New documentary explores the devastating loss of caribou on Labrador's Inuit

It's a stunning sight: thousands of caribou, filmed from above, running at great speed over the Labrador landscape.

The footage, recorded almost 30 years ago, shows the incredible abundance that once was the George River caribou herd, a primary source of food and much more for Labrador's Inuit.

The George River herd has fluctuated wildly in size over the years and is now just a shadow of its former self.

Indeed, its size has dropped by more than 99 per cent, and hunting an animal in the herd has been illegal since 2013.

The impact of that decision is explored in Herd, a new documentary now available on Gem, CBC's streaming service, and presented here as well.

Between the 1950s and the 1990s, the George River herd grew and grew from about 15,000 animals to more than 800,000.

When the ban took effect in 2013, the herd was estimated at 70,000 animals.

Population estimates earlier this year put the herd at under 10,000 animals.

Through interviews with people across Labrador, Herd takes a hard look at how Inuit culture has been intertwined with the caribou for countless generations.

A tradition that is deeply embedded in Inuit culture, though, has been illegal for almost decade.

"Now it makes you feel like a criminal, your people feel like criminals, for wanting to go out and get something that one time was something that you done," Hopedale resident Greg Flowers says in the documentary.

"To lose that, it's like losing a friend. You wonder some day if it will ever come back."

'It's proof and nobody can say it's not true'

Director David Borish said he was motivated to work with Inuit communities in Labrador to produce the film to bring greater attention to a devastating loss.

"Everyone in Labrador knows about these declining caribou populations and the total hunting ban, but there wasn't as much being shared about the human dimensions of it," Borish said in a recent interview with CBC Radio's Labrador Morning.

Inez Shiwak, a co-producer on the film, said it was important to document the perspectives of ordinary people, particularly elders.

"When you're trying to get your point across to government officials, sometimes they don't want to look at this stuff that we pass on by telling each other, by oral history," Shiwak said.

"They want to see actual facts,like numbers or spreadsheets or things. So we're able to document the whole thing with this video and to hear the stories that we do. It's proof and nobody can say it's not true."

The film also delves into issues of food security always a concern in Labrador, where the cost of food is far beyond prices charged in most Canadian cities.

In one sequence in the film, a hunter points to a lone caribou and saysthe meat from the animal would be enough to carry his family of four for a year.

"Food is our biggest cost in the North," Judy Voisey of Happy Valley-Goose Bay says in the film. "When we're looking at food insecurity, people talk about the relationship between that food insecurity and not having access to caribou and they are absolutely right."

"Store-bought costs too much," Eva Nochasak of Nain says in the film. "Especially the meat. That little piece? Not even enough for a family [at a cost of] $20 to $30."

Learn more about Herd and the research project connected to it through this website.

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