and that definitely makes it a lot cheaper for them to hunt. The negative aspect of the traditional techniques could be that it takes quite a bit longer to catch the food than it would be to use a rifle, or a modern-day tool. I do worry that the invention of the rifle is helping to "put a nail in the coffin" of the Inuit culture. The Inuits need to continue to implement both modern day and traditional techniques so that the older techniques are not lost. 

http://naindians.forsyth.wikispaces.net/Inuit

An "Unaq"

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Large_male_arctic_char.jpg

One of the most common types of fish fished for, the Arctic Char

I hope that you have enjoyed reading up on these two presentations! I could of posted a thousand videos of the Aurora Borealis and would never get sick of looking at all that beauty! 

But until next time..

Janelle

February 5th - Food Relationships & The Dovekie

The first presentation of the day was on Food Relationships and was the presentation that I chose to blog about. Food symbols play a vital role in social, political and cultural aspects of lives. It is a great way of connecting families and bringing communities together. The presenter then discussed the lack of suitable land to grow food on in the North and how expensive food is northern communities compared to a grocery store down here. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz0YYkvG_Lg

This video is a more comical look at the extreme prices of food in the North.

The presenter raised a good point when saying that animals are on a great majority of Canadian coins. The term "buck" which derivers from the Hudson Bay Company's price of a beaver. I found this point to be interesting because I honestly though a "buck" was just a nickname that we had given to the loonie. The presenter also pointed out that we have animals on 4 of our 7 coins that are currently in circulation, which is another fact that I have really never paid a lot of close attention to.

http://coins.about.com/od/worldcoins/ig/World-Coins-Gallery-Index/Canadian-Money---Coins.--0Q.htm

Lastly, the presenter played a video on nourishment and posed the question of "What does nourish mean to you?". To me, nourishment represents the idea of being full from food with proper nutrients. I think nourishment is often something that is forgotten about, we eat because we need to, when we should be eating healthy because we enjoy it. 

So I pose the question to you.... What do nourish mean to you? What foods do you feel nourished by?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvIcUdBzyI0

Until next time,

Janelle

January 31st- The Wolverine and Climate Change (Impact on Subsistence in the North)

The wolverine, also known scientifically as the "Gulo Gulo", are from the weasel family, range between 66-68 cm in height and weight about 17-40 pounds. They live very solitary lives and are very shy animals. They wolverine is also well-suited for the cold, as they have dense fur and a very thick padding on their feet. The wolverine is a carnivorous animal, and are capable of taking down animals much bigger than them. The presenter raised the question of how to prevent wolverines climate from changing. Honestly, in the short-term, there is nothing that we can do to prevent their climate changing, there is only long-term fixes such as attempting to slow global warming by changing our habits. With the snow-melthing, we need to start to attempt to slow global warming now, as the wolverines may soon lose their habitat as well. 

http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/kids/animal-facts/wolverine.asp

The range of the Wolverine in the North.

The last presentation of the day was a presentation on Climate Change and the Impact that it has on the subsistence in the North. 

The presenter focused on the key subsistence issues faced by a small community called Sachs Harbour. I found it interesting specifically how the Inuit people of these community have modified their coping strategies to adapt to the subsisitence resource issues. They have to change their timing, location, method (to an ATV) which can leader to soaring prices, and hunting different species. There are cultural limits to this adaptability to as the traditional Inuit didn't use tools such as ATVs but with increasing modernization, this can also be seen as a good thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOZ5LLA-SKg

A documentary showcasing climate change in Sachs Harbour.

It has been another interesting day of presentations and I can't wait to hear more!

Janelle