Inuit in Ottawa gain access to fresh seal meat thanks to 2 hunters in Quebec

The first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in 2021 marked the beginning of a grey seal hunting project and a deep friendship between Yoanis Menge and Ruben Komangapik.

Menge, who lives in the Magdalen Islands, invited Nunavut's Komangapik to join him on a seal hunt on the islands.

Komangapik remembers the balmy sunny day fondly. He joked it was "like hunting in Cuba."

Menge says they snapped a picture of themselves in their orange vests as they posed next to their catch of the day. He recalled having to figure out how to caption the image to post online.

"We came up with "recon-seal" as a play of words (a mix of) reconciliation and seal for the animal and so that's how (everything) started with a word," said Menge.

That word inspired a new hunting project, titled Reconseal Inuksiuti, founded by the two friends.

Last week marked the start of hunting for the second year of the initiative, with Komangapik and Menge harvesting seal meat from the Magdalen Islands for local organizations to distribute to urban Inuit in Ottawa.

"It's really, really great because it's not really an everyday occurrence that we're able to have access to seal meat and now we are filling the void to be able to have country food," said Komangapik, who describes himself as a nomad who currently lives in Ottawa.

"A lot of Inuit are being born and raised in the South and they don't know who they are. And they have an opportunity to rediscover where they're from with these activities."

Menge and Komangapik's paths first crossed in 2012, when their two passions merged.

Menge, a photographer, split his time between the Magdalen Islands and Europe and was returning back home from France with the goal of putting together an exposé on the seal hunt.

"I wanted to be close to the hunters and live with them and to capture the real life of a hunter even when they are not hunting. Because hunting is not just about killing animals and that's what we forget," said Menge.

He says that he was just starting to learn to hunt when he met Komangapik, and joined hunting crews across the North. Menge says the photos he released have been published around the world and are in black and white to encourage people to see the beauty of the hunt.

"It's the first time that something has been published positively about seal hunting," said Menge, referring to previous campaigns which have portrayed the practice negatively.