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Livre extrêmement intéressant et sensibilisant aux changements climatiques, oui, mais surtout aux visages derrière les effets des changements climatiques. Les Inuit sont malheureusement les premières victimes de ce massacre environnemental.
C’est un livre très bien écrit et documenté. L’autrice est d’un dévouement admirable face à son combat, la reconnaissance des droits humains des populations de l’Arctique face aux changements climatiques.
Il ne s’agit pas d’une lecture légère. Le texte est plutôt costaud, mais vaut la peine d’être lu.
C’est un livre très bien écrit et documenté. L’autrice est d’un dévouement admirable face à son combat, la reconnaissance des droits humains des populations de l’Arctique face aux changements climatiques.
Il ne s’agit pas d’une lecture légère. Le texte est plutôt costaud, mais vaut la peine d’être lu.
The best parts were in the first few chapters, when the author told us about her childhood and the culture and way of life in the north.
After that, it devolved into a long slog through committees and acronyms, and was about as interesting to read as committee minutes and policy documents are to the layperson. Picture pages and pages of this sort of thing:
"The presentation at the ICC summit was a great success, and the president of the RPC told me afterwards how much he admired our work. We weren't done yet, though: we still had to prepare for the ARCO meetings, and our proposal had been refused by the UNTCR committee. It would be an uphill battle."
Even the climate change warnings, ominous as they are, would have filled a chapter at most.
I can't recommend this to anyone but the most interested in climate change politics, or those really eager to learn more about Inuit culture (but even then, you probably only want the first 100 pages).
After that, it devolved into a long slog through committees and acronyms, and was about as interesting to read as committee minutes and policy documents are to the layperson. Picture pages and pages of this sort of thing:
"The presentation at the ICC summit was a great success, and the president of the RPC told me afterwards how much he admired our work. We weren't done yet, though: we still had to prepare for the ARCO meetings, and our proposal had been refused by the UNTCR committee. It would be an uphill battle."
Even the climate change warnings, ominous as they are, would have filled a chapter at most.
I can't recommend this to anyone but the most interested in climate change politics, or those really eager to learn more about Inuit culture (but even then, you probably only want the first 100 pages).
[3.5] Very informative and very important, but bogged down by long lists of names, too many acronyms, and lots of bureaucracy (which, admittedly, was probably necessary to the narrative). I found it clipped along beautifully in the first half of every chapter, but would hit a wall midway through. It may be a bit of a slow read, but it's definitely still worth it! The conversation about climate change as a human rights issue, especially one which disproportionately impact First Nations and Inuit peoples, is essential, and this book lays out exactly why.
(I never know how to rate memoirs lol)
(I never know how to rate memoirs lol)
Super interesting book- a Native look at Climate Change impacts, Inuit daily life/life in general.
A true must read for all settlers. Learning about the highest rate of suicide, slaughter of the artic dogs, the loss of community and culture, is heartbreaking. I learned a lot from this book. I know this will be in my mind for many days to come.
Sheila Watt-Cloutier was born and raised in Gujarat in Nunavik northern part of Quebec. At that time in Nunavik the only mean of transportation was by a dog team. She lived a very traditional life with her family in a small, close-knit community surviving primarily on fish and sea mammals such as seals and whales, caribou, and walruses. Inuit placed high value on collaboration, inclusiveness and resourcefulness.
Sheila started learning English at the age of six, at school. Sheila. At the age of ten, she left her family and community and moved in the South in order to finish school. When eight years later, she returned in the Arctic, everything had changed. These were unsettling times both for Sheila and her community in Nunavik. The sea-ice was rapidly disappearing and the local communities were encountering disturbing changes in their subsistence way of life. In addition, a growing number of outsiders were taken control over their land, transforming their isolated Inuit homeland. With so many tumultuous changes in their way of life, in just one lifetime, Inuit communities had to deal with monumental challenges, such as food insecurity, suicides (Inuit communities have the highest suicide rates in North America), and climate change.
It was the memories of her childhood that have given Sheila Watt-Cloutier the foundation upon which she built her work, nationally and internationally. She is a remarkable and courageous woman and one of the world's most recognized environmental and human rights activists. For the past few decades, she has been fighting to protect the Inuit culture and the Arctic and save the planet from climate change. In this book, she tells her story.
Little is known about the historical traumas that still impact the daily lives of the Inuit people. The forcibly relocation by the Canadian government of Inuit families from the region of Quebec to islands in Canada’s High Arctic region, in order to make sure that Canada held control over Arctic shipping lanes. The collapse of the sealskin market from, “well-intended but misguided” stances of animal rights activists and movement, which stripped away the dignity of the Inuit hunters in the 1960s and 1970s. The children, who, like Sheila, were sent away very early in their lives to be raised by strangers in the south of Canada, severed not only from their loved ones, but also from their culture and language. The appalling slaughter by the Quebec government of Inuit sled dogs in the 1960s to apparently get the communities off the land and their nomadic way of life and into homes and federal programs. All these combined had devastating effect on Inuit communities. It created all sorts of social problems, alcoholism, addictions, violence and suicides.
Sheila Watt-Cloutier brought into the world the human faces of the Inuit world, their remarkable culture, their strengths and wisdom. The Inuit culture and the ice is where the solutions lie, she says. The teachings of their ancestors, their resilience and their ingenuity can be the guide of the young people. For centuries, Inuit have maintained a close relation with ice and wildlife; Ice is a big part of their identity. But the world once again imposes a trauma to the Inuit and the planet. Today the Inuit communities live in a state of emergency on a daily basis. Contaminants that make their way into plants and animals, and ultimately people, pose a major threat to their health. Changes in sea ice thickness and distribution, thawed permafrost and extreme weather events mean more safety risks for the local communities, and less access to wildlife.
The right to be cold for Inuit, says Sheila Watt-Cloutier is a human right, the right to survive and to grow as people with a vibrant and vital culture, the right to train their children to survive in this world that changes so fast. But is also crucial for all of us to understand that what happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic. It affects the whole planet. The Arctic Ocean alone contains more methane than the rest of the world's oceans combined and warmer Arctic water and land have begun to release it. Methane is a short-lived but potent greenhouse gas. So we risk facing further global warming and even faster melting in the Arctic. The ice of the Arctic contains around ten percent of the world’s fresh water. It is also the cooling system for the planet. Arctic ice influences atmospheric circulation and, hence, weather and climate. A warming Arctic will affect not only the people of the Arctic but also the rest of the world population.
Sheila started learning English at the age of six, at school. Sheila. At the age of ten, she left her family and community and moved in the South in order to finish school. When eight years later, she returned in the Arctic, everything had changed. These were unsettling times both for Sheila and her community in Nunavik. The sea-ice was rapidly disappearing and the local communities were encountering disturbing changes in their subsistence way of life. In addition, a growing number of outsiders were taken control over their land, transforming their isolated Inuit homeland. With so many tumultuous changes in their way of life, in just one lifetime, Inuit communities had to deal with monumental challenges, such as food insecurity, suicides (Inuit communities have the highest suicide rates in North America), and climate change.
It was the memories of her childhood that have given Sheila Watt-Cloutier the foundation upon which she built her work, nationally and internationally. She is a remarkable and courageous woman and one of the world's most recognized environmental and human rights activists. For the past few decades, she has been fighting to protect the Inuit culture and the Arctic and save the planet from climate change. In this book, she tells her story.
Little is known about the historical traumas that still impact the daily lives of the Inuit people. The forcibly relocation by the Canadian government of Inuit families from the region of Quebec to islands in Canada’s High Arctic region, in order to make sure that Canada held control over Arctic shipping lanes. The collapse of the sealskin market from, “well-intended but misguided” stances of animal rights activists and movement, which stripped away the dignity of the Inuit hunters in the 1960s and 1970s. The children, who, like Sheila, were sent away very early in their lives to be raised by strangers in the south of Canada, severed not only from their loved ones, but also from their culture and language. The appalling slaughter by the Quebec government of Inuit sled dogs in the 1960s to apparently get the communities off the land and their nomadic way of life and into homes and federal programs. All these combined had devastating effect on Inuit communities. It created all sorts of social problems, alcoholism, addictions, violence and suicides.
Sheila Watt-Cloutier brought into the world the human faces of the Inuit world, their remarkable culture, their strengths and wisdom. The Inuit culture and the ice is where the solutions lie, she says. The teachings of their ancestors, their resilience and their ingenuity can be the guide of the young people. For centuries, Inuit have maintained a close relation with ice and wildlife; Ice is a big part of their identity. But the world once again imposes a trauma to the Inuit and the planet. Today the Inuit communities live in a state of emergency on a daily basis. Contaminants that make their way into plants and animals, and ultimately people, pose a major threat to their health. Changes in sea ice thickness and distribution, thawed permafrost and extreme weather events mean more safety risks for the local communities, and less access to wildlife.
The right to be cold for Inuit, says Sheila Watt-Cloutier is a human right, the right to survive and to grow as people with a vibrant and vital culture, the right to train their children to survive in this world that changes so fast. But is also crucial for all of us to understand that what happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic. It affects the whole planet. The Arctic Ocean alone contains more methane than the rest of the world's oceans combined and warmer Arctic water and land have begun to release it. Methane is a short-lived but potent greenhouse gas. So we risk facing further global warming and even faster melting in the Arctic. The ice of the Arctic contains around ten percent of the world’s fresh water. It is also the cooling system for the planet. Arctic ice influences atmospheric circulation and, hence, weather and climate. A warming Arctic will affect not only the people of the Arctic but also the rest of the world population.