Qikiqtait : New exhibition – Canadian Museum of Nature

Visitors will learn the way the Sanikiluarmiut (individuals of Sanikiluaq, the primary neighborhood in Qikiqtait) have been working to develop monitoring applications and Inuit-led conservation to deal with the islands for future generations, by combining Inuit data and trendy expertise.

Nature’s expertise within the type of eider down (the warmest feather on the earth) can be a distinguished a part of the exhibition. Visitors will study concerning the profound and enduring relationship between Sanikiluarmiut and the resilient Hudson Bay Common Eider (a subspecies that doesn’t migrate, and stays on the islands via the winter).

For generations, eiders have been a cornerstone for the survival of the Sanikiluarmiut offering a supply of meals and clothes, as featured within the communities award-winning movie People of a Feather that can be showcased within the exhibit.  

Qikiqtait is introduced within the museum’s newly named Polar Knowledge Canada Northern Voices Gallery. This devoted exhibition area inside the Canada Goose Arctic Gallery is the place Northern communities can share their very own genuine tales of life within the Arctic and their profound connection to the land.

Exhibition highlights embrace:

• an summary of SIKU: The Indigenous Knowledge App and its use for the Qikiqtait challenge (in addition to greater than 40,000 customers and 100 different tasks). SIKU empowers Indigenous communities to doc their data of adjusting environments and wildlife throughout the North;.
• the Qikiqtait Harvest Calendar, an interactive visible device that makes use of crowd-sourced information collected via the Qikiqtait challenge on SIKU. The calendar illustrates the neighborhood’s deep connection to wildlife and the seasonal cycles. Visitors can work together with this useful resource wheel to study extra concerning the six Inuit seasons, the species, and the data collected for stewardship of the islands;
• a 3D touchable map of the Belcher Islands;
• a fascinating video wall displaying the flora, fauna, individuals and great thing about the islands;
• the trailer for the award-winning film, People of a Feather,which explores the intimate bond between eider geese and the Sanikiluaq neighborhood, and tells the story of the Arctic Eider Society’s inception;
• a winter diorama with a mannequin of a person sporting a standard eider pores and skin parka (atigik) standing on the fringe of a polynya, the place eiders dive to feed on mussels and urchins;
• a summer time diorama with a mannequin of a girl in a standard eider pores and skin parka (amautik) about to gather eider eggs early within the incubation season;
• a have a look at the Eider Down Sewing Program, via which elders transmit invaluable data to youthful seamstresses.  In the Seventies, Sanikiluarmiut started amassing eider down from nests to be used in modern atigiit (parkas). Today, the Sewing Program helps native seamstresses by fostering a sustainable economic system that helps native expertise, data and tradition.

Additional quotes:

“Our national museums have an important role in sharing the stories that reflect our country’s diversity and strengthen our national unity. I congratulate the Canadian Museum of Nature and the Arctic Eider Society for their collaboration on Qikiqtait. This exhibition opens our eyes to the Sanikiluarmiut people’s unique culture, resilience and innovative approaches to conservation. I invite Canadians to learn more, as we continue this journey of reconciliation.”
– The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture and Minister chargeable for Official Languages

“We are celebrating two milestones: The 10^th anniversary of Polar Knowledge Canada and the opening of the newest exhibition of the Northern Voices Gallery at the Canadian Museum of Nature.  Both are powerful reflections of how the future of a thriving and secure Arctic depends on collaboration and knowledge-sharing to support conservation and self-determination.”
– The Honourable Rebecca Chartrand, Minister of Northern and Arctic Affairs and Minister Responsible for the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency

Interesting information:

• The Belcher Islands of southeastern Hudson Bay, known as Qikiqtait, are a bunch of 1,500 islands with a mixed land space of three,000 sq. kilometres (1,158 sq. miles).
• With over 1,000 residents, Sanikiluaq is the one everlasting settlement on this whole archipelago and is Nunavut’s southernmost neighborhood.
• This space is a novel, and critically essential habitat in Canada’s Arctic. It maintains yearly recurring polynyas which give a key habitat for species resembling polar bears, sea birds, seals, belugas, Atlantic walruses and Arctic char.
• Polynyas are fashioned by sturdy currents stopping the ice from freezing in some areas that keep open all winter, changing into an essential habitat for animals that stay within the Arctic in winter.
• The Hudson Bay Common Eider (Somateria mollissima sedentaria) is exclusive to the Qikiqtait archipelago. Unlike different populations of eiders, these eiders don’t migrate. Instead, the Qikiqtait inhabitants stays all through the winter at polynyas and floe edges (areas of open water within the sea ice).
• Eiders have the warmest feather on the earth. Traditional parkas had been made by stitching eider skins collectively. Both of the eider pores and skin parkas displayed within the exhibition had been made for the film, People of a Feather.

Arctic Workshop for colleges

In conjunction with the opening of Qikiqtait, the Canadian Museum of Nature has created a brand new digital workshop on Arctic ecosystems. Developed for Grades 7 to 10 college students, this workshop will discover varied matters: the Common Eider, the significance of polynyas (areas of open sea ice) for the meals internet, providers the ecosystem offers for the individuals who stay there, sustainable harvesting and extra. Through high-definition cameras and a microscope, college students will see actual specimens, resembling eiderdown and eggs, up shut.

The museum additionally has an on-site college workshop about Arctic Habitats for Grade 4 lessons. Students study life within the Arctic, deal with museum specimens, and uncover superb variations. Both of those workshops are introduced with assist from Polar Knowledge Canada.

About the companions

The Canadian Museum of Nature is Canada’s nationwide museum of pure historical past and pure sciences. The museum offers evidence-based insights, inspiring experiences and significant engagement with nature’s previous, current and future. It achieves this via scientific analysis centered on organic and geological range, a scientific assortment of greater than 15 million specimens, education schemes and workshops, signature exhibitions, and a dynamic web page, nature.ca.

The Arctic Eider Society is an Inuit-led charity based mostly in Sanikiluaq, Nunavut, supporting Indigenous-driven options for thriving communities via community-driven analysis, place-based schooling and environmental stewardship initiatives. Following the discharge of the 16 occasions award-winning movie People of a Feather, the Arctic Eider Society was created by the neighborhood of Sanikiluaq to assist collaboration amongst Indigenous communities throughout jurisdictional boundaries in an effort to handle long-outstanding priorities and cumulative impacts for the area as an entire.

Polar Knowledge Canada is a Government of Canada company chargeable for strengthening Canadian management in polar science and expertise and selling the event and distribution of data of circumpolar areas. It was created by the Canadian High Arctic Research Station Act of 2015. Polar Knowledge Canada operates the Canadian High Arctic Research Station (CHARS) in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut. CHARS is a world-class hub for science and expertise in Canada’s North and is a serious node within the community of nationwide and worldwide analysis infrastructure throughout the circumpolar North.

Information for media:

Dan Smythe
Media Relations
Canadian Museum of Nature
613-698-9253
[email protected]

Laura McEwen
Media Relations
Canadian Museum of Nature
613-698-7142
[email protected]

Jeannie Ehaloak
Director of Strategic Communications
Polar Knowledge Canada
867-391-0168
[email protected]