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Lonnie Dupre and his sled dog companions: the Simigaq Gang. Siorapaluk, Greenland. Photos courtesy of Eva Capozzola
It has been 21 years since Lonnie Dupre and John Hoelscher completed Greenland’s first and only circumnavigation, a 6,500-mile journey all non-motorized by dog team and kayak.
In 2022 Dupre went back to Northwest Greenland to document the Polar Inuit culture through film. Traveling from village to village by dog team, Dupre re-connected with his past polar Inuit friends to find out how their culture has changed due to climate change and modernization over the last two decades.
The Polar Inuit are unsung heroes of countless Arctic expeditions. Their ingenuity, and innovation, and creative ways of improvising, have always amazed Dupre on past expeditions.
“Western advancement and technology are also tugging at and slowly unraveling the old ways. There are now larger motorboats, snow machines taking the place of sled dogs, and modern clothing replacing furs. In addition, social media and smartphones are currently consuming extra time, observed Dupre.
The Polar Inuit people make it seem easy to live in a place that otherwise appears inhospitable to us. Traditions have been passed on for thousands of years.
Sofus Aletaq in hunting hut. Qeqertat, Greenland.
Dupre was shocked at how drastically global warming has affected the land and culture. Permafrost melting is undermining the foundations of houses. Ice caps and glaciers have receded so much that new maps are required to identify the distorted coastline. For example, sea ice in the Inglefield Fjord that was once 7 feet thick in mid-winter is now 18 inches. At this current rate of melt, the fjord will be ice-free in 7 to 10 years. In the mountainous and ice cap terrain, the Inuit rely on sea ice to travel between villages and for hunting. Once the ice is gone, the Inuit will become landlocked, held prisoners in their own villages unable to travel for eight months out of the year.
By dressing in furs and forming a symbiosis with their sled dogs, they live off the land, completely in tune with their environment of ice and snow. These people are not run by a clock; they do things when the time seems right. People are seen as equals. In their culture, no person is perceived as better than another,” said Dupre.
In the fall of 2023, we will release a film with the working title, ‘Amka,’ (Inuktun for ‘one with friendly spirit’). This film is an inquiry into the inner experience of Inuit Hunters and Polar Explorers amidst change, their inner motivations, resilience, and how they are linked by sea ice and the Greenlandic sled dog.
This film is being produced by and in partnership with Eva Capozzola. Stay tuned; the film trailer for ‘Amka’ is coming soon. For more information and updates, visit LonnieDupre.com.
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