Indigenous northern cultures have evolved quite differently from western European based cultures. We have had the privilege of spending time in the bush, on the land and ice with northern Indigenous people for over 30 years, in Nunavut, Nunavik, Eeyoustis, and Wabanaki land. We don’t claim to be experts on their culture, but we have learned a few things over the years that you may find helpful to keep in mind during a cultural trip with us as guests in their ancestral homeland. Following are a few key points and differences between the two that will be important to keep in mind. No culture’s norms are completely uniform amongst its people, but we have found the following norms to be true in the Indigenous cultures we have worked with:

*Forget your watch and what time it is. Native culture’s timing is intuitive, things tend to happen “when the time is right”. Even indigenous people joke about being in a different time zone. They call it “N.T.”, “Native Time.”

*Direct questioning and/or rapid fire questioning is not done and is considered rude.

*Try to learn by observation, focused observation may answer many of the questions you are thinking about asking. This is an unwritten cultural expectation and how Native children learn from their parents and elders.

*Become comfortable with quiet, longer periods of not talking as much as you are accustomed to.

*Native people are very non judgemental, return the gift, be open to their way of doing things or not doing things.

*Patience is not just a virtue in northern Indigenous culture. Historically it made the difference between just surviving vs thriving in their northern world as subsistence hunters.

*Please read/watch the suggested books/videos for each trip.

*Conflict/Confrontation Avoidance – Living off the land in small groups required this. Everyone needs to get along for the benefit of the greater community. Sharing anger is unproductive and dysfunctional.