NARWAL Northern Adventures

Grab a paddle, step into a 29-foot (nine-metre) voyageur canoe and glide across Yellowknife Bay while tapping your toes to a Métis fiddler playing on board. Watch as characters pop up along the shore, re-enacting nuggets of northern history during a unique floating dinner experience. Enjoy feasts that feature moose meat on the menu, and bison soup served with bannock. “It’s a multicultural, multi-art northern immersion,” says Catharine Allooloo, the owner and operator of NARWAL (Northern and Remote Wilderness Adventures Ltd.) who runs the business with two of her three children who are of Inuit ancestry. “My son, Devon, guides and harvests the game meat, and my daughter’s throat sing and teach traditional Inuit games.” Started in 1987, Yellowknife-based NARWAL has a B&B and offers year-round cultural and adventure programs that feature traditional Inuit clothing rentals, igloo-building, ice-cave adventures, northern lights viewing, hiking, fishing and one- to six-day kayak and canoe expeditions that include gourmet meals. Allooloo’s daughter Tiffany Ayalik hosts the First Nations food and cooking TV show Wild Kitchen. Many of NARWAL’s guests are families. “Their awe makes us realize what a privilege it is to live here and share Inuit culture,” says Allooloo. “I have combined my outdoor passion with my desire to give my kids the opportunity to explore, celebrate and research what it means to be a young Aboriginal person in Canada today, and to share that knowledge with others.”