the explorer's daughter - Kari herbet

• This is autobiographical because the writer is writing about her own experience
• The writer, Kerry Herbert, lived among the Inuit people as a child
• From where we sat at the lookout it looked as though the hunters were close enough to touch the narwhal with their bare hands
• The writer fell to wondering if the narwhal existed at all or instead mischievous tricks of the shifting light
• The narwhal rarely strayed from High Arctic waters
• The narwhal is an essential contributor to the survival of the hunters in the High Arctic
• Uses of the narwhal

  • The blubber is rich in necessary minerals and vitamins
  • The blubber is the only source of light and heat
  • The meat is a valuable part of the diet for both men and dogs
  • A single narwhal can feed a team of dogs for an entire month
  • The ivory tusks are used for harpoon tips, handles for other hunting implements, carving protective to palak's, and as a central beam of their small ancient dwellings
• The tusks are not used by the narwhal to break through ice or capture prey
• The primary use of the tusks is to disturb the top of the seabed in order to catch Arctic halibut
• It was crucial to the wives that their husbands catch a narwhal


  It was part of their staple diet and some of the matter canned meat could be sold to other hunters who can't been so lucky, bringing in some much needed extra income
• Every hunter was on the water
• The narwhal are intelligent creatures
• The narwhal's hearing is particularly developed and they can hear the sound of a paddling kayak from a great distance
• That was why the hunters had to sit so very still in the water
• The hunter gently picked up his harpoon and aimed
• In that split-second, the writer's heart leapt for both hunter and Narwhal
• The writer urged the man on in her head
• The writer's dilemma stayed with her the whole time she was in Greenland
• The writer understands the harshness of life in the Arctic and the need for the hunters and their families to hunt and live on animals and sea mammals
• The writer knows one cannot afford to be sentimental in the Arctic
• The images of men battering seals for their fur hasn't helped the issue of polar hunting
• The Inuit did not kill seals using this method nor do they kill for sport
• The Inuit use every part of the animals they kill and most of the food and fuel is still brought in by the hunter gatherers and fisherman
• Imported goods can only ever account for part of the food supply
• There is still only one annual supply ship that makes it through the ice and the small twice-weekly plane from the West Greenland can only carry a certain amount of goods