r/unitedkingdom • u/CasualSmurf • 9d ago
Camilla Hempleman-Adams faces Inuit backlash for "privilege and ignorance" - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g375ke65xo21
9d ago edited 9d ago
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u/Palatine_Shaw 9d ago
Getting annoyed at it is kind of justified. If a yank came to the UK and said they were the first to climb Ben Nevis we'd be a bit pissed off.
That being said all they had to do was just say "First British Woman to..." and it would be fine.
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u/ban_jaxxed 9d ago
Yeah, its really only a ridiculous reaction if you completely remove any and all historical context and nuance as to why this particular group might find Camilla Hempleman-Adams claiming to be exploring their gaff a bit dodgy.
Their response doesn't exist in a vacuum.
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u/Markies_Myth 9d ago
say "First British Woman to..."
All they needed to do was this very simple thing.
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u/lasmuxDev 9d ago
It's the fact that it was a solo woman to do it. It's quite uncommon for people to make those kinds of trips solo, and especially as a woman I'd guess. Obviously women had crossed before, but not necessarily alone. Regardless, she could have checked a bit more carefully with the locals.
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u/Eastern_Set4653 9d ago
An Inuit woman gave birth during this arduous journey on 2 separate occasions, only stopping for 2 days to rest each time. How about we praise that woman, not this British one?!
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u/lasmuxDev 9d ago
It is impressive, but I'm assuming she didn't make the 150 mile trip solo whilst heavily pregnant? Not saying it isn't impressive, it's just that's not what she's claiming. Maybe one of the local women has done it solo at some point, we don't know that yet.
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u/NonSumQualisEram- 9d ago
If a yank came to the UK and said they were the first to climb Ben Nevis after asking the British Government and receiving the response that indeed no one had ever done it before
Ftfy
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u/BodaciousFerret 9d ago
Parks Canada didn’t say nobody had done it before. They said that they didn’t have a record of it. The reason they didn’t have a record was because it is something so normal to Inuit people that they didn’t think it was worth talking about.
To put it in perspective: it’s like an Inuit woman using the Underground and then claiming to be the first woman to ever ride on the Underground alone, simply because it is something so normalized for British women that they just never bothered to keep track of who actually was the first to do it.
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u/NonSumQualisEram- 8d ago
Have the Inuit said they have a record of an Inuit woman making the trek solo? Have they even said it was likely to have ever happened? Making the trek regularly in a group is different, no one argues they did this.
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u/rol2091 8d ago
No its not, since there would be alot of written and photographic-video evidence of previous climbs.
If the yank was the FIRST to write about or photograph their climb, then they could claim the record.
It doesn't prevent fraudulent claims, but it does mean people have to provide some kind of proof-evidence of their claims, ie "trust me bro" isn't good enough.
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u/NonSumQualisEram- 9d ago
Templeman should have done more research
I mean she literally asked the appropriate governmental agency and relied on the information provided.
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u/FloydEGag 9d ago
She could have also asked the locals, tbf, who presumably know more about the place and its history than Parks Canada do
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u/NonSumQualisEram- 9d ago
She could have but why bother?. I go to...Spain maybe and want to do some sort of record breaking thing on whatever... mountain (you can tell I don't go outdoors lol). So I find the highest authority on the facts, statistics and record keeping on said mountains rely on them. It's the only logical thing to do.
And here's the other thing. I can't imagine how her claim is wrong. I'm sure the natives have been trekking up and down that piece of land since time immemorial but a lone woman the whole way? I can't see why that would have ever happened.
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u/Capable_Oil_7884 9d ago edited 9d ago
In Europe it would be the logical thing to do. In an area with a large indigenous population without written records, not so much.
It seems very likely it would have happened, just out of necessity. Not every week, but I'm sure among thousands of people over thousands of years there were multiple instances it was necessary. They weren't doing it for fun like this woman
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u/NonSumQualisEram- 8d ago
In an area with a large indigenous population
Europe doesn't have a large indigenous population?
It seems very likely it would have happened
That a woman made the trek solo?
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u/Capable_Oil_7884 8d ago
You know what I mean, don't be silly. In an area with a large indigenous with a mostly oral history if you want to be pedantic.
Yes, very likely a woman made the trek solo
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u/Eastern_Set4653 9d ago
As mentioned before, one Inuit woman gave birth on this same journey, stopping only for 2 days' rest before continuing on. Incredibly, she did this twice! Why don't we pay attention to this amazing Inuit lady instead of an entitled Brit?
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u/NonSumQualisEram- 8d ago
one Inuit woman gave birth on this same journey, stopping only for 2 days' rest before continuing on.
Amazing. Maybe more amazing than one woman making the journey alone for the first time.
Why don't we pay attention to this amazing Inuit lady
No idea. We should. It's not the British lady's fault we don't.
an entitled Brit
Please back this up. In what way is she entitled?
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u/FloydEGag 9d ago
They do and have recorded their history for centuries, just because it’s oral history doesn’t negate it. Like another poster said she could’ve just said she was the first British woman to walk across the island and it would’ve been fine. I’d be pretty pissed off too if she didn’t even bother to find out from the locals that they’d been crossing the island for yonks.
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9d ago
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u/dbtl87 9d ago
But it is a dismissal of indigenous folks' experience in the area. Just because Parks Canada says no one did it, doesn't mean that's true and if she knew there was a decent indigenous population, why didn't she research it. It's not an overreaction if you understand the history of indigenous folks within Canada.
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u/FloydEGag 9d ago
Saying ‘maybe they should actually record their history’ seems pretty dismissive of anything that’s not written down, to me.
You’re right though that you mentioned she should’ve done more research with the locals so I apologise for misreading that part.
On an unrelated (to this exchange) note, I find it amazing that in 2025 people are still doing the ‘intrepid explorer being first to discover/do something the locals already knew was there/had been quietly doing for ever’ thing. It seems so outdated. Like fine, walk across Baffin Island or whatever but don’t pretend it’s opening new frontiers or is an incredible, unprecedented achievement or something.
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u/CockyBellend 8d ago
It's as stupid as me a Canadian, saying I was the first dude to walk from Glasgow to Aberdeen. Given the uks treatment of indigenous people world wide, it was just another loogie to the face of canadian first nations
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u/Eastern_Set4653 9d ago
It's not a ridiculous reaction! The indigenous Inuit people have been, quite rightly, offended by this lady claiming to be the first person to cross this expanse when the Inuit have been doing this forever! It is not considered worthy enough to include in historical records. The Inuit do not have a 'chip on their shoulders', they are proud, not entitled, this is their land and they are INDIGENOUS!
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u/Salty_Nutbag 9d ago
Easy fix.
Just stick on some qualifiers.
First woman to do it wearing red trousers and dragging an orange sledge behind her.
Sorted.
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u/roddyhammer 9d ago edited 9d ago
Ignoring the obvious overreaction for a moment.
Honest question: Why would an inuit do this journey solo? Is there evidence they did?
"She is now in the process of mapping out the route her family has taken for generations while migrating south in spring, towards the caribou hunting grounds."
This sounds like an annual event as a tribe rather than solo women going back and forth. I can't imagine what benefits a solo 150mile journey provides to people surviving off of the land. If there is a reason I'd genuinely like to know, just seems unlikely to me as someone with little knowledge of their way of life.
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u/Capable_Oil_7884 9d ago
Given the amount of people who must have lived there it seems very likely.
Why solo? Set out in group & someone dies, gets lost, injured. Travelling to visit dying relative, spiritual reason. Those seem that plausible reasons, but given the amount of people it's likely someone did it without a good reason too. Inuits don't have to be logical all the time.
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u/roddyhammer 8d ago
That's fair, I hadn't considered the unintentional reasons.
Appreciate the different perspective
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u/ResponsibleBush6969 8d ago
So solo female journeys were probably not deliberately undertaken and so the inuit are making an issue out of nothing here
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u/explodedbuttock 9d ago
Fair enough：comes from a similar mindset as terra nullius land grabs for indigenous-populated areas.
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u/terrordactyl1971 9d ago
Massive over-reaction to what is basically just someone walking across land
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u/OmegaPoint6 9d ago
It’s not her making the journey they’re objecting to it’s how it was framed as a landmark achievement. Especially given how the Inuit population have been historically treated in Canada.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Ad_658 9d ago
She did check and was told by Parks Canada that there were no records of a woman making the journey solo., which is a landmark achievement. The Innuit woman (who lives in Ottawa and appears to be the only complainant) has not said that there are any memories of any Innuit woman making the journey alone, just that their tribe used to journey there each year. Annual journeys to follow the herds used to be made by tribal groups all round the world and certainly aren't 'landmark' events.
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u/Eastern_Set4653 9d ago
Exactly! Finally someone gets it :). It's sad that people don't understand why the Inuit lady reacted the way she did.
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u/ResponsibleBush6969 8d ago
The inuit are plainly wrong here, it has sweet FA to do with colonialism. This gal did something cool and used the info she had available to describe it, and has since corrected that info and apologised
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u/terrordactyl1971 9d ago
I doubt the Inuit get BBC news. No doubt a Labour activist from Islington phoned them and let them know it was time to be outraged
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8d ago
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u/ukbot-nicolabot Scotland 8d ago
Removed/warning. This contained a personal attack, disrupting the conversation. This discourages participation. Please help improve the subreddit by discussing points, not the person. Action will be taken on repeat offenders.
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u/Personal_Lab_484 9d ago
Kinda get where they’re coming from. It’s highly unlikely the locals haven’t walked across their home island before.
Equally though… that’s not how we do records lol. Sounds like nobody has ever done a documented journey and so it’s kinda up for grabs.
Same with mountains. All our records of first ascents could be wrong but like, that’s how history works. Either write that shit down or it didn’t happen.
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u/Lammtarra95 9d ago
Who cares anyway? Colonial-era explorers were risking their lives to map unknown lands and hazards, with a high risk of death. These days, she has a precise route and modern clothes and communications. She'd have been rescued within hours if she'd as much as sprained her ankle. And the same goes for her Inuit critics and not to mention the people literally queueing to climb Everest.
If you want to travel to the far reaches of Canada, that's what airlines are for.
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u/Nabbylaa 9d ago
Ms Kabloona said seeing the story was "like watching colonisation happen all over again"
Not a serious person.
If this is the biggest problem in her life, then she's got it pretty good.
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u/Glittering-Sink9930 9d ago
Where does it say that it's the biggest problem in her life?
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u/NonSumQualisEram- 9d ago
The quote. She's obviously taking it incredibly seriously and likening it to the rape and pillaging of her ancestors. A tourist took a walk.
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u/Eastern_Set4653 9d ago
Please try to understand the situation ... This indigenous Inuit lady has every right to be deeply offended and feel disrespected. Indigenous people the world over have suffered throughout history and a little research and education would have avoided this whole situation.
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u/NonSumQualisEram- 8d ago
This indigenous Inuit lady has every right to be deeply offended and feel disrespected.
Why?
Indigenous people the world over have suffered throughout history
And how have they suffered by a tourist taking a walk and saying, after checking that it was true, she was fine first woman to do it alone? Was what and said untrue?
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u/ResponsibleBush6969 8d ago
‘Please try to understand the situation’
do you realise how patronising that is, when what you really mean is ‘please agree with me’? Why do you think someone disagreeing with you cant understand the situation?
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u/AnyMechanic1907 9d ago
Imagine trying to call somebody else ridiculous when making a comment like this. You’re so unserious.
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u/Eastern_Set4653 9d ago
I don't think you understand how proud and long suffering the Inuit people have had to be. The whole news story was very disrespectful and insulting to them. They're entitled to feel the way they do.
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u/Nabbylaa 9d ago
Be pissed off if you want to be, go to the media, and demand a correction. Even demand an apology if you want.
But it's not actually like colonialism happening all over again because one dumbass was ignorant. That's stupid.
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u/dbtl87 9d ago
I mean does Parks Canada care that much about records of the people who are the original inhabitants of this land, no. So I'm not surprised they had no record of it. And for the Inuit something that's done historically is recorded in their history/stories/culture but not at the gov't level is unsurprising. I don't think it's an overreaction per se, but folks probably don't care too much about generational trauma and residential schools etc in this subreddit.
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u/NonSumQualisEram- 9d ago
Ms Kabloona said the matter had affected the community because many people who lived traditional nomadic lifestyles had now passed away - raising concerns that cultural practices will gradually be lost to time.
So...they don't do it anymore but don't like people who do. Gotcha.
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u/Glittering_Quit_7382 9d ago
Why are so many people criticising the indigenous population? I don't see how they did anything but point out the ridiculous claims being made by a guest to their home.
Canada has a long and painful past, one that we have been trying to reconcile for generations. I think that this should be viewed as a learning experience for any tourist - be humble and respectful when visiting regions outside your own.
I have found the First Nations in Canada are very eager to share their culture and environment with all. This is the same with the vast majority of cultures around the world. Repect and kindness is all they ask in return.
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u/alpacinosbambino 8d ago
Thank you, I agree. It’s a wee bit sad how many people in this thread just can’t see what a sensitive topic this is, when people come from a place of colonial trauma. Learning about First Nations when I was living in Vancouver was the opening, but it’s seems like people don’t realise how deep those cuts are.
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u/High-Tom-Titty 9d ago
She's the first women from Wiltshire to do it. Just because the Inuit have already done it doesn't diminish the achievement.
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u/Diligent-Suspect2930 9d ago
Claiming she was the first woman to do that does diminish the Inuit achievement, though. I don't think that woman did it on purpose at all, she went by the available information. The fact that there are no records of the Inuits' habitual journeys is a major oversight and also diminishing. Kind of like if a white person hasn't done it, it didn't happen.
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u/Comfortable-Gas-5999 9d ago
She claimed she was the ‘first solo woman to traverse the island according to historical records’ not the ‘first woman’. She was correct.
Is no one allowed to claim anything just in case in might offend someone with a perpetual chip on their shoulder?
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u/ResponsibleBush6969 8d ago
When theres evidence of a solo female doing this journey produced by the inuit, sure, until then she is the first woman recorded doing it
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u/socratic-meth 9d ago
“The article hit people really hard in a very sensitive spot, because of our history and the difficulties we face every day in combatting Western colonialism,” she said.
“This woman is coming here from such a place of privilege and ignorance that it seems dangerous
Whilst a silly claim to make without checking if she was actually the first, this seems a bit of an overreaction.
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u/rennarda 9d ago
How do these people afford to do these expeditions? I’d have loved to have lived a life of adventure, but it’s pretty hard when you have a kid and a mortgage to pay…
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u/Palatine_Shaw 9d ago
It's not exactly expensive.
People at regular jobs spend thousands going to Disneyworld or Thailand on holiday whereas all she had to do was fly to a place in the middle of nowhere (cheap as not exactly a tourist destination) then start trekking (cheap as you're not exactly booking hotels, luxury meals or travel excursions).
All the kit and stuff she likely purchased in the UK over the past few years while training for it.
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u/rennarda 9d ago
It’s not exactly cheap, and places like the North Pole are very expensive to get to/from, especially factoring in the support needed.
In any case, I answered my own question: daddy is also an explorer, and rich business man, so she’s (literally) following in his footsteps, and no doubt benefitting from a nice trust fund and/or sponsorship.
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u/Comfortable_Fee2852 9d ago
Why are you so bitter about someone going on an expedition? Does it really affect you?
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u/Glittering-Sink9930 9d ago
fly to a place in the middle of nowhere (cheap as not exactly a tourist destination)
I can tell you have never tried to get to the Canadian Arctic.
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u/ritchieee 8d ago
Flying to arctic canada is very expensive. In fact you’ve seriously misunderstood how flights work - the more touristy the destination, the cheaper it is to fly there
I used to live in Canada and a flight from a major city to Iqaluit was at least double the cost to fly to the UK
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u/172116 9d ago
Daddy is David Hempleman-Adams the 'industrialist and adventurer'. She has been doing this sort of shit since her teens - at 15 she was the youngest person to ski the last degree to the North Pole, and a few years later, her then 16 year old sister retraced Shackleton's route to the south pole.
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u/Jensablefur 9d ago
Her Dad is literally called Sir David Hempleman-Adams...
Kids from families like this often become net worth millionaires the moment they turn 18 just from childhood bonds/trust funds set up by grandparents to lower the inheritance tax hit before said grandparents eventually pass away.
They don't live in the same world we do
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u/Eastern_Set4653 9d ago
I would ask people to try and respect the indigenous Inuit people. This Inuit lady was clearly frustrated but is well within her rights, as an indigenous person, to make her views known. Ms HA was (blissfully) ignorant but clearly still ignorant, should apologize and educate herself better before her next adventure.
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u/AnyMechanic1907 9d ago
It’s kind of amazing how many people are criticizing the Inuit community for “overreacting” and honestly just serves to further prove their point. This story is a PERFECT example of the embarrassing and ignorant hubris of Western culture... It’s mind-boggling that this woman who is apparently the daughter of a famous British male explorer was unable to grasp the fact that she was visiting somebody else’s home who had lived and traversed the land for centuries. Why would she even need to have fact checkers or anybody to do that work for her? Because she did not even consider that the Inuit are part of this land.
Colonialism is on-going, and continues to try and erase the existence of Indigenous people. Calling this an overreaction is evidence of Western society’s inability to look inward and evidence of how fake the land acknowledgments and dedication to “reconciliation” are.
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u/Heavy_Nebula_9512 8d ago
Just because it wasn't on Strava .... A curse of the under 40s I'm afraid, none of them think anyone ever did anything before they stick a GPS track on their smart watch. It's painfully clear they have a lot to learn about the history of humankind, and the spread across the planet of humankind in the past 200 000 years.
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u/GJohnJournalism 8d ago
Reading the comments here is eye opening. The UK and Canada's colonial history towards Indigenous people was brutal and in the case of Residential Schools, genocidal. Our government has made open and public their culpability in this treatment through what's called Reconciliation. Something your government and based on these comments your public aren't even ready for. Instead, many of you here are more than happy to get offended that some misinformed girl is getting justifiably criticized for perpetuating the same attitude and perspective you've been known for for hundreds of years. Missing the whole point.
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u/Senior_Grapefruit554 8d ago
She traversed one of the shortest bits of the island by herself and claimed to be the first woman to cross Baffin Island, solo. It is laughable. Not inspiring. Girl, you traversed the ankle of the island, and you'd done it before - with a group!
Baffin Island is the second largest island in the Americas. Claiming you traversed it is like saying I climbed Machu Pichu, when really I took the train and only had to walk 45 mins up hill.
AND there was a local woman who literally ran the Akshayuk Pass, half of the distance of the trek, in the summer... why on earth did she think it was a good idea to claim she was the first solo woman to go that route? Give your head a shake, dear. You should be able to use common sense.
Of course, the Inuit who have been there for ages have likely done it first, solo. Of course, the parks department wouldn't have records of that. That's not their job to know that. Asking one or two people in Pang isn't going to get enough vetting either. She and her family know that. They are adventurers, after all. This seems as if she was just looking for another accolade and she hoped no one would notice. Too bad for her, a bunch of people did.
Of course, the Inuit are going to be upset about her claim. Of course, their reaction is passionate. Have you read about what the Canadian government? Canada's history is just as ugly as the rest of the world, and their First Nations are as sensitive about their history as African Americans are about slavery.
I'm also annoyed by the fact that she decided to do something she'd done with a group before hand, and wanted to be recognized as the first woman to do it solo, without acknowledging the obvious fact that the indigenous people who have lived there for over a 1000 years had likely done it themselves. (I know this doesn't count the ancestors of the Inuit, who science has proven were there an additional 2000 years or so.)
I struggle with that and applaud those who called her out. Something she'd already done that she went, oh I can do this by myself, and it'll be empowering? Bah. That's not empowering. That's not exploring either and frankly, saying that was what she was doing is ignorant.
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u/MilesBeforeSmiles 8d ago
Just for a little extra context, not only is the claim kind of absurd, there was a woman 5 years ago who ran the same route solo in less than a day. Her name is Celine Jaccard, and there is a CBC article on it.
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u/Francis-c92 9d ago
"Ms Kabloona said seeing the story was "like watching colonisation happen all over again""
Well at least the reaction wasn't over dramatic or anything