Looking for rocks with dad: Meet the Inuit family behind Nunavut's newest mine

Richard Akana's heart thumped when his feet reunited with the tundra at Hope Bay.

It had been at least 55 years.

"[I had] a big lump in my throat," reflects the 62-year-old, "thinking of what good memories we had as kids playing all over."

Akana and his older sister, Doris Kallak, 66, were guests of honour this week during a celebration at the Doris North mine at Hope Bay in Nunavut's Kitikmeot region.

The gold mine, which hit commercial production last month, was named after Kallak. There's also a Doris Lake, and several others named after the family.

Kallak's stepfather Noel Avadluk staked the first claim in the Greenstone Belt in 1964, not far from the current mine. Akana and Kallak, and their siblings, often joined him on the land.

"We loved exploring, looking at rocks," Akana said.

"It was interesting."

• Nunavut's Hope Bay mine celebrates commercial production with Inuit landowners

A 'famous Inuk prospector'

Avadluk, originally from the Bathurst Inlet area, worked as a special constable with the RCMP, later turning his attention to geology.

He was known as the "famous Inuk prospector," according to Emilie Cameron in her book, Far Off Metal River: Inuit lands, Settler Stories, and the Making of the Contemporary Arctic.

He made a living "grubstaking" in the 1960s, Cameron writes, mixing traditional skills with "self-taught geological expertise."

Those were skills Avadluk passed onto his children, including his step-daughter Kallak.

"Go as far asyou can picking up rocks," laughs Kallak."You'd get rewards for it. Bubble gum or candy."

The family would fly to their camp at Hope Bay in a single engine Otter on floats during the summer.

Kallak spent hours with her stepfather and siblings combing the rough terrain under the midnight sun.

Avadluk told them to keep an eye out for rocks that looked similar to "tunnuq," with strips of white minerals that resembled caribou fat.

"Or you break it and you blow on it and you see it sparkle and we'd go bring it to them," said Kallak.

Nunavut Premier Peter Taptuna, who comes from Kugluktuk, remembers Avadluk as a "busy" guy always going in and out of town.

Even in the '50s, Taptuna said, Inuit were determined to get ownership of their land.

The Inuit of Coppermine sent a letter to the federal government in 1953 asking for financial assistance and training to stake mineral claims.

"We believe that was the first petition of Inuit to Ottawa. They wanted lands for their own, as landowners," said Taptuna.

"Now we're the largest landowners practically in the world when it comes to the territory of Nunavut, both surface and sub-surface."

The Kitikmeot Inuit Association and Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated both have royalty agreements with TMAC Resources the operator of the Doris North mine at Hope Bay.

Kallak was amazed to see the mine in production this week.

"When I look at the process plant, I said,'Oh!This is more easy than walking and walking and picking up rocks.'

"It was nice to be back."