b'NORTHERN TOURISMThe extraordinary landscape of Nunavut offers up tourist opportunities ranging from dog sledding to whale watching. Photos courtesy of Travel Nunavutin the North supporting the travel industry is also growing.The craft industry has probably tripled because traditional In Nunavut, for instance, the number of Inuit-owned busi- teachings of arts and crafts have come back in a much nesses has been increasing annually since 2019.stronger fashion, says Therrien, whose company recently received $25,000 from the governments Indigenous Tourism We currently have 76 Inuit-owned businesses that areFund, administered through ITAC. Theres a bigger market members of Travel Nunavut, and between 2019 and 2023,for Indigenous authentic crafts because the awareness of the number of Inuit-owned member businesses increasedIndigenous history has grown in the last 20 years in Canada by 12 per cent, says Alex Stubbing, president and CEOwith [more awareness of] residential schools. People are of Travel Nunavut, an advocacy organization for travel inlooking for an authentic Indigenous tour, so that has brought the region. Indigenous Peoples and their crafts and their storytelling [to the forefront].TOURISM OPERATORSTeena Dickson and her husband David run WhitehorseIn talking with Indigenous tourism operators, its clear that Who What Where Tours in the Yukon, offering everythingtheir work is more than just a money-making venture and from visits to the Yukon Wildlife Preserve to tours of thethat their philosophy is not a profit motive, but rather a Carcross/Southern Cross Lakes. They are strong supporters of a robust tourism industry, which they say not only creates business opportunities for Indigenous people but leads to valuable economic spin-offs for communities overall. While the tourism industry is still in its early stages of growth in the Yukon, the potential is there. Yukon is fairly new, notes Dickson, who is Chipewyan. Were more of what I call boutique tourism, compared to the Northwest Territories, so there are different oppor-tunities here because of the landscape and the people. For Indigenous tour operators, slowly people are seeing opportunity in whatever capacity they have. You can go big, or you can operate on a smaller scale. Its about finding your market.This market could include anything from nature walks, canoe trips and fishing expeditions to stays at eco-resorts or immer-sive craft and culinary experiences. There is no limit to the myriad experiences that Northern operators can offer tour-ists to the region, many of whom are hungry to learn more about First Nations people and their unique, vibrant culture. Everything Indigenous is on the table. According to Tracy Therrien, owner and operator of Bucket List Tour out of Yellowknife, NWT, learning Indigenous arts and crafts, for instance, is high on the list of experiences that visitors to the North are requesting, in part because of growing awareness of Indigenous history and the many injustices perpetrated against Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous BUSINESS REPORT69'