MY J OU RN E Y
Northwest Passage, Victoria Strait expedition 2014
initially studying Political Science and
Communications. She shifted her focus
to Geography and Aboriginal Studies: “I
could talk about my culture and my lifestyle in terms of academics, but it didn’t
[initially] occur to me that I could study
it.” At times her Inuit upbringing, with
its emphasis on Traditional Knowledge
and oral histories, clashed with the more
European scholarly tradition and its reliance on scientific knowledge. “Some of
it was a struggle, a frustration, a fight.”
She cites climate change as an example:
“When I was home for Christmas, I saw
it. My elders know about it. Obviously the
climate is changing, I can tell you that it is.”
Students on Ice
Baikie has slowed her degree in order to
pursue an opportunity as Arctic Student
and Partnership Manager with Students
on Ice, a program that offers educational
expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic.
“Our main target is high school students,
so it reaches them at an age that will leave a
lasting impact on them for the rest of their
lives, and so [they can] become ambassadors in their respective homes.” The
expeditions bring together a fascinating
collection of influential educators, this
year including “botanists, oceanographers,
glaciologists, one of NASA’s Mars specialists… We also had political leaders, Inuit
elders, artists, musicians, authors, and just a
full scope of people.” Baikie calls the diversity of the group “so fascinating and cool.”
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“It’s all education-based, so every stop
has a very specific reason, and before we
get there, we have workshops and panels…
One day, before we were heading into the
Victoria Strait, to Beechy Island where
Franklin’s ships were lost, we talked about
that with participants, what does it mean?
So we would talk about it from various
perspectives and we educated everybody
about the history, what’s happening now,
and what’s the future of this place. And we
do that for every single location.”
The Search for the Erebus
Last summer, Baikie had the opportunity
to join the Franklin expedition that located
the Erebus, which was lost in the mid-19th
century. She was there as part of a program
funded by Shell Canada, which sent
two students on the expedition. She was
working at an internship with Inuit Tapariit Kanatami (the national Inuit government body) when she got an email about
the competition. She sent in her letter of
intent, detailing why she wanted to go and
why she’d be a good fit, and got called a few
days later.
“The expedition then took place a
month later, so I finished my internship,
and got on a plane to Newfoundland,
because I had to get expedition gear — I
was living in Ottawa for the summer, I
packed all my summer clothes.
“I was actually really nervous about
going, because I didn’t have a clear role, I
didn’t know what I would be doing… I’ve
done a lot of ship-based research before,
and I was really excited, but as I got closer
and closer to the Franklin search, I didn’t
have any information about what I would
Caitlyn Baikie in Antarctica with Students on Ice in January 2014