Lögberg-Heimskringla - 15.02.2019, Qupperneq 1

LÖGBERG
HEIMSKRINGLA
The Icelandic Community Newspaper • 15 February 2019 • Number 04 / Númer 04 • 15. febrúar 2019
Publication Mail Agreement No. 40012014 ISSN: 0047-4967
VISIT OUR WEBSITE LH-INC.CA
INSIDE
Eleanor Suderman on making
books / page 5
From promise
to passion
W.D. Valgardson on a bygone
scourge / page 10
Smallpox
PAINTING BY E.J.C. HAMMAN;
ENGRAVING BY C. MANIGAUD
Ken Kristjanson shares a tale
from along the lake / page 15
Family
Kelsey Eliasson’s lifelong passion
was not always evident as a boy
growing up in Riverton, Manitoba,
but his curiosity surely was. While I was
not in the same class as Kelsey – he was
with my younger cousin, Ryan Bjornson
– clearly, he and his family always left an
impression. This was largely due to the
fact that Kelsey’s father was my former
Riverton high school principal, Keith
Eliasson (son of Marino Eliasson and Loa
Erickson from Riverton), and his mom,
Gail (daughter of Oli and Jonina Gislason
from Geysir) was my former grade three
teacher. Both of these individuals had
influence over my life at a young age, too,
and I like to think both my sister, Valdine,
and I tried to keep Kelsey under our wing
when he first came to Winnipeg. This was
not needed, of course, because he was such
a good kid (cue brownie points, Keith),
and Kelsey sailed calmly to a Bachelor of
Commerce degree.
Kelsey now credits this degree
with allowing him the confidence and
knowledge to start up a variety of
businesses, such as creating a tour guide
company, producing art and selling it, and
even generating a newspaper business
(Hudson Bay Post). With the wealth of
experience, Kelsey is now a celebrated
artist whose beautiful paintings are sought
after and are worth thousands of dollars.
He is also a very accomplished tour guide
and bear expert.
Being a polar bear expert was not
always in the cards for Kelsey. However,
a trip up north changed all that. In 1999,
Kelsey followed a friend to Churchill,
Manitoba. Kelsey started off as a tundra
buggy driver, but it was only when he was
on the ground walking with the polar bears
that he realized the experience would
change him forever. He says when you
walk amongst polar bears, “they give you
an insight into their world on their terms.”
For Kelsey, this was life changing and he
has spent the last twenty years pursuing
this passion.
Living in Churchill allowed him to
learn on the job. Soon, he found himself
being featured in a two-year OLN network
series called Polar Bear Town, which was
set in his new hometown. Churchill is a
town that finds itself amongst the largest
population of polar bears in the world
in the middle of their arctic migration.
Because of the Riverton connection with
Kelsey, my sister and I watched the show
religiously. On the show, Kelsey was the
good-looking young one who had a quiet
way with the polar bears that stood out from
the rest. The Polar Bear Town experience
also allowed him to gain valuable insight
into the filming world. Working with the
film crews in 2016 brought Kelsey and
his business partner, Karine Genest, the
opportunity to produce and film their own
documentaries with their own production
company called WolfHouse Productions,
and they jumped on it immediately.
Kelsey’s documentary, entitled
Bears: Ultimate Survivors, focuses on
three species of bears including the polar
bear, the grizzly, and the spirit bear. The
documentary directly focuses on each
species’ ability to adapt to rapid change in
climate, habitat loss, or an influx in other
bears. The white or “spirit” bear, as it is
sometimes known, is remarkable since
it is one of the rarest bears on the planet.
They descend from an ancient mutation on
a remote chain of islands near Hartley Bay,
south of Prince Rupert, British Columbia.
Interestingly, Kelsey notes that polar
bears these days are a “lightning rod”
for climate change and documentaries of
this sort tend to invoke passion but also
controversy. Yet, Kelsey’s message in
the documentary is one of hope: given a
chance, these bears will succeed. Humans
just need to give them a chance by doing
our part. During the filming, Kelsey and his
team were constantly surrounded by bears,
though he suggests that bears are “pretty
forgiving and tolerant even if we’re in
their space.” He believes that just because
the world is changing, it doesn’t mean that
the bears are doomed. It just means that we
need to help them in whatever way we can.
Because of the bears’ confidence,
studying bears is actually a “walk in the
park” – though I am not sure I’d like to
be walking in the park with them myself.
... continued on page 8
THE POLAR BEAR WHISPERER
Julianna Bjornson
Delta, BC
PHOTO COURTESY OF KELSEY ELIASSON