September 22, 2020 Meeting By James Rayner
The Northwest Passage in Story and Song with David Newland
For centuries, Canadians have been fascinated by the far north. Numerous European explorers tried and tried to find the fabled Northwest Passage to the Orient and its riches. According to the mythology, the far north was a wasteland of ice and snow, something to be endured if the passage was to be found. But that was the European view of the area; David Newland, from Adventures in Word and Song, in his talk to the Probus Club, tried to dispel that image by educating us through word and song about the true nature of these lands.
David’s summers have been spent on board tourist ships visiting the Arctic waters and exploring the Northwest Passage via Zodiac. He stressed that his company and its clients are in the land of the Inuit by invitation, not as invasive explorers. These voyages include meeting local inhabitants and partaking in their culture through music,
dance, food, and discussions with elders so that the land is not seen as an empty space, but one where Inuit culture has been able to survive for millennia, as the land provides everything that the Inuit need to survive. Indeed, the Inuit were present and helpful during the great age of Arctic exploration but seldom got any credit.
When these vast lands with their overwhelming and humbling landscapes are visited, there is plenty of evidence of habitation: bones, tent rings, stone cairns, sod houses, shipwrecks, graves, old Hudson’s Bay Company trading posts, and, of course, place names to identify settlements. David has noticed what he called a “transformation” takes place among the visitors as they meet the Inuit crews of the ships and interact with villagers; they no longer see the Arctic as the barren, God-forsaken land that is depicted in so much of Canadian literature but a land rich in Inuit culture.
David is not only a Zodiac captain in the summer, but is also a musician. He interspersed his talk with some of the songs he has composed to tell the stories of the Arctic while entertaining those on board his ship. Some of the titles were: Musk Ox Stew, Beechey Island (a rollicking ballad about an island where the Franklin expedition spent the winter and three men died), My Zodiac and Me. A line from another song sums up a sailor’s feelings: No way to stay warm, no port in any storm.
As David said, Canadians have been handed a northern identity that we don’t deserve (most of us live closer to the equator than the North Pole) but he sees a kernel of hope for more appreciation of the Arctic through developing relationships between “southerners” and the Arctic lands and people. We need to get to know the Inuit by accepting the hospitality that is offered, instead of seeing our way of life as the best for all Canadians.
Probus Club of Kingsway-Islington 