Expedition Team – Arctic Return

The Team

Expedition Leader

David Reid

David Reid moved from Scotland to the Canadian Arctic in 1989. After living and working in several Arctic communities, he moved to Pond Inlet in Baffin Island in 1991. For over 20 years, he has been involved in the Arctic expedition and travel business. To date he has led, organized or participated in more than 300 Arctic and Antarctic expeditions, trips and projects. In that time he has traveled thousands of miles by dog sled, ski, snowmobile, boat, kayak, ship, foot and most recently by bike, becoming the first person to cross Baffin Island by fat-tire bike. He has completed eighteen successful expeditions through the famous Northwest Passage and guided over seventy trips to the polar bear capital of the world – Churchill, Manitoba. He was recently honoured by Canada Goose by being asked to be a “Goose Person” (one of only 50 people chosen across Canada) and share in the 50th anniversary of this great Canadian company. David has been recognized by the Explorers Club and was recently honoured by becoming a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

Filmmaker

Garry Tutte

Garry is an adventure filmmaker from Toronto, Canada. His passion lies in documenting expedition related projects in an effort to inspire and educate. Combining his passion for exploration with his storytelling skills he has forged an award winning career that has taken him to over 50 countries. Garry has shot and directed an educational web-series on location from Mt. Everest. He’s documented a 7000 km car rally across the Sahara Desert in a used $500 vehicle, and he’s travelled from the remote islands of the Philippines to Hong Kong to create a unique film about the socio-economic journey of one of the world’s most expensive foods, bird’s nest soup.

In 2017, Garry led the media team aboard the CanadaC3 expedition as it circumnavigated the country’s entire 23,000km coastline from Toronto to Victoria via the famed Northwest Passage. This journey ignited a strong interest in the people, places and history of the North. Garry now looks forward to any opportunity to learn from and share the rich stories of our home on native land. He’s never done an overland Arctic expedition.

www.garrytutte.com

Richard Smith

Richard Smith, PhD, studied as an astrophysicist, moved into Information Technology and served with the Royal Marine Commandos and the Special Boat Service. Having brushed shoulders with cancer he made a couple of re calculations on the track his life was heading, and decided to jump the corporate ‘rat race’ ship he was at that time sailing, and disappeared around the world for half a year to have a ‘wee’ think about what to do next. Returning home he started up a friendly and successful luxury motorhome rental business in the beautiful country of Scotland, where he lives just outside Edinburgh. Always keen to share what Scotland has to offer to visitors from all around the world, he has always been a passionate outdoors man, never more happy than sea kayaking off the west coast of Scotland, or trekking and climbing the peaks of the Scottish Highlands. He has climbed, trekked or kayaked in Alaska, Greenland, Nepal and the French Alps, and explored the jungles of Belize and the deserts of Oman.

Richard is delighted to be able to contribute to the Arctic Return expedition, with like- minded soles, and in so doing, contribute to raising awareness of the achievements of the extraordinary John Rae, and his contribution to Arctic exploration.

www.motorhomeescapes.co.uk

Frank Wolf

Frank Wolf is a Canadian adventurer, writer, photographer, and environmentalist. He is known for feature magazine articles and films that document wilderness expeditions around the world, with a focus on the Canadian North. His journeys include being the first to canoe across Canada in one season, and cycling 2,000 km in winter on the Yukon River from Dawson to Nome. In 2015 he was named One of Canada’s Top 100 Explorers by Canadian Geographic Magazine and in 2012 he was named one of Canada’s Top Ten Adventurers by Explore Magazine. His first book of adventures- Lines on a Map – was published in October 2018 by RMB.

www.fwolf.ca

EXPEDITION PARTNERS

Writer & Historian

Ken McGoogan

Ken McGoogan is an award-winning author-historian who survived shipwreck in the Indian Ocean, retrieved a passport that vanished between Colombo and New Delhi, and chased the ghost of Lady Franklin from Russell Square to Van Dieman’s Land. In 1999, with Louie Kamookak and Cameron Treleaven, he placed a memorial plaque in the High Arctic beside the ruins of the cairn that John Rae built in 1854. Ken has published more than a dozen books, among them Fatal Passage, Lady Franklin’s Revenge, and Dead Reckoning: The Untold Story of the Northwest Passage. His plans now include writing a book about the Arctic Return Expedition in collaboration with David Reid.

“Arctic Return will re-enact one of the three most significant expeditions in the history of the Northwest Passage. The other two, led by John Franklin and Roald Amundsen, involved sailing ships. David Reid and his team will be following in the footsteps of the most important overland Arctic expedition of all-time. When it reaches the climactic location overlooking Rae Strait, I intend to be there to celebrate that success — and also the 20th anniversary of my adventure with Louie Kamookak and Cameron Treleaven. I get excited just thinking about it.”

www.kenmcgoogan.com

Inuit Historian and Educator • 1959 - 2018

Louie Kamookak

GJOA HAVEN CONSULTANT:

Louie Kamookak is an Inuit historian and educator whose research into Inuit oral history has been crucial in unlocking the secrets of the lost Franklin Expedition, including the whereabouts of Franklin’s ship, the Erebus. For the past four decades, Louie has dedicated his time and energy to collecting his elders’ oral history, traditional place names, the history of Inuit groups before the arrival of Europeans, and studying the journals of the explorers who came to his people’s land in search of clues regarding the fate the lost expedition. This work has been his part, his contribution to solving the Franklin puzzle. Louie is an honorary vice-president of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, which awarded him the Erebus Medal for his role in the search and discovery of HMS Erebus. He has also received the Lawrence J. Burpee Medal, the Canadian Governor General’s Polar Medal, and the Order of Nunavut. Louie also spends a lot of time out on the land, teaching younger people the ways of his ancestors. In 1999, with Ken McGoogan and Cameron Treleaven, he placed a plaque at the ruins of the cairn that John Rae built in 1854.

www.louiekamookak.com

“It is with great sadness that we report Louie Kamookak has died after a period of illness. Along with his long-time friend and collaborator Ken McGoogan, Louie had agreed to be an expedition partner and consultant for the Arctic Return project. Despite this setback, the projects expedition team and other partners will continue to work hard and diligently to move the project forward. Simply put, we will now honour two great men”

Joe Grabowski

Educator Joe Grabowski teaches science and math in Guelph, Ontario. He was recently named a 2017 National Geographic Emerging Explorer and their first Education Fellow in recognition of his efforts through technology to bring science and exploration into classrooms. In September 2015, Joe launched the nonprofit organization, Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants. The primary goal is to inspire the next generation of scientists, explorers and conservationists. This is done by bringing science, exploration, adventure and conservation into classrooms through virtual speakers and field trips with leading experts across the globe. Since launching, Joe has connected tens of thousands of students with leading scientists and explorers from across the globe. We’ll be using satellite BGAN units to video broadcast into classrooms right from the field. The community of classrooms is over 5,000 strong across North America and growing. Joe is an avid scuba diver and a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

“New technology is opening up countless opportunities in the fields of science and exploration. We believe these experiences inspire students while exposing them to important issues, amazing places, exciting role models and new career paths. Students won’t remember every math or language lesson from school, but they will remember the time they were hanging out in a penguin colony in Antarctica or chatting with someone who just rowed across an ocean. We level the playing field for classrooms by keeping everything 100% free so any classroom, anywhere, anytime can take part!”

www.exploringbytheseat.com

John Rae Society

Andrew Appleby

” I was drawn to Orkney and John Rae since childhood. My father, stationed in Orkney during WW2 in the Army Intelligence, told us many stories of him. From 11 years of age, I took up Archaeology. I’m now a ‘Free Thinking’ Archaeologist. Hitch hiking to Orkney with my brother Malcolm at 15, we visited John Rae’s grave and monument in St. Magnus Cathedral. We foraged and hunted food, in John Rae’s spirit. I moved to Orkney in 1975 and started Fursbreck Pottery on Fursbreck Farm, Harray. In a week I was dubbed as ‘The Harray Potter.’ Locals said , ‘You must visit the Harray Potter, he’s just magic!’ On a tall ship cruise in Scapa Flow in 1992, we passed The Hall of Clestrain. The Captain remarked on the state of The Hall. I determined I would do something about it. I helped form The Orkney Boat Museum at Clestrain. When that dissolved I was determined to initiate The John Rae Society. We have achieved a great deal since then! I’m now writing a ‘Thrillogy’ of five novels called Skara. Set in Orkney’s golden Neolithic age, it features connections with Arctic Canada… much inspired by Dr. J. Rae himself”

www.johnraesociety.com

Hugh Dale-Harris

Hugh Dale-Harris (M.Ed.) is an educator, adventurer, researcher and father of three excellently creative kids/young adults. He has a passion for being in the outdoors and teaching people the skills and knowledge to thrive in a wilderness setting. Over the past 20 years, Hugh has visited several communities across the Canadian Arctic and has strong ties with Iglulingmiut, having lived and taught in Igloolik in 3 different occasions. Hugh enjoys going on the land hunting & fishing, marveling in the stunning scenery, and rising to the challenges that being on the land has to offer. Some of his best memories are of taking students out on trips and teaching them land skills as well as learning traditional knowledge from elders. Hugh has travelled over 8,000 km by dog team or skijouring to places like Yellowknife, Igloolik, Pond Inlet, Baker Lake, Ellesmere Island, Axel Heiberg’s fossil forest, Cape Columbia, and the North Pole. Each expedition had an engaging educational component; one explored the issues of climate change, and the other two traced the routes of two Arctic Explorers – Otto Sverdrup and Robert Peary. On these expeditions he was fortunate enough to learn from veteran polar explorers such as Will Steger and Matty McNair. Hugh has a strong interest the far north and Arctic History and hopes to continue sharing experiences through various projects, expeditions, and educational experiences.

www.hughdaleharris.ca

Andrew Bresnahan

Andrew Bresnahan (MD, MSc, MPH, FRCGS) is a physician and anthropologist from Labrador, Canada. An explorer and visual storyteller, Andrew’s work brings him from rural and remote northern clinics to the communities and wild backcountry of the circumpolar world. Andrew was born in Nunatsiavut, on the north coast of Labrador, where he learns and works as a medical doctor. He did his anthropological fieldwork on social determinants of health in the western Arctic, and is on a medical return of service agreement with Qikitani General Hospital and the Government of Nunavut.
Andrew was born into skis and snowshoes – his parents fell in love at the Canadian Outward Bound Wilderness School, and taught on the Labrador coast. His great, great, grandfather, Thomas Burberry, outfitted Amundsen, Scott, Shackleton, and Mallory, and Andrew was raised on their stories of travel outwards and upwards on snow and ice. Yet, it was stories of Dr. John Rae that were most often family favourites, celebrating his courageous adaptability, tenacity in pursuit, and readiness to learn from Indigenous peoples.
A Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Andrew has worked as a physician and anthropologist on expeditions throughout Inuit Nunaat, from Greenland and the Labrador coast across the Northwest Passage to the Western Arctic. An avid skier, climber, kayaker, and outdoor educator, Andrew is at home on Canada’s north coast.