The Young Explorers Program Expedition to the Magnetic North Pole, which took place in May 2011, unexpectedly transformed into a long stay in Resolute, Nunavut, Canada. The group of 7 Young Explorers learnt about water salinity, the ice and the conservation of the pole, climate change, terrain elevation, temperature and wind speed and direction in the Northern Territories. They also had the chance to discover the unique culture of the Inuits - aboriginals of Nunavut.
This resulted in writing a booklet about the life and customs of the Inuits from Resolute. The Magnetic North Pole Young Explorers wanted to conduct an outreach project in order to help their new friends, but this would be extremely difficult due to the impossibility of returning to Resolute. That is why we have decided to begin a collaboration between the Magnetic North Pole Young Explorers and the Nunavut Young Explorers, who in August 2011 will get the chance to travel to the magical Arctic and experience the Inuit culture for themselves. We will work together to achieve one success for all of us, but primarily for the local people who will be directly concerned by our actions and results.
Work on the project has just started and we are still waiting for the final confirmation of our ideas and solutions. However, we can start ACTING now!
Three main concepts are certainly going to be developed for the upcoming project:
1) First Aid courses will be conducted in Nunavut by the expedition doctor and with the help from Young Explorers. First aid kits are going to be donated to local communities.
2) Organizing sport activities in order to drop the boundaries between the Young Explorers and teenagers from Nunavut. Young Explorers will LEARN about traditional Inuit games and share their football skills. We will create a football field and bring footballs to the community.
3) During the Expedition, Young Explorers will discover the phenomenal culture and customs of Nunavutmiuts. By interviewing the locals, we will gain a better understanding of what is important to them, how their lives have changed over the past 50 years and how the changing climate drastically affects their lives? Out of the gathered materials, we eventually want to film a documentary about the Inuit culture, lifestyle changes and society issues.
This is how we thought our project to look like. Only 3 days left to the Expedition and we realize there will be no chance to build a football field or organize cooking workshops in Nunavut. But we have learned a lot and soon will be able to report on the resultus of the Project! Please follow us on the blog but also via www.mikehorn.com and Facebook!
I would like to thank Luana, Saskia, Ariane, Christopher and Felix from the Magnetic North Pole Expedition for their help with the Project and for all the tips and advices we got from you guys, You are stars and my personal heroes. Hopefully this will be OUR success!
