Zach Kunuk always thought his 81-year-old father would be all right, even as the days since the respected elder disappeared on the tundra stretched into weeks and a military search was called off and people in the remote Arctic community of Igloolik began to fear the worst.
Late Thursday night, as Zach Kunuk and his brothers barbecued fish at the family cabin, word came that he was right. Enoki Kunuk had been found safe and sound after 28 days stranded on the land.
"We were just shouting, 'All right! All right!' There was a lot of happy crying," said the acclaimed filmmaker.
The joy was shared by the entire community, which waited two hours in the long Arctic twilight to greet the helicopter that finally brought the hunter home.
"There was a whole lot of people rejoicing and clapping," said Louis Tapardjuk, the local legislative member, who was also part of the airborne spotting team that finally found Enoki Kunuk.
"Everybody was jubilant," Mr. Tapardjuk said.
Enoki Kunuk hadn't been seen since June 1, when he headed out on his own to hunt caribou near Gifford Fiord, about 100 kilometres north of Igloolik.
The hunt was unsuccessful and his luck got even worse when his snow machine got bogged down in soft, mushy spring snow.
"He's 81 years old," said Mr. Tapardjuk. "You really can't expect somebody to lift a snow machine at that age."
So Enoki Kunuk hunkered down to wait, setting up his tent and dipping into the supplies he had brought with him.
Friends and family began to worry after five days and a search was organized.
Two Hercules aircraft and a Cormorant were scrambled from CFB Trenton, but the search was hampered - and fear compounded - by days of snow and rain. The military called off the search on June 18.
But the community kept looking, aided by a Twin Otter donated by Air Inuit, a regional airline from Arctic Quebec.
Eventually, the day before the community search was to be terminated, Enoki Kunuk was found about 130 kilometres north of Igloolik near a popular fishing river. It was right where local elders said he'd be, even though the area had been searched twice before.
"The elders kept telling us, 'Check again, check again,' " Mr. Tapardjuk said. "And sure enough, there he was."
Searchers first spotted Enoki Kunuk's tent, stranded snow machine and komatik, or sled, but the missing man wasn't at his camp. He had, however, posted a stick as a directional sign pointing down a gully toward a nearby river.
They followed the gulley and found their man, shirt off, dragging a tarp loaded with warm clothing and a rifle down to the river shore where he knew somebody would eventually come by.
"He says he's all right but he's got sore muscles," translated Enoki Kunuk's daughter-in-law Colleen Ulayuruluk. "He doesn't have too much more to say."
Enoki Kunuk told rescuers he'd seen the previous planes, but wasn't able to move fast enough into the open to catch their attention.
"He can't run, but he would crawl through the snow," Zach Kunuk said.
Enoki Kunuk survived on supplies he brought with him, plants gathered on the tundra and six fish he pulled from the river.
"He was born on the land," said his son. "He knows the land like the back of his hand.
"We knew if he didn't have an accident, he'd be OK."
When the helicopter bringing Enoki Kunuk was spotted, the people assembled by the landing site broke into cheers. Zach Kunuk, who has won awards for directing films such as Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner, filmed the hunter's emotional return.
"I was videotaping this so I would remember."
Igloolik isn't finished celebrating the safe return of their much-loved citizen - a special church service and community feast was planned for Friday night.
Zach Kunuk says he found his father Friday morning chatting peacefully with a few other elders.
"He seemed OK," said the son - adding his father isn't used to so much attention.
"After 28 days alone and seeing hundreds of people last night ... too many faces."