I stumbled across this book at the Yellowknife Public Library, purely by accident, and am still surprised I’d never heard of it. Or am I?
Ashoona: A historical novel about a teenage girl from Pangnirtung in the 1930s
North to the Night: A 1990s sailing trip into an Arctic winter
One of my favourite books about the Eastern Arctic, in no small part because of the earnest honesty of the author.
North of Nowhere: Song of a Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner
Read this for a terrific recap of a hugely important moment in Canadian history.
How to Start a Charter Airline: The novels of Susan Haley, formerly of Tulita, NWT
It’s refreshing to read a novel set in the North that doesn’t emphasize the “remoteness” or “harsh winters,” but rather the warmth to be found there.
Umingmak: A fine new memoir of N.W.T. Commissioner Stuart Hodgson
I enjoyed this detailed, first-person account of peak colonialism in the N.W.T.
Northerners: 24 short, but vivid, biographies from 1989
These 24 capsule biographies from 30 years ago still do the trick.
A Plain Language Guide to the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement
Well-written and beautifully packaged.
The Berger Inquiry, 1970s journalism, and a book that captures it all
This reporter's account rips through the insanity of the Berger inquiry to get to the point: the gripping testimony by northerners, much of which is captured verbatim here. Hard to find, but great reading.
From Lishamie, Albert Canadien’s memoir of a village that no longer exists
I didn’t know that Treaty Day in Fort Providence, N.W.T., was also TB testing day, and I wouldn’t have known it if not for this highly detailed memoir.
Joe Sacco’s Paying the Land, a raw, dreamy, investigative look at the N.W.T., past and present
Where — I’ve asked myself repeatedly — is the book that sums up the N.W.T., tackles the confusion and history of it and does it in an engaging, complex, real way? It’s here.
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