Arctic explorers, Indigenous knowledge

Arctic explorers, such asNewfoundland and Labrador's Captain Bob Bartlett, had different attitudes as they interactedwith the Inuitduring their ventures into frigid, unknown territory a century ago.

Bartlett believed he could learn from Indigenous people which was self-benefiting since itultimately helped his attempts to reachthe North Pole in the early 1900s, according to Maura Hanrahan, the board of governors research chair in Indigenous Studiesat the University of Lethbridge in Alberta.

She is also the author of Unchained Man: The Arctic Life and Times of Captain Robert AbramBartlettwhich will be publishednext spring.

"I think he would have been introduced to their knowledge as a child," she told CBC'sTed Blades, host of On the Go.

Hanrahan said Bartlett's family had a fishing station close to Makkovik, in Labrador, and he would have gone there in the summers with his father.

"They were familiar with the Inuit, the Inuit would not have been exotic to use the language of the time to them as they would have been to other people," she said.

American explorer Robert Peary was another North Pole adventurer who felt the same way as Bartlett, as the duo made several trips together.

"He was extremely pragmatic ... so he adopted those pieces of Inuit technology and used the knowledge that would help advance his cause to get to the Pole," Hanrahan said, describing howPeary modified a sled that was commonly used by the Inuit in order to make it faster.

She said that contrasts sharply with others who believed they could learn nothing from the Inuit because they were inferior.

Relationships not alwaysrosy

Traditional knowledge and skills were sought out on theKarluk where Hanrahan said six Inuit accompanied Bartlett on the doomed voyage, said Hanrahan.

But certain attitudes by others persisted then and many would argue still do today.

"Differences of race would have been seen through this kind of lens. They would have believed as white people that they were a higher race. You had Canadian judges at the time writing about Indigengous people as 'lower races' and of course people wouldn't question that," she said.

"It was just normal, it was characteristic of the society."

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