As far back as I can remember, my father, Athanasie Angutitaq, held these qimmiit in high regard. While snowmobiles have replaced dogsled teams in many parts of Nunavut today, the importance of these dogs remains visible. Nostalgic reminders of an earlier lifestyle, they are used for transportation, tourism, and in annual dog races such as Nunavut 200. Huskies are built to live and work in the North. The fish they eat gives them beautiful fur coats, while walrus and seal give them strength to pull heavy loads.
Huskies are adaptable.
They can continue to work even if they go without food for several days. I remember in olden days, when we were running low on food, sometimes we did not feed them for a week at a time, and yet they pulled the heavy qamutiit . In Nattiligaarjuk my family and I would fish at saputit , a stone weir, a dam built across the river to trap fish. Nakataq was the boss of our dogs. During the years that I spent in Naujaat , we depended upon Nakataq for being a good leader.