Nunavut to be profiled in National Geographic

IQALUIT ­ Words and images from Nunavut will soon be sitting on coffee tables around the world.

Some time next year the National Geographic magazine will run a feature article on Nunavut.

Michael Parfit, author of four books and numerous National Geographic articles, is on his second visit to Nunavut. He’s been flying leisurely flying from community to community in his six-seater Cessna 210.

The research for his article is far from being finished, he says.

“What I try to do is to go and watch and listen,” says Parfit. “What people talk about is revealing.”

Search for focus

Parfit has already visited communities like Cambridge Bay, Arctic Bay, Grise Fiord and Pangnirtung. He’s visited some of those places with a National Geographic photographer.

Parfit’s wife, Suzanne Chisholm ­ who also works with him on feature articles ­ is helping him on this assignment.

Wherever they are, they try to take part in local events ­ a high school graduation, a hunting trip, a hockey game or church services.

Parfit says he’s interested in observing how people live, and that takes time.

“You can’t just go in and ask people,” he says.

He says he doesn’t yet know what the focus of his story will be. It could be about the making of Nunavut ­ or about something completely different.

But at some point, Parfit will have to sit down to write his story. Then, he says he’ll ask himself, “What is this really about?”

Certain basic points, however, will have to be touched on in the article because although National Geographic is widely read, few of its readers, says Parfit, know much of anything about Nunavut.

Avoid stereotypes

But Parfit hopes to draw people away from their stereotypes or misconceptions about the North.

Parfit has visited other places, in what he calls “extreme latitudes,” like Alaska’s North Slope and Antarctica. He can see some similarities­ buildings designed for their usefulness rather than their beauty, water and sewage tanks above ground, and dust.

But Parfit says he has seen less anger among Inuit he’s met on his tour of Nunavut than in aboriginal communities elsewhere.

He says he finds Inuit he’s met are similar to aboriginals from the Navajo Nation in the Southwest of the United States.

Parfit believes the strength and confidence he sensed could be due to the fact that Navajo ­ like Inuit ­ still live and are the majority on their ancient homelands.

Parfit says he likes the people he’s met in his travels around Nunavut and likes the scenery and the weather. And weather permitting, before he wraps up this trip, Parfit plans to visit Igloolik, Arctic Bay and Rankin Inlet.