Jacob!! Jacob Keanik was our local member of the team, master hunter, Inuit knowledge keeper, giver of soft laughs and speaker of kind words. Jacob grew up nomadic on the land with his family before they were forced to move to Gjoa Haven in the far north even though the hunting wasn’t as good. He told us stories of how the kids made fun of him since he showed up in all Caribou clothing and had to conform to a new life. Over the decades, he has become one of the most respected members of his community, 12 years as a wildlife officer doing tagging research on polar bears, now the Nattilik Inuit heritage center president, and one of the few translators of his Inuktitut dialect to record the stories of the elders. Jacob was already part of the 4x4 overland part of the expedition with Tom Gross since he has done searches for Franklins tomb with before and probably has the best mental map and instincts on the island of any living human. Not only did you feel good around Jacob because of his warm energy and smile but you know he would take care of the team if everything went wrong. At one point the oil plug fell out of my 4x4, (a serious situation when you are 100 miles out) and Jacob saved the day by whittling a new one out of a piece of drift wood with exquisite detail. Jacob also took a leap of faith and joined the boat of white guys to be the first of his community to make such big part of the Northwest Passage crossing from Pond Inlet to Gjoa Haven. He definitely got more than he bargained for since that was a section we were trapped in the ice for 10 days. We learned so much from Jacob and having his perspective truly transformed the experience. Aside from the main @disneyplus show we are producing some personal side content for @yeti @sonyalpha that features his POV. In the final interview he broke down in tears from the joy of the experience sad that it was over.... Looking forward to introducing him more in the films and eventually screening them for the community back in his arctic home. @natgeo @expedition.studios #TheArcticMystery expedition #sonyalpha @thenorthface @m_synnott @rudy.le @zartman_rigging @north_sails #JacobisnotonInstagram