Inuit Family Leaves Town to Live Off Tundra

Lypa Pitsiulak was born 59 years ago, son of an Inuit mother and an Italian father who had stepped off a whaling vessel to begin life anew in Canada’s far north.

Living in a town near the Arctic Circle, Lypa grew up in a generation of Inuit that bridged a traditional subsistence lifestyle with the changed ways of being gathered into communities by the Canadian government.

For more than 1,000 years, the Inuit of Canada’s eastern Arctic had lived in small, semi-nomadic hunting groups.

Nearly five decades ago things changed. The West was locked in the Cold War with the East, and Canada feared that Russia, the United States or both might attempt to establish new frontiers in the vast Arctic.

In an effort to secure Canada’s northern border and establish an unmistakable presence in the high Arctic, the government began rounding up Inuit and forcing them into settlements.

The result was a transformation of Inuit lives, one that won’t be quickly altered by Canada’s recent creation of Nunavut--an immense territory whose 27,000 people are mostly Inuit.

Before the settlement program began, Inuit society valued a person’s decision-making ability, hunting expertise and willingness to share their catch with less fortunate hunters.

Once permanent settlement living became the norm, Inuit society became a more currency-based system. Inuit culture is now grappling with high rates of substance abuse, domestic violence, teenage pregnancy and AIDS, the fruits of high unemployment.

In the early 1980s, Lypa and his wife, Annie, realized they were not happy with life in the town of Pangnirtung. They saw Inuit culture being eroded by the rise of social problems and decided their family needed a change.

Seeking a renewal of traditional life and culture, Lypa and Annie are among an increasing number of Inuit who have chosen to return to the land.

They set up camp near Cumberland Sound in the Opingivik area of Baffin Island, four to six hours by snowmobile from Pangnirtung. They live there with their six children: Louisa, 24; Simeonie, 23; Markoosie, 18; Malaya, 15; Robbie, 10; Eric, 7; and one grandchild, Gordon, 3.

Using the hunting skills he learned as a boy, Lypa supports his family with what the tundra provides.

It is a rugged, unforgiving existence living off the land in an area of the world where snow covers the ground 10 months a year and winter temperatures reach 45 degrees below zero.

Lypa has no regrets about their choice. “I am learning from life . . . just like school . . . and I work hard at it,” he says.