‘It’s a feast’: Dozens share in Iqaluit bowhead harvest

This story was updated on Tuesday, August 25, 2026, at 4:35 p.m. ET.

Community members gathered at Iqaluit’s breakwater at high tide on Monday afternoon to divvy up piles of maktaaq from hunters who, this past weekend, harvested their first bowhead in four years.

Paul Suvega divvies up maktaaq to hand out on the Iqaluit breakwater on Monday afternoon. (Photo by Daron Letts)

“It’s a feast,” said Sevanoosie Boaz, who was on site to pick up a bag of bowhead meat. “It means a lot.”

More than two dozen men and women with the Amaruq Hunters and Trappers Association embarked on the hunt Aug. 16, which involved seven boats each with a four-person crew.

The pursuit lasted one week.

The hunters harpooned their bowhead on Friday afternoon, said Pitseolak Alainga, who observed from his canoe approximately 75 metres away.

They harpooned the whale twice more to affix floats, then a fourth harpoon equipped with an explosive charge pierced the animal behind the blowhole and above the brain, Alainga said.

The whole process took about an hour.

Alainga has participated in or observed all four bowhead hunts in the city since the Department of Fisheries and Oceans reintroduced bowhead quotas in 2009. There had been a century-long ban on hunting the marine mammal since the whaling industry almost hunted bowheads to extinction.

Iqaluit’s hunters association has co-ordinated hunts in 2011, 2018, 2022 and this year.

Five hunters stood on the whale’s back before towing it to Qaumarviit Island, approximately 12 kilometres west of Iqaluit, where they butchered their catch.

Volunteers distributed maktaaq at the causeway on Saturday and Sunday. On Monday, more was distributed at Iqaluit’s breakwater.

Johnny Shoo Sagiatook was among those who helped offload the metres-long slabs from Mathew Alainga’s boat, while Daniel Nuyalia and Paul Suvega carved up portions for families.

Neither men hunted this year’s bowhead, but Nuyalia lanced a bowhead in 2018 and Suvega has participated in the 2022 hunt.

“It feeds a lot of people so they won’t go hungry,” said Nuyalia. “We see happy faces. We see people together.”

The Qajuqturvik Community Food Centre distributed maktaaq Monday and planned give out more Wednesday but ran out, according to executive director Joseph Murdoch-Flowers.

The hunt cost an estimated $120,000 for equipment, payment to crew, food and fuel.

The City of Iqaluit chipped in $10,000 and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., Qikiqtani Inuit Association, and Baffin Fisheries Coalition covered the rest.

Update: This article has been updated to reflect that the Qajuqturvik Community Food Centre planned to distribute maktaaq Wednesday, but that it has run out.