Ukkusiksalik : the people's story

The remarkable history of a pocket of the remote Arctic, and the oral testimony from the last Inuit elders to live there. A coastal region of rolling tundra just west of Hudson Bay, Ukkusikslaik was established as a national park in 2003. In earlier times this historic region was the principal hunting ground for several Inuit families and was crisscrossed by missionaries, Mounties, and traders. Since the 1980s, Arctic writer and researcher David F. Pelly has been exploring this region on foot and by sea-kayak with his Inuit friends, while documenting Inuit traditional knowledge of the land. In this book, he presents the stories of Inuit elders and includes historical records to provide a complete history of this northern corner of our northern landscape, Ukkusiksalik. Ukkusiksalik is now a national park, established to preserve a beautiful and historic piece of wilderness. In earlier times, it was the principal hunting ground for several Inuit families in a landscape crisscrossed by explorers, whalers, missionaries, Mounties, and traders. Since the 1980s, David F. Pelly has been exploring this region both physically on foot, by sea-kayak, and with Inuit companions and by documenting Inuit traditional knowledge of the land. In this book, Pelly weaves together the peoples stories with historical accounts to provide the complete history of Ukkusiksalik. The Inuit elders who are the centrepiece of this tableau provide the reader with a new way of seeing the world the way stories from the land have been transmitted through the generations for centuries.

The remarkable history of a pocket of the remote Arctic, and the oral testimony from the last Inuit elders to live there. A coastal region of rolling tundra just west of Hudson Bay, Ukkusikslaik was established as a national park in 2003. In earlier times this historic region was the principal hunting ground for several Inuit families and was criss-crossed by missionaries, Mounties, and traders. Since the 1980s, Arctic writer and researcher David F. Pelly has been exploring this region on foot and by sea-kayak, and with Inuit friends, while documenting Inuit traditional knowledge of the land. In this book, he presents the stories of Inuit elders and includes historical records to provide a complete history of this extraordinary corner of our northern landscape, Ukkusiksalik.

"Ukkusiksalik, now a national park, was for millennia the territory of Northern First Nations people, with relics dating back to 500 BC. This book tells the story of the breathtaking pocket wilderness, using oral testimony from the last Inuit elders to have lived there, and accounts from explorers, whalers, missionaries, Mounties, and traders."-- Provided by publisher Ukkusiksalik, now a national park, was in earlier times the principal hunting ground for several Inuit families and was criss-crossed by missionaries, Mounties, and traders. David F. Pelly presents the stories of Inuit elders and historical records to provide a complete history of this extraordinary corner of our northern landscape.