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Explorer’s Journal #2 for National Georgraphic: Hockey Love in the Arctic

2017 May 19 |

Pond Inlet came out in style to show Meet the North their love for Canada’s national sport. Residents showed off their handmade jerseys as well as other hockey paraphernalia. See how Pond Inlet showcases hockey pride in the latest post for National Geographic.

With the Stanley Cup playoffs in full swing, fans all over the continent are gathering to watch the games. The north is full of fans too, and here are a few, cheering for their teams, Arctic style.

Explorer’s Journal #1 for National Geographic: Crossing that Bridge

2017 Apr 13 |

In this dispatch for National Geographic’s Explorer’s Journal, Meet the North takes you to the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, a strip of land that has had a lasting impact on the north.

 

This area represents a much larger story of relationships between different Arctic people and how the north was settled. Though the landscape looks much different now than during the last ice age, themes of travel, interconnectedness, and land-based livelihoods still come through loud and clear.

Meeting the Arctic one story at a time

2017 Jan 02 |

Meet the North introduces you to some of the amazing people they’ve met along the way.

This Above and Beyond – Canada’s Arctic Journal piece profiles these stories from a men’s choir in Iceland to a celebration in Pond Inlet.

By meeting one person at a time, and by asking that person to introduce us to someone new, we are journeying around the pole, story by story.

 

Canada’s Arctic sport obsession

2016 Sep 29 |

Meet the North gives you a look at Pond Inlet, an Arctic community with a deep love for Canada’s game.

This BBC Travel piece introduces you to the die-hard hockey fans of this Nunavut community as they receive a guest of honour – the Stanley Cup.

It is often said ice hockey is more than just a game in Canada, it’s a way of life. And in isolated places like Pond Inlet, where snowmobiles and four-wheelers are the main modes of transport, this is no exception.

The Road that Tourism Forgot

2016 Sep 22 |

Take the road less travelled as Meet the North diverges from Iceland’s ring road to explore the Melrakkaslétta peninsula.

This BBC Travel piece introduces you to unique characters and beautiful landmarks in the country’s often overlooked northeast corner.

“You don’t want to take that road. It’s flat and featureless. It’s of no interest.”

But by leaving the paved ring road and travelling 275km on roads 85 and 870 over three days, we entered a new territory of unexpected encounters, full of tundra beauty, moody vistas and unforgettable locals.

Arctic Deeply on ‘Transportation, Not Tourism’

2016 Aug 20 |

In this instalment, Arctic Deeply gives you a look into an Icelandic town vying for its place in the global market, not with tourism but with transport.

Siggeir Stefánsson introduces us to Þórshöfn, his small Icelandic fishing town which he hopes to diversify in order to keep afloat.

“If you live in Reykjavik, you can choose from 100 kinds of work. Here you cannot choose from so many. Our young people are not coming back.” Rather than focus on the tourist economy, Siggeir’s municipality is opening the door to more industry.

Arctic Iceland through its Mystic Henge

2016 Aug 05 |

In Meet the North’s most recent Arctic Deeply story, meet the man behind Iceland’s Arctic Henge. The late Erlingur B. Thoroddsen dreamt of sharing the beauty he saw in the small town of Raufarhöfn through his ‘hobby.’

Thoroddsen explained that the entire structure would be made from locally quarried stone and surrounded by representations of 72 dwarves that he and his artist friends have drawn from history and folklore. Each dwarf represents a specific span of calendar dates, like signs of the Zodiac, so you can look up your birthday dwarf and what it stands for.

Discovering the Craftwork of Sealskin

2016 Jul 08 |

Meet the North’s latest Arctic Deeply story brings you into the workshop of two of Greenland’s traditional sealskin crafters.

Soriina Davidsen and Vera Larsen explain the highs and lows of a controversial craft with a longstanding place in the country’s history.

Davidsen and her coworker, Vera Larsen, spend long days here cutting, stitching and talking. The pair have formed a friendship – and a business – over sealskin, a material central to Greenlandic culture that has divided others around the world.

Meet Norway’s Most Isolated Community

2016 Jun 24 |

Arctic Deeply ventures to Jan Mayen island to meet the 18 people who compose Norway’s most isolated community. Learn more about Siw Landro, who works as the island’s nurse, librarian and everything in between.

Siw Landro fell in love, again, when she arrived on Jan Mayen, Norway. Siw has a partner and children back home, but Mr. Beerenberg immediately caught her eye. “Mr. Beerenberg is the most handsome man I ever saw.” He’s moody, she said, but “he almost makes my husband jealous. I get goosebumps just looking at him.” “He” last erupted in 1985.

Mr. Beerenberg is the 2,277-meter-tall (7,470 feet) volcano that dominates the north end of Jan Mayen, a Norwegian territory that lies closer to Greenland than any other Arctic territory.

When the World Went Online, Inuktitut Followed

2016 Jun 10 |

Check out our latest Arctic Deeply story:

Learn with Meet the North as two of Nunavut’s foremost language experts explain how Inuktitut has evolved for the digital age.

The Inuktitut word for internet, “ikiaqqijjut,” is often translated as “the tool to travel through layers.” But Eva stresses that it needs more explanation.

“The idea is that when shamans are in their trance, they can go anywhere around the world, including the moon,” Eva says. “When our elders heard there was the first man on the moon, they said, ‘They are not the first. We have been there and done that,’ because shamans have been there. Shamans would travel in a trance; if they want to check on their family far away, they can visit them and see how they’re doing.”