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emilycait's review
dark
informative
fast-paced
Deliberately giving this zero stars because I have some questions:
Curious about white-passing Neil Christopher's involvement in preserving these stories.
The text copyright is attributed to Christopher and the Inuit illustrator Germaine Arnattaujuq. The back of the book declares this book is based on an animated film "co-produced and co-directed by" Arnattaujuq and Christopher. (Love seeing Inuit artists bringing Inuit stories to life - Go Arnattaujuq! Hooray!)
From his bio, Christopher is an educator from Ontario that has spent a good chunk of his adult life in the Eastern Arctic of Canada because of his interest in collecting/preserving mythology. From his bio: "He first moved to the North many years ago to help start a high school program in Resolute Bay, Nunavut. It was those students who first introduced Neil to the mythical inhabitants from Inuit traditional stories."
Someone from the south, going up north to starting a high school program in Nunavut feels like a settler-colonial project? I'd love to know more about this curriculum being imported. Was it wanted by the community?
He is sited as a co-founder of Inhabit Media (trade publisher) with his brother Danny (presumably also from Ontario and white-passing), and his colleague, Louise Flaherty (an Inuit author, publisher, teacher and politician from what is now known as Iqualuit, Nunavut).
The book is dual language and lists the translator, Flaherty, ONLY in the fine print. From her bio: 'In an interview with Windspeaker News in 2016, Flaherty explained: "I am a grandmother, and growing up we had very limited books and resources that showed our identity. So for my granddaughter's generation, I wanted to make sure they had more of us in the books they would be reading, and also in what she was going to be watching.” ' It's just weird that Flaherty isn't prominently featured as being clearly a vital part of storytelling/language sharing for the next generation of Inuit children reading these preserved stories?
I know publishing books and starting businesses require money, and perhaps that is Christopher's role: financially backing Inuit artists/storytellers? But a lot of the books on the Inhabit Media website, give him the author credit.
I know myths and traditional stories are oral stories with no original author possible to site, but surely Christopher makes more sense to credit as an editor? Author implies AUTHORity over the story. And it feels weird to credit a white-passing Ontarian as an AUTHORity on these Arctic stories? Are there no aspiring Inuit storytellers to offer patronage to instead of writing these stories himself?
I dunno. Something just feels kinda funny here. (I think it's around the Christopher brothers being Arctic visitors from Ontario with no explicit ties to Inuit identity/culture in any of their public-facing bios that is pinging something in my head? Like, why did you take it upon yourselves to collect these stories, write these stories in English?)
Maybe as I let this percolate I'll find the right questions or words to express this "hmm" feeling I have right now.
Curious about white-passing Neil Christopher's involvement in preserving these stories.
The text copyright is attributed to Christopher and the Inuit illustrator Germaine Arnattaujuq. The back of the book declares this book is based on an animated film "co-produced and co-directed by" Arnattaujuq and Christopher. (Love seeing Inuit artists bringing Inuit stories to life - Go Arnattaujuq! Hooray!)
From his bio, Christopher is an educator from Ontario that has spent a good chunk of his adult life in the Eastern Arctic of Canada because of his interest in collecting/preserving mythology. From his bio: "He first moved to the North many years ago to help start a high school program in Resolute Bay, Nunavut. It was those students who first introduced Neil to the mythical inhabitants from Inuit traditional stories."
Someone from the south, going up north to starting a high school program in Nunavut feels like a settler-colonial project? I'd love to know more about this curriculum being imported. Was it wanted by the community?
He is sited as a co-founder of Inhabit Media (trade publisher) with his brother Danny (presumably also from Ontario and white-passing), and his colleague, Louise Flaherty (an Inuit author, publisher, teacher and politician from what is now known as Iqualuit, Nunavut).
The book is dual language and lists the translator, Flaherty, ONLY in the fine print. From her bio: 'In an interview with Windspeaker News in 2016, Flaherty explained: "I am a grandmother, and growing up we had very limited books and resources that showed our identity. So for my granddaughter's generation, I wanted to make sure they had more of us in the books they would be reading, and also in what she was going to be watching.” ' It's just weird that Flaherty isn't prominently featured as being clearly a vital part of storytelling/language sharing for the next generation of Inuit children reading these preserved stories?
I know publishing books and starting businesses require money, and perhaps that is Christopher's role: financially backing Inuit artists/storytellers? But a lot of the books on the Inhabit Media website, give him the author credit.
I know myths and traditional stories are oral stories with no original author possible to site, but surely Christopher makes more sense to credit as an editor? Author implies AUTHORity over the story. And it feels weird to credit a white-passing Ontarian as an AUTHORity on these Arctic stories? Are there no aspiring Inuit storytellers to offer patronage to instead of writing these stories himself?
I dunno. Something just feels kinda funny here. (I think it's around the Christopher brothers being Arctic visitors from Ontario with no explicit ties to Inuit identity/culture in any of their public-facing bios that is pinging something in my head? Like, why did you take it upon yourselves to collect these stories, write these stories in English?)
Maybe as I let this percolate I'll find the right questions or words to express this "hmm" feeling I have right now.
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