The Bathurst Caribou
The Batherst Caribou herd has been in decline for some time. Predator pressure and the harsh arctic conditions oppress these animals each year. Local Inuit communities, partnering with one remote hunting outfit, look to help the herd and conduct their hunting in a way that is most beneficial to its population. All Caribou tags* in the Nunavut territory are issued to Hunters and Trappers Organizations (HTOs). Each Northern community has an HTO that represents them and their hunters. Currently there are three HTOs in Nunavut that are allotted ten caribou tags each. These are the Burnside, Umingmaktok and Kugluktuk HTOs. The Burnside and Umingmaktok HTOs both partner with Adventure North West, a remote arctic hunting outfitter, to use these tags to sell commercial caribou hunts. Adventure North West buys each of the tags from the two HTOs as well as employing members of those communities to help guide their hunts.
SEASON: Summer, 2019
LOCATION: Contwoyto Lake, Nunavut
OUTFIT: Adventure Northwest
CREW: Camera Op/Director Nicholas Thielmann
Production
Nic holding a lake trout he caught between filming hunts
A hunting outfitter that operates out of Contwoyto Lake, Nunavut was in need of a filmmaker on very short notice to create an educational video about their hunting practices and conservation of their local caribou population. On a Tuesday in late August, I was connected with Kyler Knelsen, co-owner of the operation and after a hearing his need for the film, I confirmed the job and was on an arctic bound plane by the end of the week. The whole project was on an incredibly short turn around schedule but I was excited for the opportunity and the challenge. After making the journey from Vancouver, connecting through Yellowknife and touching down on a gravel landing strip in the barren tundra, the work began. The week of production consisted of following hunters who were being guided for caribou, musk ox, wolf and wolverine hunts to get footage of the hunting and the guides who ran the operation. Adventure Northwest employed members of local Inuit communities to guide the hunts which was a big part of the story that we were trying to communicate through the film. The partnership between these communities and the hunting outfitter is a key part of how the hunts function. Aside from filming hunts I also captured the process of how the meat is handled and distributed as well as filming the arctic wildlife and landscape. Throughout the week I was able to sit down with and interview Kyler, and two of the guides, Peter and Sam who represented each Hunters and Trappers Organization that the outfit works with. Through these conversations I tried to capture the value that the caribou hunts have to the Inuit people, how the declining caribou population can be helped and how Adventure Northwest strives to operate in a way that is beneficial to everyone including the caribou, Inuit communities and the Nunavut Government. After a long exciting week of cruising Contwoyto lake, treading miles of tundra, and following some exciting hunts I was headed back to Vancouver to start the large editing job that awaited me. It was a great week of production and a trip I will never forget. - Nic
