Book explores history of a resilient people

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Across Time and Tundra: The Inuvialuit of the Western Arctic

By Ishmael Alunik, Eddie D. Kolausok and David Morrison

Raincoast Books

230 pages (hc), $65.00

For centuries the Inuvialuit people have called the Western Arctic home. Their traditional territory ran from Barter Island in the west to Franklin Bay in the east, with the Mackenzie River running through the centre.

Sandwiched between Alaska and the Eastern Arctic, the Inuvialuit homeland was rich in resources the people needed for survival: beluga and bow head whales, ringed and bearded seals, caribou, muskoxen, polar and grizzly bears.

Most of the territory is located below the tree line, and provides vegetation and a long summer.

Across Time and Tundra tells the tale of the Inuvialuit people from their early ancestors, the Thule, who emigrated into the region, displacing the Tunit who had lived there before, to the situation in which the people find themselves today, examining how life was chaed by the arrival of outsiders and how the Inuvialuit have struggled to survive those changes.

The book tells of the diseases brought by European explorers, missionaries and fur traders that almost wiped out the Inuvialuit, the fur and whale trades that decimated wildlife populations, the government policies that encouraged the people to abandon life on the land and move into urban settings, and the introduction of alcohol to the region, which continues to take its toll on Inuvialuit society.

In recounting the hardships, the book paints a picture of the Inuvialuit as a people who have faced the dire situations forced upon them and have found ways to survive and even prosper. And it presents the image of a people who have come full circle, who, thanks to land claim settlements, self-government negotiations and efforts to preserve and promote traditional culture, are working towards a return to the way things were, when Inuvialuit people alone decided how they would live.

The book is the perfect amalgamation of viewpoints, looking at the history from inside and outside of the culture.

Two of the book's authors-Ishmael Alunik and Eddie D. Kolausok-are Inuvialuit. Alunik is an Elder who has works to preserve and promote the culture of his people and Kokausok is an author and publisher. The third author is David Morrison, an archaeologist with the Canadian Museum of Civilization who has conducted a number of archaeological studies of the area the Inuvialuit call home.

That balanced view is present throughout the book in both text and illustrations. While the book includes historical photographs and drawings of the Inuvialuit taken and drawn by outsiders, it also includes reproductions of Inuvialuit stencils and stone cuts that tie in with the narrative as it unfolds.

The authors try to provide that balance in the history as well, alternating between information gleaned from the journals of explorers and missionaries, fur traders and whalers, and the remembrances of Elders and the retelling of stories passed down from one generation to the next.

One complaint: Interspersed throughout the book are sections that relate to the chapters in which they appear, but are not part of the chapter text. They detract from the narrative. It almost seems like the authors finished writing the book then realized they had all this other information they wanted to include, so they placed it haphazardly throughout.

While the style in which parts of the book are presented can be annoying, it is hard to find fault with the substance, which provides a balanced, interesting and educational overview of the history of the Inuvialuit people. The book is a companion publication to an exhibit by the same name that opened at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa in November and runs until Jan. 9, 2005.