In the early 1950s, 22-year-old Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk began compiling Inuktitut phrases as a language guide for missionaries. She then created fictional characters and began imagining their lives during a period of profound change. Those stories would eventually become Sanaaq, the first novel written in Inuktitut syllabics in Canada. This story is also available in French and Inuktitut.
The real story beneath these cherished landscapes that are integral to our national identity is one of displacement, forced labour and exclusion. But a transformative shift is underway as Canadians confront that past and work toward a brighter future.
Dickie Nelson’s death in a tent city as temperatures plunged in northern B.C. last December came as more homeless people many of them Indigenous – are showing up in smaller communities in need of shelter.