Peter Duneq

Hunter

Siorapaluk, Greenland

 

2008

Malin:  Tell me what the weather has been like over the years?

Peter:   In recent years, the sea ice is melting too fast. I've always wanted to tell the story we inherited from our ancestors.  They said that sometimes the sea ice wouldn't come at all.  And at other times, in summer, it wouldn't go away.

It's been a while, but I remember some summers when there was still sea ice in the fjord left over from winter and some winters that begin before the previous year's snow and ice have melted.

Back in the 1970's, the old sea ice - the thick sea ice - went back deep in the fjord.

Malin:  Have you seen any changes in animal behavior?

Peter:  Most of the change I've seen has been in walrus and reindeer. The reindeer always used to stay in the north.  Now they come down here more, they spread out more.  I have never seen the deer come here before (looks up at Otto Sermiaq, who agrees).

The walrus used to linger longer in the winter before heading further north. Now they migrate much earlier and that's a problem as people have been telling you because the sea ice is not freezing or it's too thin.

Malin:  The community is catching fewer walrus?

Peter:  Much fewer. We used to go down to the new, thick ice early in winter and catch walrus. Now the ice is to thin to hunt walrus.

Malin:  Is there any way to adapt to changing environment, for example, to alter the way you hunt to take advantage of the changes?  Some whaling captains in Alaska say they are determined to keep hunting bowhead whales with or without ice.  They say they will find a way - and the bowheads weigh twice, maybe three times what a walrus weighs.

Peter:  If we get permission from the Commune to go by boat when we reach the edge of the ice, we should be able to catch walrus. We are waiting for Qaanaaq to give us permission.  [The Commune is a local governmental body that makes rules for the Thule region.] As it's written now, the law says we can only use boats starting around April or May, when the ice opens up enough. But starting in November, we can't go out.   When the hunters catch a walrus by boat, they tow it to thick ice.

Malin:  Do you believe climate change is real?

Peter:  I believe in two things.  Maybe to you they don't match, but I believe that this change you describe because of pollution is real. I believe the scientists. And I believe what our ancestors told us.  I think both things can happen.

Malin:  Do you resent the countries that produce the greenhouse gases?

Peter:  I don't really think about that.  Climate change has had an effect on polar bears; it's getting too warm for them.  They used to be way up past Etah.  But now they are moving south.

Malin:  The polar bears are moving south?  I would assume they'd move north, where it's cooler.

Peter:  Maybe the oil exploration up north is scaring them.  Maybe, like the reindeer, the walk on the ice from here to Canada, looking for the best food.  Reindeer have a tremendous sense of smell.  They will follow a food source east, west, where ever.  Polar bears, like the rest of us, are forced to do more and more hunting on new, thin ice.  As the sea ice vanishes, they are forced to come closer and closer to land for their food… and that may be south, it may be anywhere.  

Malin:  Are you seeing them come as far in as the fjords?

Peter:  Oh yes! We've seen their footprints in the snow in the fjords.  But when the sun returns, the polar bears disappear.

I will tell you a story.  Back in the 60's we were allowed to shoot the mother bear.  My brother shot a mother, but he took the cub and raised it.  It bonded with our family.  When it was tiny, it saw me as its brother.  I was 8 and I remember that, being the brother of a bear.  As it grew we knew we could not keep it and it was taken up north to where so many bears used to be.  But it gives me a special feeling for the polar bear.

You know, we call them ice bear?  In Canada, they say nanook. But here we respect what the bear needs to live and we call it ice bear.

When I was a teen in school, I decided to learn to be a welder.  I take care of the generator now part time and I am only a part time hunter now.  The number of hunters here is declining.  It does not pay.  You cannot earn much any more as a hunter.

Eventually, our traditional skills will disappear. But maybe if a hunter writes a book, some of it will be remembered.  If we keep passing it on, even when we can't hunt, maybe it will come again to a new generation.  Our ancestors lived by nature.  Maybe it will come again, that they will be able to hunt like it used to be.  I always remember my grandfather's story that the ice is not melting forever.

Malin:  So, maybe losing traditional skills is okay as you adapt to a new world?

Peter:  Change is always happening. If new things are better than the old, we keep them. We found the boat was better than a kayak for many kinds of hunting, so we kept it. But even as I tell you this, I want you to remember my grandfather's story and tell others about this.  You will do this?

Malin:  Yes.