My Top 5 Presentations in Northern Environments

Hey,

As a final blog for this years northern environment class I thought it would be a good idea to go through my top 5 Presentations of the course and follow up with some of my likes and dislikes of presenting techniques.

... in no particular order....

1. Tourism in Churchill

http://www.bon-voyage.co.uk/
destinations/churchill_holidays/

This presentation really opened up my already interested curiosity on travelling up North in Manitoba. The biggest pull for me, aside from seeing the polar bears, would be the chance to swim with the beluga whales! I talked about swimming with humpback whales in Tonga in one of my earlier posts and believe I would take the opportunities again in a second to jump back into the water to swim with such graceful animals.


Check out this great website on tourism in Churchill for more information! http://everythingchurchill.com/

2. Inuit Mythology & The Inuit Spirit

These two presentations both touched on different areas of the same subject. What I felt really caught my interest was the use of storytelling in both presentations that really helped to catch our attention. I enjoyed the comparisons to Christianity and the ability to look beyond what it had changed into and to understand why things have changes over the time. I do believe Ill forever be afraid of Mahaha, who will tickle me to death with a large grinning smile on his face.

3. Northern Towns

We had a couple opportunities to look at more remore Northern North American towns from Rebecca and Paxton. I thought this was a great way to experience and learn about towns we normally wouldn't take a glance at.  I've learnt through many of my travels that these remote locations can often host some of the most genuine, interesting people and create some of the most memorable experiences to a traveler. I was proud to hear about places like Pond Inlet that are doing their best to adopt with the modern world and finding ways to overcome their new found difficulties.

4. Grey Wolves, Tourism and Zoo's

http://travelmanitoba.com/default.asp?page=200690

One of the best ingredients to a successful presentation is the ability to pull from personal experiences. Karlyn's presentation on the grey wolves was a perfect example how she can use her own travels up north and apply them into her presentation. This is something I try to acheive throug my work as well. I attribute most of my success to the places that I have been to and what I have experienced. For example, my presentation on storytelling I actually pulled a photo of my own backpack and used it to describe a different type of story rather than traditional written stories.
Another aspect that gave her a great presentation was the thought provoking replies and discussion that sprouted from her presentation. Everyone had something to say about animals in zoo's after her presentation.


5. Invertebrates

Jessica reminded us not to forget our smallest living creates up North. She was very successful with the use of humor and a well researched topic to introduce us to the most common and diverse biodiversity in the arctic. She told the class about a subject that no one really knew anything about, and had us all leaving the room wanting to learn more.

Best and Worst Techniques

http://wallpaperswide.com/dreamcatcher-wallpapers.html

Powerful images was key to a good presentation. Everyone can still remember the video of the arctic fox slowly listening under the snow and gracefully diving head first to attack its prey.  Madison's choice of topic left everyone remembering the giant images or ice arches in the form of a hotel which makes an aesthetically pleasing architectural wonder.  Dominic's dream catcher project also became an image shaped into everyone's mind. He also had the advantage of taking a piece of culture that most people in Manitoba know a little about and might even have hanging around the house to pull in our curiosity.

Some of the worst presentations in this class were mostly due to laziness.  Creating excuses is the worst way to begin a presentation, I don't want to hear about how you stayed up till 5 o'clock last night getting everything ready, you should have had it done before hand.   We all knew starting the presentations that we would have active learning exercises.  I'm a little disappointed that I went first and took the quiz idea.  There wasn't too much deviation for most learning exercises, and I don't think the active learning really helped anyone but created more awkward situations.  The last thing I'll tell you about that I didn't like about the presentations was the weeks topics. We went through at the beginning of the class and chose different themes for the weeks, and for the most part these themes were ignored. This became pretty annoying after we learned about different animals week after week.

To end on a positive note, I feel like everyone in the class enjoyed the atmosphere in which we were all learning. I feel like this is one of the classes that most people take a little more pride into, and can learn in a different way. It has also taken my interest in doing more presentations. It would be interesting to use the skills that I've learnt in this course and apply them in different situations.


Thanks for reading my blogs! Hope you enjoyed them.

- Ben

Relationships in the North

 The Two Spirited People of the North
After discussing how far north is Northern Environments with the class in our early lectures we decided it was up to our choosing.  This week was suppose to be focused on relationships in the North. We got to learn about women in the North, family relations, and about northern communities.

Not discussed in our lectures was a more important issue hitting our own city here in Manitoba. Just reading the paper recently, homophobia has taken a center stage in our media. From the opposition of Bill 18 in Steinbach, to business owners being run out of town in Morris, to homes being vandalized in Winnipeg.

http://www.dancingtoeagle
spiritsociety.org/twospirit.php

What type of relationship do we have here in Manitoba with the LGBTTQ community (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, Two-Spirited and Queer)?

If we look back into our history, we have taken a backwards approach to this community in regards to gay rights (or human rights). An identity that many people don't know the meaning of in todays culture is a two-spirited person. People who identify themselves as two-spirited were put into cross gender roles. Men would take on the responsibilities of women, and women the responsibilities of men.  Men would marry other men, and women to other women. These people were believed to have two spirits, that of a man and that of a woman.

 In Native american culture, before European settlement, a two-spirited person was regarded as gifted, and as a teacher.  In over 155 different tribes across North America cross gender identity has been recorded and were accepted by their community, honoured and revered. They were treated as visionaries, healers, medicine people, nannies of orphans, and caregivers. They were given the respect that any human deserves.

Since European colonization we have taken a backwards approach with our spirited people of North America. They have been alienated from their aboriginal identity being viewed as perverted, nontraditional  and untrustworthy loosing their place in society.

(To learn more about the Two - Spirited people in North America, go to http://www.dancingtoeaglespiritsociety.org/twospirit.php.)

Canada has been one of the worlds front runners in regards to gay rights having same sex activity legal since 1969, recognition of same sex unions, nationwide same sex marriage accepted, adoption, able to serve openly in the military, and bans against all anti gay discrimination. But recently our society has not been as accepting as what is written on our human rights act.

If you want to learn more about Gay Rights in Canada, e-mail me for a PDF of a paper I wrote on the subject for an international development project.  

I can only hope that our children learn to become more accepting and can learn from traditional views of two - spirited people in our communities so stories such as a 14 year old boy being bullied in his school for trying to develop a resource center for homosexual people can stop.  So families are no longer being run out of town due to homophobia and so that hate slurs will no longer be accepted to be written on someones home. Relationships of acceptance of others are what we need to be building in today's society, and we can use and learn from our past to develop this.

Sports, Games and Politics Week

    What a busy week!  I slowly rolled into our Northern Environments class Tuesday just in time to miss the presentations, and more importantly, to miss the Starburst prize at the end of the last presentation.  I came in well rested and excited for Thursday's class, and got to learn about Inuit Clothing, Dog Sledding, and Arctic Sports. One of the most important themes I learnt from the combined presentations is patience in Northern Environments.

http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/
scripts/imagedownload.php
?accessNumber=M976.148&Lang=1&
imageID=269025

    Our first presentation went through all the different parts of an Inuits traditional wardrobe from their mukluks to the inuinnaq. After listing through all the different articles of clothing, it really portrayed a sense of quality and their persistence to producing these beautiful works of art.   For the inuinnaq, or their dancing cap,  Autumn told us how it contained a band of loon skin that would give the person who wore it a sense of the loons speed and vision.   The amount of detail put into all the articles of clothing really showed patience from the Inuit women who would construct these, and from the men who would hunt for the skins. 

     To learn more about Inuit clothing, check out the McCord Museum's article on Inuit clothing and construction at;

 http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/explore.php?Lang=1&tableid=11&tablename=theme&elementid=70__true&contentlong. (The article comes with some very reliable sources!)

   Our next presentation seemed to fit a little better with the weeks topic of sports and games.  We talked about Dog Sledding.  One of the more interesting facts I learnt about dog sleds, is the amount of patience that comes into play when the elements are not always agreeing with a dog sledder. We learnt that safety comes first for the dogs, and that running in thick, soft snow or on hard cold ice can do damage to a dog.  To continue a travel through soft snow, the dog sled driver will trek ahead of the pack with snow shoes, and help compact the ground to make it safe for the dogs.   This would make going a short distance take a lot of patience for the team. 

http://www.westcanadatours.com/dogsled_tours/dogsled_7.html

   Competitive dog sledding is a sport seen most popularly in the arctic regions of Canada, USA, Russia and some of Europe.  I found a race in Cannington Ontario with a 10,000 $ prize to the fastest team. They also expanded it into a festival, showcasing traditional Metis culture, ice sculptures, and live music.   I was also happy to see that they have the dogs safety as a priority and cancelled the race this year due to poor trails.  Have a look at the Cannington Dog Sled Race website at http://www.canningtondogsledraces.com/index.html

   To end things off for the day, we had Mario show us a very entertaining introduction into Arctic Sports. After seeing a video of two young men attempting to endure the pain of ripping each others ear off all I could think of is that these people had way too much time on their hands to come up with these games.  I mentioned patience a couple times already and what did you expect the Inuit to do while being so patient creating their own clothing, or wasting some time between a snow storm with their dog pack - They play their own sports!  I found a website describing the 11 events in Yellowknife's 2008 Arctic Winter Sports competition. Check them all out here, http://www.awg2008.org/sports/arctic-sports.asp

  

   Would you want to participate in these Arctic Winter Games ?

   Check out the website for the Arctic Winter Games here at http://www.arcticwintergames.org/

Blog Review

 Over the past couple months I've been attempting to write a blog every week about the presentations or the topics that are discussed in my Northern Environment class.  I think my biggest challenge to myself is actually getting the writing done weekly.  For me, writing is something that can't be forced.  I need motivation to get into it, and I need to be in the right mindset to keep the words flowing through me.  I've only touched blogging once before and I felt that it was unsuccessful.  

 A couple similar hobbies to blogging I've done is writing a travel journal and creating scrapbooks.  I have notebooks full of journals that go into little details of my travel experiences.  I've already used them as a resource to remember a few things from my past travels.  I am treating this blogging experience as a bit of a mix of the two when I can, using photos and old stories to tie into points of discussion.  

   What do bloggers actually need to accomplish to become known as a successful blogger? I found a website that lists 26 essential elements for creating a better blog.  You can find that at http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/26-essentials-for-blogging-success-what-you-need-to-know/. 

      

 I thought it was important enough for me to focus on just two elements, building relationships and design.  At the moment I can only see myself having 1 strong relationship with a reader that goes through my blogs.  The article I linked early suggests building relationships with other bloggers.  For this blog that I'm working on, working together with the other bloggers in my class could help re shape how I decide to do my blogging. It can help me improve what I am doing by seeing what works for other people.  And then it also just helps me to expand my audience.   I'm also assuming that the other bloggers in the class are discussing similar topics as I, so just being able to use each other as a link or resource for more information could really help and improve our blogging community. 

http://smthree.wordpress.com
/2011/11/15/why-do-we-use-social-media/

   Another relationship I haven't yet established with anyone yet is with comments.   Social media has been great for allowing people to voice their opinions and allow for others to react to their thoughts with words of their own.  Just having people ask questions to my blogs can help me build stronger relationships, it can help me bring back readers and hopefully they continue to come back. 

  I think the most important element to a good blog is going to be design.  The design in my opinion shows how professional looking a blog really looks.  It instantly tells the reader if the person writing cares about what they are writing, or if they are just doing it as an assignment and going through the process.  Taking the time to have a background photo, and using titles and captions, finding informative links and using personal photographs can easily help to improve the quality of a blog.    I've been having difficulty with blogger.com, I am often not able to place photographs exactly where I would like them . I'm not able to adjust the size to exactly how big I would like it.   

  Looking back at my blogs, I believe my strongest blog's have been those that include personal stories and photographs.  I think my most interesting blog to date has been my Swimming Amongst the Whales. I used a lot of photographs to help showcase my stories and pull readers in.  One way I can improve my blogs is the use of photo captions when possible.  It allows for the quick fact that can get the reader to go into the rest of my blogs.  

http://ingridsnotes.wordpress.com
/2012/09/02/close-to-the-the-end/

  One part of the blogging experience I haven't yet gotten the hang of yet is how to end a blog.  When I'm writing these blogs I feel like I could be having a (one sided) conversation with anyone who wants to read this, but eventually I just leave the conversation.  I tried just ending it with a simple 'Thanks for Reading', but I don't think that feels natural for a blog.  My last submission I ended it with a question, which can help get additional comments eventually.  I think starting the blogs with a question can also help with getting more comments. 

  So to end this blog I will ask you...  What do you think I can do to improve my blog?? What do you like about my blog, and what do you dislike ??  

  

Northern Environments Poster Presentation Week

   This past week, our little white classroom filled its walls with unique, colourful, and informative posters covering topics from wildlife, mineral deposits, to unique cultural events or stories.  The experience allowed for a quick learning experience to everyone involved as we circled the rooms posters and asked questions to those people standing by their topics.  Posters ranged from professionally designed, and state of the art printing, to the simple hand crafted yet equally if not more alluring posters.

 

   I contributed to the presentations this week with an expansion of my in class presentation on Storytelling in Scandinavia.  I specifically looked at danish poet and author, Hans Christian Andersen, and used a little game to highlight fairy tales Andersen has written and how his social environment and natural environment has shaped the themes he uses in many of his fairy tales. After receiving feedback from my earlier presentation, I heard that many people could recognise a lot of the fairy tales I talked about.  So I challanged everyone
visiting my poster to try and name all 10 fairy tales.   I feel my challenge either excited people, or scared them away a little bit.  With a little push nearly everyone was able to guess The Little Mermaid and The Ugly Duckling.  I was also able to introduce people to new stories, such as The Flying Trunk and The Travelling Companion.  One of the main themes I suggested was the trend for Danish residents to travel off to new lands.  Early Scandinavian Vikings were very well known to travel to distant lands as far as Russia and Newfoundland.  This is also seen through Andersen's stories such as The Flying Trunk, where he sails off into the sky to Turkey to find a new life for himself.  The Travelling Companion is a story of a man who goes on a journey to find a new beginning for himself. It can also be seen in The Little Mermaid as she literally goes away from her home under the sea to a new land.

   Best of all, I had fun with my poster.  I wanted to make mine a little different than what I was expecting everyone else to be doing. I made it interactive, so it can help keep people around the poster for a little longer. This worked in my favour, when I saw someone really looking into my poster or browsing through the stories and resources I brought, it allowed time for me to run over and talk to them a little more, and make sure they got my handout with all my personal information, a smaller photo of my poster, a link to this blog, and just some extra space if they wanted to write something about my poster.

   The first day we had half the class presenting, and half the class viewing. I was one of the people presenting for the hour, but because of a planned timeline I had people rushing through my already short presentation and interactive game. I think the time could be best used if there wasn't a 3 -5 minute timeline to sit at each presentation, and the class didn't have to go in a circle to view all the posters, but people could move around freely to posters they want to view.  I think this would allow the viewer to see the posters they really wanted to see, and creates a challenge for the presenter to come up with unique ways to attract the viewers into their topic.  I also had a couple gaps during the day where I didn't have a viewer.  I thought this was great, it gave me a second to grab something from my bag, and then I started to ask questions and listen to the presenters going on next to me. Getting rid of the order we established the first day would also mean that I wont be repeating my self over and over to new people, but I can have a more natural conversation and continue to expand it with new people listening in.

http://annohiosaysgetsocial.wordpress.com
/2010/01/29/i-have-happy-feet/

   The second day we got rid of all the order, but also got rid of the mass majority of the presenters.  So it really became the class moving across the room looking quickly at the posters and trying to write down a few lines of critique.  The posters I really remembered from being a viewer this day were with presenters.  They were able to pull the interesting facts from their posters that I probably wouldn't have taken the time to read if they were not present. This made it interesting for me to ask additional questions and to really get into their presentations.   A couple of the posters I still don't understand what they were for. For example, one poster was of three penguins and two of them were bleeding.  The poster may have done a good job at drawing someone in, to ask questions, but there was no resources available to figure out what the poster meant.  Had there been a presenter they could explain what was going on with the penguins or if they had a handout that could direct the viewer to a website that describes the topic.  I'm left thinking there is a underground penguin fighting community that is causing these cute animals harm.

  I think the presentations this week were mostly a positive experience, but I still think there is room for improvement for future years doing a poster presentation week.  I think the most effective and memorable posters were posters that were actually accompanied by a presenter.  This allowed for someone to really highlight an interesting fact that I may not have read on the poster if they didn't draw my attention to it.   More time would need to be available if we were expected to see all the posters.  I really did enjoy the experience learning about everyone's research, and could genuinely tell when someone had a real interest in their topic opposed to someone just doing an assignment.

Did you try and guess all the ten fairy tales on my poster??

Territorial Disputes and Mineral Exploitation

  

   I've really only recently discovered that there is a major seaway connecting Atlantic and Pacific Oceans called the Northwest Passage.  I find it stupid, for lack of a better term, that countries other than Canada would believe the passage be an international strait or transit passage that would allow free passage.  With our changing climate this Northwest Passage has become more accessible throughout the year with less ice in the way for more navigable waters.  Now other countries are claiming that this water should not belong to just Canada but for any international ships to be connecting through.    This simple photo really shows that the straight goes right between Canada's land. I don't really understand how there can be a dispute about this.

http://www.athropolis.com/graphics/arcticmap-nwpass.gif

    What I found really interesting about the idea of the Northwest Passage being considered an international straight, would be the house keeping involved with it being international.   I've recently been interested in articles on the Pacific Oceans new twenty first century garbage island. (You can read more about the island at http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/translating-uncle-sam/stories/what-is-the-great-pacific-ocean-garbage-patch if interested.)  This large accumulation of garbage is a result of everyone using the pacific ocean and adding their waste. If Canada allows the Northwest Passage as an international straight, who would be responsible for cleaning up problems that could result, such as a large garbage island.  Because the water access is in Canada, this will effect us primarily, and will be our problem to fix.  This is why we should be able to restrict access to the passage.  Although I'm curious if Argentina has attempted to restrict access between Atlantic and Pacific, or if South Africa restricts any access between the Indian Ocean, Southern Ocean and Atlantic Ocean.  

  Other land claims make more sense to me. There has been  land disputes between Canada and the Kingdom of Denmark (Greenland) between islands that were not marked as either Canadian or Danish.  Hans Island is a good example of this.  My favourite part of this land dispute is how the countries are dealing with it.  Our Danish neighbors began by pitching their flag on the island with a bottle of their finest shnappes (I'm hoping it was Aalborg Akvavit, my favourite!) at the base. The Canadians replied to this by leaving their flag, and a bottle of Canadian Club.   I think this mode of land claims seems to be much more entertaining than bombing either side.  To read more about this land dispute visit the website at http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/hansIsland/background.asp.

   I'm thinking that this last land claim will be settled more easily because it doesn't hold the weight of natural resources that seem to be the root cause for territorial disputes over the north.  If this were up to the traditional Inuit people I'm sure they would agree that no one really owns the land, but we are all apart of it. Unfortunately this is not how the world solves its issues. 

http://www.damianijewellers.com/canadian_diamonds.asp

  Luckily for Canada we have recently found a new valuable mineral we have been extracting.  Diamond mining in Northern Canada has really only started since in the 1980's which started with one man who spent his last dollars on a chartered plane up north and the dream to strike it rich.  Canada has become the third most valuable country in the world for Diamond mines. To learn more about Canadian Diamonds, visit the website at http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/diamonds/

  Unfortunately for the miners Canada also has very strict environmental laws protecting the wildlife and landscape up north as well.  Pros and Cons can be weighed in the diamond mining business including giving jobs to Northern Aboriginals that allows them to support their traditional lifestyles and to help buy equipment to adapt and change with our growing populations.  Major negatives to the diamond mining operations include the large scale contamination to water, and the displacement of migration patters and habitat for wildlife.  I found an older article from 2006 in which first nations people claimed diamond miners to be causing devastating problems to their communities.  This makes me question whether Canada's environmental laws are really protecting Canadians as much as they should be. Read more at http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2006/12/08/conflict-diamond.html

  Another issue were going to be looking out for is the land and territory disputes in the North over resources. I found some more info on territitorial disputes between Canada, the U.S., Norway, Russia and Denmark at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/06/arctic-resources-territorial-dispute and http://individual.utoronto.ca/seva/on_thin_ice.pdf

Northern Lifestyles

Maggie Noble, 
http://pinterest.com/pin/6192518207547027/

   Our northern lifestyles lesson couldn't have come at a better time than along side Winnipeg's Festival du Voyageur.  The festival has been present in Winnipeg for over 50 years, and celebrates the 'joie de vivre' of the original French Canadian fur trades who helped establish the Red River Colony.  I was told by one of my elders that the festival was originally put on in the city because there was nothing else going on, and it was needed to highlight the community to celebrate their culture here in Winnipeg winters.  The festival showcases traditional French Canadian food, drinks music, traditional clothing, music and culture.  Our French Canadian culture is really a great way to showcase our Northern Lifestyle to the rest of the world, as we head out to drink caribou in an ice cup while observing massive ice sculptures and listening to traditional music.  For more information on the festival check out their website at http://festivalvoyageur.mb.ca/

Liza Bo,
http://pinterest.com/pin/237846424041562852/

   In our class this week we got to learn about an even more electrifying topic, the Northern Lights.  The northern lights, or aurora borealis, is something known to anyone living in a Northern lifestyle.  They have been interpreted in many different ways.  One interesting fact that Angela told us about was that the Inuit thought that the Northern Lights brought a warm temperature along with them, but the Norwegians believed it brought colder temperatures.   Both these cultures were from very different climate regions, so maybe its possible that they were both correct.  Another interesting idea was that whistling can attract the northern lights and that clapping will send them away according to the Inuit. I used to be able to see the northern lights all the time, here in Winnipeg. They were dancing in the sky just in my backyard.  But over the past few years they seem to be more hiding or going elsewhere.  I'm curious if the amount of city light pollution has made it impossible to see the Northern Lights in my area of the city now. I found a good website to learn more about the Northern Lights at http://www.northernlightscentre.ca/northernlights.html.

   Other presentations this week included hunting techniques from Joe, and ice fishing from Jesse.   I found it really interesting that people in traditional Northern Environments can support their families on the land.  I feel that if I was put up North and told I can't use my credit cards to support myself, then I would probably end up going hungry. I find it hard to understand supporting the industry of hunting and trapping. If we're hunting the deer or the seals, then what are other carnivorous animals eating?  Living in the city, I know and understand that the large majority of meat I eat are from farms.  So why would there be a need to go out to kill animals, when a farmer can do it all for me. I feel that for city persons, hunting has become just a sport.  I myself enjoy sitting and fishing on the ice. I'm curious how traditional northern lifestyles are going to change as towns become to large and can't be supported on just the work of hunters and gatherers.  There is already a large need for supplied and canned foods to be brought up to the North.  Is it possible to begin more organised farming techniques in place of hunting up in the North.  I found an interesting project going on for sustainable hunting tourism going on in Northern Europe back in 2009.  To read more on the topic go to http://www.northernperiphery.eu/en/projects/show/&tid=9 or http://www.northernperiphery.eu/files/archive/Downloads/Project_Publications/9/Brochure%20in%20English.pdf. I like that the northern countries are working together in this project to help support the development of sustainable hunting practices up north. 

 
   Our last couple of of presentations helped us really understand a couple of northern town lifestyles. What I found really interesting is that there is some pretty good incentives for going up north as a tourist.  One of my bigger travel items is to head up to Churchill to visit the polar bears, and go snorkeling with the beluga whales.  I also learnt about the tundra buggy that allows for a unique living experience in the North. Check out the towns website at http://www.churchill.ca/ for more information.  The second town that we looked at was the proclaimed 'Jewel of the North'.  Pond Inlet has a 95 percent Inuit population of 1500 people living on the Northern Tip of Baffin island. These people are not necessarily looking to stick to their traditional lifestyles, but to adapt to a changing world in the North.  To me this sounds exactly what they should be doing.  But there is always a fine line between adapting with the world, and loosing too much of their own culture. So I hope that this small town can find a balance that works for them.  

    One of the more interesting and controversial problems occurring in the North has to do with the high food prices.  If you don't know much about this, then feel free to read this article on Nunavut residents protesting the high food prices; http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/story/2012/06/09/north-nunavut-food-price.html.  My heart goes out to any one stuck in a bad situation, in which they cannot afford to have milk, or proper nutritional items.  But I think the high food prices are there for a reason.  These people live in more remote areas and if they can't support themselves off the land or with their professions then maybe they shouldn't be living in such a remote area.  I'm curious if the government offers an option to people who cannot afford to live in these conditions.
... then again, if someone has 35 dollars to buy pogo sticks or 29 dollars on cheese whiz , I don't think they are doing so bad up north. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/06/08/nunavut-food-hunger-protest_n_1581485.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/story/2012/05/16/north-nunavut-food-security.html

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674photo_the_cost_of_food/


I would go for the Fruit Platter, and keep it in my year long out door freezer, called permafrost.


Thanks for reading!

Art, Music, Food, and Rights

    During our classes on February 5th and 7th the subject we were to discuss is Art, Music, Food and Rights in the North.  I missed the first half of presentations this week that was suppose to be focused on Food, Religion, Music and Art but made it for Karlyn's presentation on the Grey Wolves in concerns to the rights of animals in tourism and the zoos.  

 

    Karlyn told us about the town of Thomson putting together a wolf discovery  centre that doesn't house any wolves.  The town of Thomson does have an active wolf population. 10 percent of the 50 000 wolves in Canada are in Manitoba (according to the presentation). They however decided to keep the wolves separate from the zoos but to bring awareness and information into the town.  Doing a little extra research my self I found that the wolf discovery center, or the spirit way,  is a 2.5 km walking or biking path that has been marked as one of the top 20 places to visit in Manitoba, and designated as a Manitoba star attraction. Check out the following web page for 16 reasons, and points of interests along the spirit way. 

  

Found on Pinterest from Sheri Dubec
 http://pinterest.com/pin/261349584595381876/

http://www.thompsonspiritway.ca/take-the-walk/points-of-interest/

    So after reading these 16 points, does it make you want to head up to Thompson and take the spirit walk for yourself?  I don't think I would be too interested in paying the money to check this out. There's just no bang for your buck in this excuse to stop over on your way up north to see REAL live polar bears or go swimming with Beluga whales. (I'm still really excited after learning you can go swimming with Beluga whales up north, and really just thinking of that as another excuse to go up to Churchill!)

   I think this would be the biggest problem with animal rights when it comes to zoos and wildlife protection agencies.   They need money to help support conservation initiatives to help the animals, but people expect an up and close encounter if they're dishing up some money to go see them.   For the wolves in Thompson, it wouldn't be helping the wolf population to cage up the wolves and have them be put on display in small spaces to do shows in front of people.  So I'm happy that the city is attempting an alternative solution to this buy putting up their spirit way walk.  Unfortunately I wont be adding this to my list of things to do.

   I like to think that my past trips have left a meaningful purpose to animal life and that wasn't causing any harm.  I've already talked about this before in my previous blogs, but seeing the panda's in Chengdu, China I believe to be a positive zoo.  The zoo is located in the location that the Pandas were originally found. They are using the area they house the pandas in to grow more bamboo.  They don't have to worry about the climate or any changing weather because the pandas were meant to be there. They are not being put into a colder climate, or somewhere to dry.  One of the bigger concerns I have when I think about zoos now, is what are animals doing during the winter when they are not suppose to be cold. Or the opposite, of how winter animals can adapt to warm temperatures.  I found a really good article article that weighed the options of elephants in cold climate zoos at http://www.helpelephants.com/coldclimatezoos.pdf.  The conclusion to the article talks about how zoos in cold climate should prohibit the display of animals that can't be properly cared for in cold climates.

   I had a good conversation with a woman I met at the festival du voyager this past week whose son is a zoo keeper here in Winnipeg.  I remembered going to see the Australia exhibit when I was kid, but after learning about the dangers to animals in cold climate zoos, I thought I would ask if we still have the Australia exhibit. She ensured me that it was too cold for the animals and that we had to get rid of them. And also with other animals that require warmer temperatures that they are sent south for the winter time, and transported back to the city in the spring.

  I've never been to our zoo in the winter time. I want to remind my readers that the zoo here in Winnipeg does remain open during the winter season.  They have also received a new polar bear member to the zoo named Hudson that is on display!  I'm thinking this could be a fun trip for me if I can find some time in the busy semester!  Check out more information on Winnipeg's Assiniboine Park Zoo at   http://www.assiniboineparkzoo.ca/index.php

   As for other Winnipeg outings and to learn more about Inuit Art I suggest heading to the Winnipeg Art Gallary to see their extensive collection of Inuit Art. Check out the link http://wag.ca/art/collections/inuit-art for more information. They also have a new exhibition going on till April called Creation and Transformation: Defining moments in Inuit Art.  Check it out, and keep reading my blogs for more information and insight on Northern Environments. 

Mother and Child, Sheokjuk Oqutaq
http://wag.ca/art/collections/inuit-art/display,collection/61859

Thanks for Reading!

 

 

Climate Change and Impacts

   Whoopse! I got a little behind on my blog's, you'll have to forgive me for my blogging routine is still in the works. For this weeks topics, our focus was on climate changing and the impacts it has.  I found the presentations had a very negative outlook on climate change, which goes along with most of societies views on the topic.  I always like to think in a 'cup is half full' type of view, so would like to try and highlight some positive aspects of climate change and look at the negatives as well.

  From our presentation on Tuesday, I learned that 75 percent of the worlds fresh water is preserved in glaciers.  Glaciers in the Himalayas provides water for over 1.3 billion people, I think that increased fresh water runoff could help benefit these neighboring communities.  With a growing population, don't we need more fresh water? and isn't it easier to distribute while its flowing down the sides of a mountains and not frozen up in high altitudes.  I can see negative aspects from glaciers receding too much as well. At what point do the glacier's go from being a renewable resource to finite.   

  Another idea I always think about when I think about all that water flowing down the sides of a mountain is energy. Are we able to manipulate the flow over water down a mountain and turn it into energy?  Or can we dam the fresh water and use it to irrigate more crops for our growing population.  As important as it is to understand why our climate is changing, and how to slow down the changing climate, I think its just as important to begin studying how we are going to cope with the changes of climate in a positive fashion.

    After all this talk about glaciers in Tuesday's class got me reminiscing about my past travels, so I thought I would share a little travel story I have with Glaciers.

   I went to visit Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand back in 2009 as a part of a Contiki tour.  We started the tour off with a valley walk, towards an oncoming stream of glacier water. The valley walls were high with the reminiscent striations of the old glacial moraines.  A small water fall trickled over the side from another mountain top.  We continued climbing towards the glacier until we approached it head on, and then snuck around the side through a carved out path to get on top of it.  We wore our trekking shoes with spikes for extra grip on the mass of ice and snow, and had walking sticks just for extra balance.  As we continued to climb up the toe of the glacier workers were carving out an ice stair case to make it easier to go up higher for the tours.  We had to cross large open gaps in the glacier, which we were told could easily slip one of us down and into the glacier forever (or at least till we were melted out). At this point we had the opportunity to take a helicopter tour of the glacier and land near the top to get a feel of the size of the glacier, and some extra hiking along the top of the ice ground. We decided to just stay on our walking tour this time.  Unfortunately for this great tourist expedition I went on, they have closed the entire hike up to the front of the glacier and made it only possible to access the glacier by helicopter, which makes it less accessible to backpackers with smaller budgets.  This glacier has been receding since 2008, and due to a hole in the glacier and re occurring ice quakes it is no longer safe to do what I thoroughly enjoyed doing at this spot. 

    **Check out Laura Mills article on the Franz Josef Glacier at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10818264 and be sure to look at the 2008 -2012 photo comparisons.

   **I also suggest taking the helicopter up to the glacier if you're in the area. It really was a great experience. Check out this website for more information: http://www.franzjosefglacier.com/

     The majority of Glaciers in the world we hear about in terms of climate change is resulting in receding ice fronts, I did a little bit of digging and found one story where this run off could have positive effects. There has been a study in 2009 in the Gulf of Alaska that looks at the runoff from glaciers, and sees a positive effect it has on the ecosystem. The runoff from ancient glaciers is providing bio-available organic carbon for coastal ecosystems in the area.  This area produces some of the most productive fisheries in the United States, the study believes that future changes to the glacier could affect the food webs in the area.

   **To read more, check out Anthony Watts article at http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/28/glacier-melt-discovered-to-have-an-upside/ 

Photograph: David Bathgate/Corbis

     I also thought it was interesting that not all glaciers are receding in the the world today. Found in the Karakoram Range along the borders of Pakistan, India and China is a large mass of ice and snow that is continuing to grow and expand. There seems to be a lot of uncertainty as to why its growing, and not following the trend with the rest of the world, but there is a belief that climate change around the area is producing extra precipitation that is freezing and adding to the ice mass in the range. This sounds like one of my next's trips!

   **Ian Garland writes more about the growing Karakoram Range at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2130184/Forget-global-warming-Scientists-discover-glaciers-Asia-getting-BIGGER.html#axzz2KEnpn086

    Even if I didn't come up with any answers on how to change to this environment,  I hope I can challenge everyone else to create innovative ideas on how to gain a positive change with our new climate, instead of only focusing on keeping things the way they are.  It really does seem to me that the negative really does out weight the positive effects on this issue and from what I've read it seems most important right now to understand why things are changing at the rate that they are and how we can control it.

   **For additional positive effects of Global warming, check out the Environmental Graffiti website at http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/offbeat-news/the-top-5-positive-effects-of-global-warming/728?image=5

  

Swimming Amongst the Whales

   This past week was busy for the Northern Environment class. We had a focus on wildlife in the North, covering topics as big as the polar bears in Churchill, to as small as the often overlooked invertebrates that are the most common and diverse lifeforms in the Arctic.  I found it amazing that whales in the North could live for up to 100 years, while the arctic fox has only a short life span of 3 to 6 years and looking at the respect that the Inuit people from Northern Canada have for the animals they hunt and compete with in the wild.

    My favourite part of writing a blog is that I get to choose what I write about, and you have to listen... well I guess you could always skip to the next blog if you really wanted to. After hearing about the presentations this week I thought it would be great to share my own experience I have had with whales.  Unfortunately I encountered whales down South in the Pacific, but I already mentioned that I'm going to include the South close to Antarctica in my description of the North, so here we go.


   Humpback whales will travel over 5000 miles between their feeding grounds in the Antarctic and the warm pacific water to either mate or birth their calves.  The migration of humpback whales is the longest of any mammal living. I met up with these humpback whales in the Kingdom of Tonga on one of the Ha'apai Islands called 'Uoleva.  We could get to the island on a boat, or if we ran fast enough along a sand bar connecting the islands while the tide was low, we chose the boat. We were fortunate enough to spend most of a week on this island in a small little hut with no running water or electricity.  We made friends with the other island residents, which ranged from 4 people when their was no tourists, to about 30 people when the island was busy.  During the day it was common to look out into the ocean to see our Humpback friends playing in the calm, warm water.

  One morning we joined a tour boat in hopes of swimming with the whales.  The excursion entailed whale watching from the boat,  the possibility to swim with the whales, and some snorkeling around a reef with lunch on the boat, totaling about an 8 hour day.    The majority of the time we spent looking for the whales surfacing. They would jump out of the water nose first, hump their large backs over and expose their giant tails to us.

   The most exciting part of the trip was actually getting into the water with these whales.   We caught up with a group of three whales in a stretch of open water including a mother, her calve and the escort.  It's common for the whales to travel in packs of three, the escort generally being a male who follows the mother and her calf along the waters.  He is often looking to mate with the females, even though she is looking after her baby it is still possible at this point for her to mate.  We were able to get into the water after observing the mother resting in one spot. If she was travelling, there would be no way for our sad little flippers to keep up with her large tail and fins.  We went in as a group, and stuck close together.  We would approach from the side, so she could see us at all times.  We don't want the mother to feel surprised when seeing us or threatened if we swim close to her calf.  We had the gentle, giant mammals swimming under us, directly towards us, up and out of the water until gradually swimming away.  This made for one of my all time most memorable experiences.

    To learn more about the whales visit ''Whale watch Vava'u'' at http://www.whalewatchvavau.com/whales.html they have information about the whales, discuss their tours and services, and have a pretty amazing gallery of photos and videos of the whales.

    In our Northern Environments class we talked a lot about the declining number of northern animals. During one of our learning exercises we discovered hunting, fishing, global warming, and pollution to be some of the largest reasons that their is declining number of animals, and this would be true again for the humpback whales down south.  Tourism, such as the guided boat tour I had rode in the Kingdom of Tonga, allows for a way to help protect the animals.  If they can make enough money off the animal through tourism then it can make for a better reason than hunting the animal, and then the community will begin to protect the animal.  I've seen this many times such as my trip to Rwanda to visit the mountain gorillas, or to Chengdu to visit Panda's or visiting Koalas in Australia.  Since learning so much about the polar bears I've added a trip to Churchill to my bucket list in places to go as well.

 The photo above is a Mountain Gorilla from Rwanda, and below is a Panda from Chengdu.  Tourism has helped both these species from becoming endangered today.

    Some of the highlights from the lectures this week for me include the pure beauty of the Arctic Fox hunting in the snow.   You can see the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP15zlyra3c

and the discussion of when tourism becomes dangerous for the animals as seen in the reality show 'The Polar Bear Family & Me.'' where Buchanan follows a family of polar bears in a steal cage.  Main concerns were towards the polar bear, that found the steal cafe interesting enough to attack. But what would happen if the polar bear injur's a paw, or tooth and can no longer hunt, or if the polar bear did get to the over excited camera man inside the box.  You can read more on this topic at http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/news-room/pbi-blog/reality-tv-hits-new-low-high-arctic-bbc%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9C-polar-bear-family-me%E2%80%9D

International North - Gender equality in the North

Hey,

So here's my first blog. What is it about? I'm not sure yet. You'll have to keep reading to find out.   I'm taking a course this semester in concerns with Northern Environments.  What is a Northern Environment? My first guess is anything North of your own current location.  I had a few days in New Zealand this past summer, we went up North to the Kingdom of Tonga.... maybe that shouldn't count as a Northern Environment in respects to what I'm studying this semester.  I'm planning to define my Northern Environments very vaguely anyways, maybe my description will change, but at the moment I'm thinking anywhere that has to deal with cold winter weather, and close to the arctic circle  (I'll also include Antarctica when it makes sense).

The first week in the course we look at the International North.  I don't really understand why we named this week the International North.  The first two presentations were about storytelling in Scandinavia (and someone decided to show a Canadian Inuit film, after our one guideline was to avoid Canada this week), and about the snow, our second day of presentations discussed seals and penguins.  Maybe we should have thought about renaming our class topic for the week, and just made it an introduction to the North week, as we talked about some culture, science and biology that occurs in the North(... and the South).

I was fortunate to present my topic in our first class.  Before doing any research, I decided to study the art of storytelling specifically in historical Scandinavia.  I wanted to find stories about braving the cold, surviving long winters, and vikings sailing through snow storms. Instead I found stories about trolls in the wilderness and fairy tales that I grew up with.   When I started to think about the North in Canada one of the first things to hit me was that the use of storytelling among First Nations people was important in their culture.  I had known of very few stories being told in this culture, but decided that it would be fun to look at someone else's culture before looking at my own.  I've had a huge connection with Scandinavia in my life and thought it would be interesting to apply my travels and life to my studies.    I still hope that someone else brings up Native American storytelling in our class....

---Aside ---- How appropriate is it to just put in a random thought as I go along?? I guess its my blog, so I will choose to do as I wish.   My class is going camping next weekend, and we intend to build igloos to sleep in.  I can see this as a good opportunity to do some storytelling.  Maybe I'll attempt to find a book on traditional Inuit stories. -----

What I found most interesting in my own research was the Icelandic Sagas.  Iceland's history was actually most accurately recorded using stories.  The stories are regarded as one of Europe's most important pieces of literature, and I never even know about it before a few days ago. An article from the UK's guardian online also described how women hold strong roles in the stories as well. After looking a little more into the topic of women's issues in Iceland, I found that the country is one of the most gender equal nations. The World Economic Forum named Iceland the best country for gender equality in 2010 for the second year in a row, followed by Norway in second, Finland in third, Sweden in fourth and Denmark lagging a little behind in 7th (BBC News. Oct, 2010). They say that the low gender gaps are related to high economic competitiveness,  I'm curious if their history and development of a country could also help mold these accomplishments.  Another possibility for the gender equality could be the Scandinavians belief in the Jante laws.  The Jante laws were created in a factitious novel written by Aksel Sandemose about the Danish town of Jante, where the people live by their own ten commandments. (Lee, K. Nov. 2011) These ten commandments are:

1. Don’t think you’re anything special.
2. Don’t think you’re as good as us.
3. Don’t think you’re smarter than us.
4. Don’t convince yourself that you’re better than us.
5. Don’t think you know more than us.
6. Don’t think you are more important than us.
7. Don’t think you are good at anything.
8. Don’t laugh at us.
9. Don’t think anyone cares about you.
10. Don’t think you can teach us anything.

Living in Denmark my self I've been able to see how these laws still function in most society.  People in Copenhagen do not show off their money.  They live in modest housing, very often everyone bikes to work, the wages are more equal. As I worked in a restaurant in Copenhagen, I was never talked down to by a guest.  The customer is always right - does not really apply in this area. I believe these Laws of Jante should be taught more often, and can help in developing more equality and acceptance in the world today.

 

(A photo I took on my first trip to Copenhagen, Benjamin Plamondon, December 2009)


BBC News (Oct, 12, 2010). Iceland 'best country for gender equality'. BBC News buisness. Retrieved on Jan 19, 2013 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11517459

Lee, K. (Nov. 9, 2011). Jante law (or 10 rules for dealing with people). Associates mind. Retrieved on Jan 19, 2013 from http://associatesmind.com/2011/11/09/jante-law-or-10-rules-for-dealing-with-people/