Vanishing Point

A dog team pulls an Inughuit family across the vast sea ice of Greenland. But with the terrain melting beneath them, the dogs break through the surface, plunging into frigid polar waters.

 Navarana, an elder and one of the passengers on this sled, is coming to terms with the unprecedented changes facing all Arctic peoples. In the 1860s, Navarana’s visionary ancestor—a shaman from Baffin Island, Canada, named Qitdlarssuaq—embarked on a legendary and epic journey, leading an Inuit migration to Greenland. It was this shaman’s quest that introduced vital bloodlines and technology to Navarana’s beleaguered forbearers. Over 150 years later, Navarana travels to her ancestor’s homeland to connect with her distant Canadian cousins.

 Navarana accompanies families from both regions on their annual hunting journeys. She witnesses how these two genetically-linked groups of Inuit have adapted differently to outside influences and to the inescapable changes that affect their hunting traditions. Through her experiences, she hopes to find the key to making the right choices for her people’s survival.

 Navarana draws inspiration and hope from the ties that still bind these two communities, as well as from the legacy of her intrepid ancestor, at a time when circumpolar peoples are facing the greatest social and environmental challenges in their history.