Transcription: "Captain Bernier's exploits as a source of inspiration"

This page includes the written transcript of this podcast, translated into English.

You can read about the work and the expedition on the panel. Cairn is a Gaelic term that refers to piles of stones marking sacred sites from the megalithic era. They are also heaps indicating the passage of explorers in isolated places. To bear witness to their presence, Bernier and his crew erected some of these landmarks when they explored the Arctic Islands between 1906 and 1911. Captain Bernier's passion for this region of the world was matched only by his fighting spirit in carrying out these expeditions, which led to the territorial assertion of Canada over a large part of the Arctic. Today, our view of these ways has changed. Questions arise, because the Inuit populations had already been inhabiting and roaming these territories for a very long time. But the attitude of the captain from L'Islet surprises us today by his openness and his consideration towards the women and men he met during his numerous stays there. In fact, we have not yet taken the measure of the modernity of Joseph-Elzéar's approach, which still lives in the collective memory of the Arctic populations.

This island is now part of Nunavut. In 2000, Cornelius told us that even after many generations, there are still traces of Kapitaikallak, the "little fat captain", as the Inuit called Joseph-Elzéar. That's right! Captain Bernier had his own name in Inuktitut. He was never forgotten there. And for good reason! As an anthropologist, I think that Bernier, the great navigator was also a man of the field. By observing and respecting the people of the North and, above all, by learning from them the techniques of life in the Arctic, he was an anthropologist in his own way. This is something that distinguishes him from other explorers who had less consideration for the local populations. Joseph-Elzéar Bernier is a man whose ambition and dreams led him to the most distant maritime voyages and the greatest exploits of his time. Thanks to his tenacity and despite many obstacles, he succeeded in exploring the Arctic territory and claiming it for Canada.