Living in the Canadian Arctic

it takes a special kind of toughness to live and work far above the Arctic Circle it is tough but I think harsh is more the word to use because especially this time of year in the winter time that that the daily weather can change so quickly with no underground plumbing in their hometown of tuaku at the very top of Canada's Northwest Territories on the bford sea in the winter James poyak and his wife Meen trudge out to a frozen Creek to cut ice hauling ice for our drinking water is just something that we've been doing all these years and we're probably going to continue to do it until we're no longer here most of the family income comes for money James makes as a hunting guide Marine moved to tuck as the town is known 40 years ago to be a teacher in the rural area well I was pretty young and uh everything was new I couldn't believe I was here I guess when I first came after being married 38 years and raising three children Moren has adapted but there was a certain sense of culture shock at the beginning the first time I ever worked on a whale I I couldn't believe it I had no idea what I was getting into for many like the Poke acts surviving means a subsistence way of life virtually all the meat on the Family Table comes from the wild Caribou muscs for stew and there's lots more if you want dried fish called Dipsy and of course whale which the indigenous population calls Muk tuck this here is the um is the Muk tuck from the beluga whale the white whale when we let our Muk tuck age and it gets it begins to ferment a little bit this is really tasty really good I didn't anticipate it would taste like this it's very flavorful um I don't know how to describe it it's almost got a Nutty taste to it but like so many in the region the Poke acts are watching their lifestyle their landscape their environment change every season I've noticed it a bit I know our Winters are not as cold anymore um and sometimes out there when I when I see the ice conditions differ from year to year I know that there is definitely something going on they cling to tradition up here there are no there's no trees there are no fences there's no one to say this land is my land you can't go on it the land up here is open to everyone embracing this harsh life and everything it brings and they wouldn't have it any other way Sean calebs CCTV Tu to Yak tuck Canada