The Legacy of Hope Foundation Presents – Roots & Hoots Episode 19: Featuring Alex Flaherty

(Ottawa, ON) July 7, 2021 – On this week’s episode of the Legacy of Hope Foundation’s Roots & Hoots, host Gordon Spence is delighted to be joined by Alex Flaherty. Alex is from Iqaluit, Nunavut, and spent his childhood in Grise Fiord, the most northern community in Canada. With a small population of less than 200, Alex’s grandparents moved in the 1950s from Northern Quebec to the High Arctic, where they had to adapt to difficult hunting and living conditions. Alex grew up hunting and camping with his father, which inspired his passion for the outdoors and his reverence for the stunning landscapes of the North. These experiences, coupled with his strong connection to the land, and his enthusiasm for place-based learning, helped spark Alex’s vision for what would become his company, Polar Outfitting.

To this day, Alex maintains a strong communal sense of spirit, a result of being raised within the small community of Grise Fiord. From a young age, Alex was taught to share these community values with a strong commitment to sustainability, along with responsible hunting and trapping. In 2008, Alex graduated from Nunavut Arctic College’s Environmental Technology Program, and went on to work for the Government of Nunavut’s Environmental Division of Fisheries and Sealing. It was there that Alex developed a strong passion for promoting the growth of sustainable commercial fishing in Nunavut through using knowledge-sharing to help communities develop their own fisheries. Above all, Alex has always retained a keen interest in research, and the important role it has in recording the fluctuations of the global climate. Within his own home of the High Arctic, the melting of sea ice provides an obvious indicator of global climate, and the strong need for research to study such crises.

Alex has said that every young boy’s dream within the Arctic is to become a guide and work outdoors. In 2017, while working for the Nunavut Government, Alex invested in his own boyhood dream and established Polar Outfitting, which facilitates Arctic travel and experiences. Since the start, he has felt strong community support. In 2019, Polar Outfitting won the Top Aboriginal Business of the Year Award at the Arctic Indigenous Investment Conference. The same year, Polar Outfitting also represented Nunavut at the New York Times travel show in New York City. Polar Outfitting’s successes are due in large part to Alex’s sense of pride in his Inuit culture and language. While Covid-19 travel restrictions may have slowed business, Polar Outfitting have used this period as an opportunity to strengthen their team, build their resources, and create new and improved packages that will continue to exceed customer expectations.

When asked to envision the collective path forward towards Reconciliation, Alex shared that he believed this path would be built around being kind, sharing stories, gaining knowledge and pride about our own respective backgrounds, and continuing to discover oneself. To Alex, we must find ways to build connections and work with one another because we all breath the same air, and are interconnected with one another. Alex believes that to be successful, you first need to treat both yourself and others well, and from there, the dots will begin to connect. To listen to this week’s episode please visit bit.ly/rootsnhoots

The LHF is pleased to be celebrating their 20-year anniversary as a national, Indigenous-led, charitable organization that continues to promote healing and Reconciliation in Canada. The LHF’s goal is to educate and raise awareness about the history and existing intergenerational impacts of the Residential School System, Sixties Scoop, Day Schools and other colonial acts of oppression perpetrated against Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit, and Métis) Peoples. The LHF has 19 exhibitions that are available for loan for free.

Our latest exhibition, Escaping Residential Schools: Running for their Lives, is now available through an animated virtual video, along with the Survivors’ Oral Testimonies. The exhibition examines the experience of Survivors of the Residential School System and raises awareness about

the impacts it has had upon our communities. For more information on the project, please visit: https://legacyofhope.ca/project/escapingrs/ The LHF is working on making its other exhibitions also available online. The LHF has also developed curriculum for all ages, from K-12 to adults, along with Activity Guides, aimed at educating Canadians about Indigenous history, and the shared history of Residential Schools, the Sixties Scoop, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and Day Schools. The LHF works to develop empathy and understanding so as to eliminate racism and foster Reconciliation in Canada.