March 19th- Ice Hotels, Family in the North and Inuit Women

Ice Hotels! What a great topic! The presenter started off the day by explaining what exactly an hotel was. An ice hotel is made of ice and snow, more commonly referred to as "snice". They are generally kept at -2 and -7 degrees celsius, which is a lot warmer than I expected them to be. 

The presenter focused on three main ice hotels, the first one being the Jukkasjarvi Ice Hotel located in Sweden. This ice hotel opened up in 1990 and is 64,000 sq feet with a capacity of 100 overnight guests. All ice and snow is taken from the nearby Torne River and after the ice hotel has melted at the end of the year, it flows back to the very same river. This is a such a great use of the environment and I'm so happy to see that the people behind the project care enough about the environment. 

 Jukkasjarvi Ice Hotel Room (http://www.icehotel.com/uk/Magazine/Articles/Art-Design/ICEHOTEL-23---Art-Suites/)

The next location was the Hotel De Glace and is located in Quebec. This ice hotel is a popular wedding location in Canada and the building of it costs approximately $350,000. I did a little research online and the cost of staying at the ice hotel was much lower than I expected it to be (It was around $700/night in one of the theme rooms). 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe5FgFOkxkI

This video includes a short tour around the Hotel De Glace. 

http://www.hoteldeglace-canada.com/Fond%20Ercan/fond_ecran_1_800x600.jpg

The beautiful hotel!

Lastly, the presenter focused on the Sorrisniva Igloo Hotel, which is the most northern ice hotel. It is known for its ice sculptures and its different themes each year. According to its website, this is the 14th year that the Igloo Hotel has been built. This year's theme is Scandinavian literature, which I found to be quite interesting as we had learned about Scandinavian fairytales at the beginning of the semester and you could see the resemblances throughout browsing pictures in the Igloo Hotel. 

http://www.sorrisniva.no/page.jsp?ref=igloo-hotel&lang=en

This presentation reminded me of when I went to Las Vegas at the beginning of January. Although I've never slept in an ice hotel (but let me tell you, that's going to be added to the bucket list now!), I got to go into an ice bar with my boyfriend in Vegas called "Minus 5". It was a pretty cool experience and there's actually quite a funny story behind us going in there. We didn't pack jackets for our trip and with it being pretty cold outside we wanted to go somewhere to warm up. This particular venue provided us with jackets to go inside the ice bar and it was actually warmer inside the ice bar than it was outside, which I found to be pretty ironic. 

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

Here is a look inside the Minus 5 Ice Bar in Las Vegas.

The next presenter up was my friend Courtny, who did her presentation on families in the North. She started out with a definition of family groups.

Family groups are:

• An important social unit in Inuit Culture
• Usually groups of 5-6 people
• In the past, between 6 and 10 families would live and hunt together.

In the winter, these families would stick together and hunt, and when summertime rolled around they would divide up in order to follow the hunt. Often, relationships between other non-relatives would occur and this is how band began to form. These bands shared a strong sense of community and food was always shared among everyone. 

Looking at the past, a promise of a spouse for their son was often made to another family. These men would sometimes go to other settlements to look for their future wives. This is very different from the way that marriage takes place nowadays. People are now able to choose their own spouse.

Children in Inuit families were highly value and this illustrates the high regard of arranged marriages and traits that were held in high regard included generosity, mildness and gentleness and a bad temper was often frowned upon. 

Courtny raised a good discussion question, asking "From your personal knowledge, what pressing issues surrounding family do you believe are present in today's Northern Environments? How is this impacting family life?". I believe that with kids leaving the community to go to university and the westernization are a pressing issue that families in the North are faced with. This overall affects the family dynamic. 

The second discussion question raised was "If possible would you be willing to go back in time and live a traditional Inuit family lifestyle? Why or why not?". Personally, I don't think I would make it a week living a traditional family lifestyle. For one, I would not be able to eat the food that they eat (such as animals off of the land) and I also think that I am so accustomed to the way of living in Manitoba, that it would be hard for me to adapt to the traditional lifestyle of the North. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB4JGUzve6M

A video of a traditional Inuit family in the Arctic (1959). 

The final presentation of the day was on Inuit Women. Inuit Women play a crucial role in the group, have most of the the responsibility, yet they never share equal power or influence in a family. Without women, families just wouldn't function as well as they do. Traditionally, Inuit women were responsible for all main aspects of child care. They show an incredible amount of warmth and affection for their children and raised both the boys and the girls. The men taught the boys to hunt and the women taught the girls to hunt. After modernization, women started taking on more of the man's role as well. They continue to seek more power for themselves and this has caused a complication in the relationship between Inuit men and women. The change in Inuit women over the years is similar to women in our very own culture, in that we used to be responsible for the same things such as childcare and cooking/cleaning around the house. Similary, women are getting out the world and trying to make a name for themselves!

Hope you enjoy the images/videos of the Ice Hotels as well as the Ice Bar! I think they are absolute breathtaking and I found this to be the most interesting presentation of the day!

Until next time,

Janelle  

March 12th- Arctic Winter Games, CDN Gov't and Arctic & Inuit Games

Another class, another day of presentations! 

The first presenter focused on the Arctic Winter Games, which is the presentation I have chosen to blog about. The Arctic Winter Games are an international biennial celebration of circumpolar sports and culture. They were founded by the Governor of Alaska, as well as the Commissioners of the Northwest Territories and Yukon, as were to serve as a place where athletes could come to compete on their own terms (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Winter_Games).

The purpose of these games includes:

• Social exchanges with other countries
• Athletic competitions
• Respect for all nations, athletes and spectators

The grand prize, the Hodgson Trophy, is the highest achievement that one can get at the games and is given to the nation that shows the most spirit. 

There are many mainstream activities that are included at these games, but I found it the most exciting to learn about the not-so-mainstream ones. 

In the One-Foot High Kick, the athlete takes a running approach and jump up in order to kick the target. The athlete must then also land on the ground with the same foot that they kicked the target with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcyEDFw-S9U

This particular event reminds me of high jump in Track and Field, you have a similar run to the pole, but only in this even you are kicking up instead of over a target. 

There is also the knuckle hop, which looks to me to be the most physically demanding of the non-traditional sports. The athlete propels themselves forward along the floor, using only their knuckles. It makes my hands hurt just watching the videos of them doing this! The person who can go the farthest is declared the winner. 

I just don't know how they can do that!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=u-EgxF_5pYM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZT1SSR3xt4

This video is from the Rick Mercer Report and showcases the games that I have mentioned above. I like that the Inuit have taken mainstream activities and incorporated their culture to form the Arctic Winter Games, where these cultures can come together, be showcased and celebrated! 

Until next time,

Janelle

March 5th & 7th- Poster Presentation Week!

On both Tuesday and Thursday of this week we presented our posters that we had done. Some students chose to do it on what they had already presented in their powerpoints, but others chose to do it on completely different topics. 
The poster was to "stand on its own" without needing a lot of text. The maximum words allowed on the posters was 200 words. I found this a difficult task, but after completing my poster I felt that it was able to get its point across without being to wordy. 

In Tuesday's class, we presented our posters to our classmates in a conference-style set up. One person would come up to your poster and you would explain it. I enjoyed this style the best as I found it was the best way for everyone to learn about each topic, however after an hour of giving the same spiel I felt like it was losing its meaning towards the end. In Thursday's class we went and looked at each poster individually and then gave feedback, which we will be receiving back in the near future. Overall, I felt this was another great way to learn about each topic and I really enjoyed this learning style!

I have attached my poster, which I used to the text boxes and pictures to form an Inukshuk :) 

Janelle

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