Celebrating the Arctic as Home in Vanishing Point (2012)

The observational cinema verite documentary Vanishing Point (2012) follows the journey of Navarana K’Avigak, a Greenland Polar Eskimo to her ancestral Canadian Inuit home in Canada’s Baffin Bay. Vanishing Point contrasts Navarana’s two worlds: HerUummannaq, Greenland Arctic indigenous populations and those of her ancestor Shaman Qidtlarssuaq’s Canadian Inuits on Baffin Island. To highlight this contrast, the film draws on both the landscapes and populations of Navarana’s Greenland Arctic home and her ancestral Canadian Motherland. Vanishing Point takes its time revealing the values each group demonstrates in response to the seemingly lifeless landscapes of these Arctic communities.

We first gain access to Navarana’s Greenland setting from a massive sled pulled by at least twenty dogs. The journey is accompanied by the sound of drums and strings, yet the snow and ice of this Arctic scene at first seems untouched by the modern world. But then the dogs get stuck in water when the ice breaks. A dog yelps and breaks the music accompanying the sled’s race across the frozen sea. Greenland Eskimos struggle to correct the sled, building a path for the sled while also lamenting the changes in the ice and snow caused by Climate Change. Shifting glaciers and ice are changing their way of life. The repercussions of modernity have entered even this isolated place. As the narrator of her own story, Navarana connects this Greenland home to its Canadian roots as a response to the sled-driven hunting trip that opens the film.

To illustrate differences between these two settings, Navarana joins a hunting expedition in Greenland and compares it to a similar hunt in Canada. Her descendants followed their Shaman to Greenland on a multi-year journey of discovery in the 1860s. Old photographs document the migration. According to Navarana, these newcomers changed the way the Greenland Arctic Eskimos lived, bringing new tools and new ways of doing things. Yet in Greenland, Navarana’s people still follow the old ways with no snow machines and motorboats. They have decided not to use them and live as they used to as long as they can, using dogs and themselves as their engines.

The changing climate, though, is making this vow more difficult for them. They now must use sleds as bridges across water between ice sheets. The ice is scary now because it has grown so thin in places. More snow is causing it to melt faster.  Because the ice is thinner, hunters don’t go far from their homes. They tell Navarana, “It didn’t used to be like that. There used to be good ice…. The sea used to freeze through October. We don’t see that anymore.” Now they set up camp on a set of rocky hills, putting up tents and covering their sleds to prepare for the first part of the hunt. The whole family participates, catching hundreds of Auk birds in handheld basket nets, collecting them, killing them, and storing them in sealskin hides after crushing them beneath their feet. Men, women, and children feast on raw bird flesh after their work is completed. The rest of the birds will be collected months later for wedding feasts. The modern world enters here only in relation to their Brooklyn branded clothing and modern sunglasses.

This traditional hunting trip is contrasted with that of the Canadian village of Navarana’s ancestors. Here there is very little snow on the ground, and hunters stock up in grocery stores and travel by snow machine and four wheelers to the hunting grounds. Navarana remarks on how much food comes from the “South” in this store. They no longer have working dogs in this village, only pets. Gasoline and sugar serve as their fuel. When they reach a rocky shore, they also set up camp. But here they use motorboats for their hunt. There is no sea ice. There used to be hundreds of kilometers of ice everywhere, but not anymore. Polar bears now must search for food on rocks.

The first hunt is actually a fishing expedition. They drive out on their boats and catch huge salmon they dry on the rocks near camp. They fry bread and feast. As Navarana tells us, “Moving changes you whether or not you are forced to go.” According to Navarana, “Living in the Arctic means living with change.” The next part of the hunt is for the narwhale. They herd the whales together with their motorboats, calling out orders on their radios. Navarana wonders how they catch anything with so much noise. They shoot a whale almost immediately before harpooning it and attaching a rubber balloon. The hunt is quick and easy and ends in a feast. They prepare the rest and carefully save the tusk for cash.Navarana’s experiences in Canada remind her that Canadians and Greenlanders share many things: love of family, desire that children learn and succeed, and sustainable hunting practices. But many things have been lost, as well. Back in Greenland, Navarana joins a more traditional whale hunt that illustrates these losses. They float silently in kayaks instead of noisily herding whales with motorboats. They harpoon the whale first, targeting its route with hide balloons and using the rifle only at the end to finish it off. Here hunters are committed to the old ways, not because it’s tradition or looks pretty but just because it makes sense. This whale also has a tusk, and, as in Canada, they work together to prepare the meat. They have good meat to take home, and some to sell to support their families. As Navarana explains, “Some ideas have been forced upon us…. I have seen so many changes in my life. As the world melts under our feet,” we must find the best way for our journey. “By choosing new ways, what do we gain, and what do we lose?” These questions provide a warning answer to the query repeated throughout the documentary, “Have you ever wanted to travel to new lands and meet new people?” Vanishing Point begins to illustrate the importance of this greater indigenous role. In order to protect the Arctic landscape and caribou, we must recognize and celebrate it as home, not only for wild nature but also for the people who live there.