{"id":12948,"date":"2021-11-24T11:58:43","date_gmt":"2021-11-24T15:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.makivik.org\/?post_type=taqralikonline&p=12948"},"modified":"2021-11-24T11:58:43","modified_gmt":"2021-11-24T15:58:43","slug":"female-inuit-fly-high","status":"publish","type":"taqralikonline","link":"https:\/\/www.makivvik.ca\/fr\/article\/female-inuit-fly-high\/","title":{"rendered":"FEMALE INUIT Fly High"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

January of 2021 was a special month for Inuvialuk Captain Dawn Macfarlane.
It was then that she became first Inuk woman to captain a Canadian North 737. It would seem aviation milestones run in her blood, as Captain Macfarlane is the daughter of retired Captain Cecil Hansen, an Inuvialuk pilot who became the first Inuk jet captain in Canada in 1980.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Captain Macfarlane\u2019s first flight in the 737-200 was in April of 2008 as a First Officer. The following month she flew Canadian North\u2019s scheduled service 5T444 from Edmonton to Inuvik with her father.

\u201cIt was our first flight together as Captain and First Officer, father and daughter. It was one of the more special days in my career, to fly home, with family onboard, with my dad. Not many people get to say that,\u201d she recalled. Captain Macfarlane was given the opportunity to become captain at Canadian North on the 737-200 and 737-300 in October of 2020, and after her training was completed, she flew her first flight as a captain in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Captain Dawn Macfarlane with her daughter Paige at a retirement party for her father, retired Captain Cecil Hansen. PHOTO COURTESY OF CAPTAIN DAWN MACFARLANE
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel a sense of pride, to be honest,\u201d she said of being the first Inuk woman to fly a Canadian North jet. \u201cIn our current world where so many sad and untold stories are finally surfacing, I feel it is more important than ever to be a positive voice and a successful Aboriginal example.” She would like the youth of the North to know that if you are willing to leave home to gain your education, and then work hard on your career, you can return and contribute to your community and people in a rewarding way. \u201cI have always been honoured to work for an Aboriginal owned airline, and to be a beneficiary of that makes me feel like I am a part of the greater good for the Inuvialuit,\u201d she said.

Also setting aviation milestones is Air Inuit Captain Melissa Haney. Social media was buzzing in early September as Captain Haney, the first Inuk woman to captain an Air Inuit Dash-8, again made history as she took off for the first time as captain of an Air Inuit Boeing 737-200 for a commercial flight from Montreal to La Grande, then to Puvirnituq, and back.

Photographer and self-proclaimed \u201caviation freak\u201d Jean-Pierre Bonin was at the airport in Montreal that day and took photos which he then posted to Facebook. The post received more than 700 \u201clikes\u201d and even more \u201cshares.\u201d

Captain Haney said that being the first Inuk woman to captain an Air Inuit Boeing 737-200 was not a goal she was aiming for when she started her pilot license, but she would like to use the recognition she has been afforded to bring awareness to young women and Indigenous youth that they can have amazing careers and to set goals for themselves that they can achieve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jean-Pierre Bonin saw Captain Melissa Haney for the first time in 2016 at the Lachute Airport. She was one of three female pilot guest speakers at a \u201cGirls Discover Aviation\u201d event. He was struck by what a great role model she was and her ability to be a great aviation ambassador. In this photo from August 2021, Melissa and her children greet 19-year-old Zara Rutherford at her Montreal\/Saint-Hubert stop on her quest to become the youngest woman to do a solo flight around the world. \u00a9 JEAN-PIERRE BONIN
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Captain Macfarlane echoed the encouragement that Captain Haney offers to youth. \u201cThe educational options for Aboriginal youth are incredible, all they need is the courage to seize the opportunity and gain the education. Any female interested in becoming a pilot has every opportunity to do so,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

January of 2021 was a special month for Inuvialuk Captain Dawn Macfarlane.It was then that she became first Inuk woman to captain a Canadian North 737. [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12956,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"taqralik-issues":[142,124],"class_list":["post-12948","taqralikonline","type-taqralikonline","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","taqralik-issues-2021-summer","taqralik-issues-summer"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.makivvik.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/taqralikonline\/12948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.makivvik.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/taqralikonline"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.makivvik.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/taqralikonline"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.makivvik.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/taqralikonline\/12948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12967,"href":"https:\/\/www.makivvik.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/taqralikonline\/12948\/revisions\/12967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.makivvik.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.makivvik.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"taqralik-issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.makivvik.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/taqralik-issues?post=12948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}