Jean Cretien Unveils Plaque Commemorating Sir Martin Frobisher

(From the June/July 1974 issue of Takralik Magazine)

On June 18, 1974, Jean Chretien, Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, went to Frobisher Bay to unveil a plaque commemorating Sir Martin Frobisher, first white explorer to make contact with the Inuit of that region. Jean Chretien's message was as follows :

I am always happy to visit Frobisher Bay but as I flew in this time I was struck by three different things:

One — how this town, which I consider to be the gateway to the Eastern High Arctic, has grown and prospered during the few years that I have known it. The new buildings and services, provided by governments and private industry, now give to both residents and visitors many services, and commodities comparable to southern communities;

Two — how our policies to give Northern residents a greater voice in their own affairs, have expanded over these few years. The Northwest Territories Council will have 15 elected members, its own elected Speaker and elected representatives on the Executive Committee.

The other thought I had as our airplane swung in over Frobisher Bay was of Sir Martin Frobisher himself. I tried to put myself in his place when he first visited this site almost 400 years ago. His ship the Gabriell had a displacement of 22 tons. The aircraft I arrived on weighed 30 tons. The three sailing ships that originally set out had a total complement of 35 men. The aircraft could carry 113 people.

We are grateful indeed to have his descendant Captain Charles Frobisher with us today. I am sure that Captain Frobisher, more than anyone else here, was extremely moved as he too flew in over Frobisher Bay and tried to picture what this Bay and site was like that day 398 years ago when Sir Martin Frobisher became the first known white explorer to make contact with the Inuit.

Four hundred years is a very long time. It’s really only been in the past few decades that southern amenities have been introduced here. And only in the past few years that we have started to come to grips with reconciling southern and northern ways of life.

During the evolution of many centuries the native northerner developed and refined philosophies and codes of ethics which have served him well in this harsh but beautiful environment.

The southern society with its modern economic demands and needs thrust itself upon the north.

The southerners thought that the northerners would welcome modern conveniences and ways of life. Some did, but others, seeing their own meaningful life styles threatened, did not want these southern ways imposed upon them.

I believe that we have now come to understand these differences in philosophy much better and therefore have adapted our approaches so that the northerner and southerner can co-exist, each recognizing the needs and values of the other.

For example, let me remind you of the initiatives at Pond Inlet and Arctic Bay where the Eskimo enters into the wage economy by working for Panarctic Oil explorations for 20 days then takes his money home to his native settlement. His wage gives a boost to the local economy, buys modern conveniences and during his 10 days off, he can carry on his traditional hunting, fishing and communal activities. Then he flies to his work for another 20 days.

This is just one example of how the native northerner can join the 20th century yet retain his own cultural values. It is an example which must be carried forward in new developments in the North.

All across this northern land, in each Eskimo community, one can find craftsmen and women doing exciting work in stone, expressing native silk screen, duffle, fur and bone. Now supported by their own co-operatives, they have used their skills to make the northern way of life world famous.

Another example of my department's commitments to preserve the Inuit way of life is found at the National Park here on Baffin Island.

Not only are Inuit being trained for important jobs within the National Park but their traditional hunting and fishing rights are being respected within park boundaries.

Then there is the matter of land rights across both the Northwest Territories and Yukon Territories: the Federal Government has committed itself not only in word but in deed to settlement of native land claims. My department is making funds available for both Inuit and Indians to research their land claims so that they can come to the negotiation table fully prepared to discuss these issues and reach satisfactory settlements.

Yes, a great deal has transpired in the north since Martin Frobisher visited here in August 1576 and made first contact with the Eskimo. It is that event, which inevitably led to all other such encounters, which we commemorate today. I would now like to read the plaque wording:

Sir Martin Frobisher c. 1539-1594

Privateer, pirate and explorer, Martin Frobisher was one of the many English mariner-adventurers to search for the fabled Northwest Passage. He led three expeditions between 1576 and 1578 which, while they failed to reveal the passage, did result in the first charting of the eastern Canadian Arctic, including Frobisher Bay and the entrance to Hudson Strait. It was here he first met the Eskimo. Renowned among his contemporaries for his "great spirit and bold courage and natural hardness of body," Frobisher held an important command against the Armada in 1588. He was mortally wounded fighting the Spaniards again in 1594.