Lining up my Ducks
Weather: -12c and cloudy
MONTREAL- Well, we’re off to the Arctic in less than three weeks now!
We’ll be hitting three communities in Arctic Canada: Iqaluit, Clyde River (Kanngiqtugaapik) and Cape Dorset (Kinngait).
The trip is all part of Radio Canada International’s massive “Eye on the Arctic” project. Basically, it’s a kind of web program that RCI is launching this spring to look at how climate change is affecting the North.
In a nutshell, RCI contacted news organizations in every country in the circumpolar world. And we asked them to contribute stories on how climate change is affecting life in their own backyards.
And we’re not just talking about the weather.
Producer Levon Sevunts told us all to think outside the box on this one and look at how climate change is affecting the North in everything from culture and security, to even personal relationships.
When I was asked to be part of the project, I was drop-dead thrilled. This despite the warnings I got from others that had previously reported there like: ‘But you do know that people in the North only grant interviews for money, don’t like journalists and never show up on time, right?’
Not very encouraging.
In any case, I haven’t run into any problems so far. I’ve got three stories going for the project; a story on Inuit languages that I’m working on in Iqaluit and later on in Greenland, a story on sea ice that I’m working on Clyde River and Greenland, and lastly, a story on Inuit art that I will be working on in ….of course…. the unoffical capital of Inuit art … Cape Dorset.
Basically, all my ducks are in a row. The interviews are lined up and the interviewees seem enthusiastic to tell their stories. And, I’ve got Jimmy –confidante to the artists, translator and fixer extraordinaire and all-around great guy– booked for the entire week we’re in Cape Dorset.
What could possibly go wrong?