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In Our Ice is Vanishing, Shelley Wright follows the history of the Canadian presence in the Arctic and shares her own journey in recollections and photographs, presenting the far North as few people have seen it. The following is an excerpt about her motivations for writing the book.
There are many books and articles dealing with climate change, the history of the Arctic, sovereignty, the Northwest Passage, European exploration, and Inuit. Inuit themselves have also shared their stories. Many of these books, films, and websites are listed in the Bibliography. This book is an attempt to tie some of these threads together into a human history of the Arctic, particularly the eastern Arctic of Nunavut and Greenland, in words and pictures. My purpose is to put questions of climate change, Arctic sovereignty, and economic development within the deeper context of northern history and Inuit life.
In this book I have relied on a variety of sources – traditional, scientific, legal, political, historical (both oral and written), cinematic, visual, spiritual, and personal. I draw on my own experience wherever it is relevant, as well as on the stories, anecdotes, and information I learned directly from both Inuit and non-Inuit northerners. I have included photographs that I took while in the Arctic to give the reader a visual sense of what I experienced, as well as a few archival photographs and the occasional map or chart. I have also included stories about people who played a role in Arctic history. Some of these stories are of people who are still alive, some are of those who have passed away, and some are of people who might be seen as mythical or partly mythical. For the most part these stories are not mine – I am merely passing on what others have told me or what is recounted elsewhere. I have tried wherever possible to obtain permission to tell personal stories or show photographs of people. Some of the archival images may portray people whose descendants are still alive today. My apologies for not being able to identify some of them more specifically. Of course I cannot speak for Inuit or even for those qallunaat who have spent their lives working and living in the Arctic. I was there only for a few brief years and since then have returned every year or two for visits. Nevertheless, I feel I have a story to tell about the Arctic and the people who live there that is unique. In some ways this is my own attempt to lay a few ghosts to rest.
The chapters in this book are meant to follow a more or less chronological order, from the origins and history of the Inuit in chapter 2 to both European and Inuit exploration of the Arctic in chapters 3 and 4. This is followed by a discussion of Canadian and Inuit sovereignty in chapter 5. Chapter 6 discusses two of the most troubling episodes in any history of the Arctic: the relocation of Inuit families to places sometimes thousands of miles from their homes and the removal of children to residential schools, both resulting in terrible suffering. Chapter 7 looks at the creation of Nunavut and the contemporary history of the Canadian Arctic. Chapter 8 returns to the major theme of climate change from both an Inuit and a non-Inuit perspective. In chapter 9 I try to draw some of these threads together by focusing on the great iconic image of climate change, nanuq (the polar bear). Finally I try to provide some concluding observations about my own experience and what I believe is the much underrated significance of not only climate change in the Arctic but also cultural, economic, and political change for Inuit.
We are all tiny specks on a solitary blue planet circling one ordinary star in a universe of stars. This truth becomes very clear in the Arctic. There is an earthbound yet almost unworldly beauty in the North that can be overwhelming. Transparent air and endless summer days of low-angle light bring out colours and shadows as clearly as if they had never been seen before. When the daylight shortens into the darkness of winter there are long slow sunrises and sunsets of brilliant warm colour and translucent twilight beauty. The tundra in summer is like a pillowy green garden thick with moss, heather, flowers, and ground-hugging willows only inches high. Labrador tea sends up spicy wafts of scent as you walk. As August melts into September the tundra garden turns red and gold, rich with blueberries, crowberries, cranberries, and aqpiit (cloud berries). Winter creates a world of white splendor and intense cold silence.
Perhaps it is the treeless expanse of winter white or the deep blue of the summer Arctic Ocean beneath a massive sky that creates this sense of awe. I remember sitting on the beach in midsummer at midnight in Pond Inlet watching the sun circle the sky in a slow spiral that never touched the horizon. I have also watched the full moon slowly tracking around the great darkness of January in Iglulik, again never setting. At times it felt as if I might suddenly take flight so great was the feeling of almost limitless space. I have gone for walks on spring days in April when the ice and snow glow with brilliant blue white and the air is so crisp and clean it feels like cold silk. And I have sat in my apartment in Iqaluit fearing the roof would come off in a winter blizzard. I have been fortunate enough to see walrus and polar bears, ring seals and bowhead whales, Arctic terns and lemmings in their natural environment. I was also lucky in getting to know many Inuit and learning a little about their culture and history. What I learned is completely foreign to most of my fellow Canadian citizens. This book is my attempt to open a door to the Arctic in the hope of providing some insight into the lives of Inuit, the impact of climate change, and the demands that Canada has made and is still making on both the people and the environment of the North.
The ice is melting. A way of life that has existed for thousands of years is changing so rapidly that there is no precedent in either geological or human timescales. Arctic life has always been about the need to respect and adapt to the vagaries of cold, wind, ice, snow, land, and sea. But it is not just Inuit who have to contend with these changes. What happens in the Arctic will change the world for all of us.
This month, the author is taking a tour of the Northwest Passage with Adventure Canada. Read more about it here!
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To learn more about Our Ice is Vanishing, click here.
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