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!