Janelle Pokiak says the Greenland and Nunavut communities she has visited have felt a bit like home – but while the Inuktut and Kalaallisut she's heard sound like Inuvialuktun, they're different enough that she can't understand them.
Pokiak, from Tuktoyaktuk, has been travelling the Arctic since July 16 aboard the MS Ocean Endeavour as part of Students on Ice, a program that brings teens and young adults together from around the world to experience Arctic cultures, landscapes and wildlife.
This year, 130 high school and university students are travelling and learning aboard the ship and on excursions.
The program aims to show them the effects of climate change. They participate in panels on science and policy with leading scientists, politicians, artists and other high achievers.
"After this trip, I would want to encourage more of my friends to go on this trip because you get a lot of knowledge, experience, you see new things," says Pokiak, 14.
She says she wanted to meet new people and see new communities and the voyage has certainly delivered.
After spending a few days in Ottawa, the students flew to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland to board the ship. From there, they travelled Greenland's west coast, visiting areas and communities along the way, before crossing the Davis Strait to Baffin Island. When News/North spoke to them on Wednesday, they were in Pond Inlet.
The trip was to continue touring through Nunavut, visiting islands and communities, before flying back to Ottawa from Resolute Bay.
Yellowknife's Danielle Erin Marie Wendehorst, 21, says seeing how these communities differ from hers has broadened her perspective about what it means to live in the North.
"I'm in university in the nursing program, so we talk about Northern living, rural living in remote communities," says Wendehorst, "but seeing it and walking around, it really makes it real ... It's hard to really learn about someone's way of life or culture from a book."
Wendehorst says it's been fascinating to see glaciers and ice shearing off some of those glaciers and she also saw her first polar bear.
She was interested in climate change from an early age, she says and she participated in a climate change panel aboard the MS Ocean Endavour.
"Hearing the other people's perspectives from around Northern Canada was really interesting and it highlights the importance of how climate change will really affect the Northern way of life," says Wendehorst, citing hunting as an example.