After Indigenous Outrage, British Woman Apologizes for ‘First’ Claim on Canadian Island

Last month, British traveler Camilla Hempleman-Adams trekked and skied crossed Canada’s Nunavut territory. After completing a 150-mile-long (241-kilometer-long) travel from the communities of Qikiqtarjuaq to Pangnirtung, she claimed to beryllium the archetypal solo pistillate to person traversed Baffin Island, Canada’s largest island. That declaration has present received superior backlash from Nunavut’s indigenous community.

As reported by the BBC, members of the section Inuit colonisation refuted her claim, saying that it erased indigenous past and was fueled by a “dangerous assemblage attitude.” Hempleman-Adams has since apologized for the discourtesy she caused.

Before starting her expedition, Hempleman-Adams wrote that “Parks Canada has confirmed that determination are nary humanities records of a pistillate solo effort from Qikiqtarjuaq to Pangnirtung” connected her expedition website, arsenic cited by the BBC. Once she’d completed her expedition connected March 27, assorted outlets shared her evident record-breaking success.

“Last week quality came retired of a British ‘explorer’ who became the archetypal pistillate to solo traverse Baffin Island… Set speech that it was a 241km skis crossed Cumberland Peninsula, and not successful information Baffin Island (1500km). If you look deeper you’ll spot a larger problem: erasure of Inuit connected our ain lands,” Gayle Uyagaqi Kabloona—a subordinate of the section Inuit community—wrote successful a social media post. “In quality coverage, Baffin Island is said to beryllium uninhabited, with not overmuch life. There is nary mode successful hellhole a British colonizer is coming to Inuit Nunaat successful 2025 and claiming immoderate firsts.” Nunaat translates to “homeland.”

Wrapping up her post, Kabloona appealed for assistance to “call retired this ignorant and racist behaviour.” She asked Hempleman-Adams to apologize and the BBC to retract its coverage. Though Kabloona whitethorn not person said it explicitly, the sentiment is clear: a solo indigenous pistillate astir apt crossed Baffin Island earlier Hempleman-Adams, adjacent though neither Inuit Heritage Trust nor Parks Canada support specified records. Kabloona told the BBC that those records don’t beryllium due to the fact that specified journeys were “a mean mode of life” for indigenous people.

Her grandmother, for example, walked hundreds of kilometers each year, often pregnant, “to Spring sportfishing and Winter caribou hunting grounds due to the fact that that was life. Every inch of this continent has indigenous past and stories similar this,” she explained successful the aforesaid societal media post.

In a written connection to CBC News, Hempleman-Adams reiterated the information that she’d verified her perchance aboriginal assertion with Parks Canada and wilderness experts successful Qikiqtarjuaq and Pangnirtung earlier the expedition.

“However, if this accusation is incorrect, I apologize unreservedly for making an incorrect assertion and for causing offence,” she wrote, arsenic cited by CBC News. “I person heavy respect for the land, its people, and their history. I person traveled successful this portion aggregate times and clasp immense admiration for its nature, civilization and traditions … and I stay committed to learning from this acquisition and engaging with the assemblage with the utmost respect.”

Hempleman-Adams has deactivated her Instagram and deleted her expedition blog.