Clare Kines had long dreamed of moving to the Arctic Circle. He had served in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for twenty years, but never in the extreme north. He had friends who had worked up there and it was always a goal of him.
In 1999 Kines was offered his dream promotion in Nanisivik, a mining town 700km north of the Arctic Circle. He settled in a small village nearby called Arctic Bay. Also known as Ikpiarjuk, the isolated town had just over 600 people.
“In many ways it was like coming to another country,” he says. “The main language here is Inuktitut (the language of the Inuit), so you often need translators. In summertime it’s light all the time. You can go for a walk at 2:00 am.” The daytime temperature was 7℃ when he arrived in July. However, in winter it plunged to -30℃.
“We last see the sun in town on 5 November and it doesn’t come back until 6 February,” says Kines. But Kines didn’t mind the dark season. He found it was never completely pitch black during the day but, rather, different shades of twilight. “The light changes constantly. On a mid-morning there’s a beautiful light with orange colour on the hills, turning to a blue that gets darker.”
Despite not speaking the local language, Kines quickly felt at home in his new community. “Everyone was very welcoming and it was easy to get involved. I don’t know anywhere else where the whole community comes together so often to play games and dance,” he says.
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