Icebergs Run Deep

The Arctic has many hidden treasures, but an Iceberg isn't one of them. The first time I viewed a berg it took my breath away because of the beauty and size. I was visiting a hamlet in the summer of 95. August found the water in the strait between Qikiktarjauq (Broughton Island) and Baffin Island open for travel by boat.

I borrowed one of the rescue boats powered by two 150 hp Yamaha outboards and set out with full gas tanks. With me was a young Enok Siman who knew every inch of the shoreline. I wanted to see everything. A pod of walrus numbering 20 swam along and disappeared to the depth below to feed on clams.

Birds of every description covered the rocky cliffs but around the next headland was the gem I wished to discover. Grounded was a beautiful iceberg. Fresh broken from a glacier in Greenland was this magnificent block of Ice.

Fully three hundred feet out of the water and pure white. I was warned to approach the monster with caution as they can calf or worse turn over. This one was driven in to land by a wind storm and would remain there until nature blows it out to sea. We came up along side of this beauty and a rifle shot to the berg shattered away small parts of the outer shell. We retrieved the particles and filled several buckets for use in making tea.

Inuit love the taste of iceberg water for drinking and making tea. Siman told me it is 8,000 years old and put there by the gods for mans use.This iceberg was in a deep part of the strait and although we could see three hundred feet there was about 2,000 feet hidden below.

I sketched the berg and later painted it and gave it to Glenda. I began to think how symbolic the berg was to people. We see or are shown so little of the total person. If we ever get to invade those inner feelings and secret spaces that are rarely exposed you have gained sacred status by the knowledge you acquired. Once you gain access to a person's inner and intimate self, you have an obligation to treat this special status with the ultimate trust. That's what real friends do. When this trust is broken or abused you can no longer be called a trusted friend. Sad.

So when I see an iceberg I relate it to my friends ... the parts they show and the parts they share. Share with few and show many. By the way, I went back two years later and it was still there stranded providing tea water and 8,000 year old drinking water for the Hamlet.