Description
Book SynopsisThis deeply personal account of recent developments in the Canadian North tells the story of a region that leaders in Oslo, Ottawa, Moscow, and Washington often refuse to see and that only insiders fully know.
Trade ReviewThere are tantalizing snippets of memoir in this book—Penikett is an excellent writer, and there’s one especially lovely description of his presence as honorary pallbearer at his former mother-in-law’s funeral and potlatch. But it is largely a comprehensive review of issues such as governance, international relations (a history and critique of the Arctic Council), resource management, climate change, and social issues like poverty, education, and health. Chapters on climate change, the “hungry ghost,” and the complex issue of sovereignty are especially good, as Penikett honours traditional knowledge (known colloquially as TK), and the slow integration of traditional knowledge into scientific research and analysis in the Arctic.
-- Marian Botsford Fraser * Literary Review of Canada *
Hunting The Northern Character is an eloquent appeal to end condescending treatment of the one uniquely Canada region best known to the outside world.
-- Holly Doan * Blacklock’s Reporter *
This is an insider’s view of Canada’s North and the Arctic world generally, informed by decades of experience in all aspects of northern life – social, environmental, and economic. It is astonishingly wide-ranging and comprehensive in its approach to topics, as well as lighthearted and anecdotal. It is difficult to think of anyone who knows more, or as much, about this subject as Penikett, which makes his book indispensable reading for anyone interested in the North.
Summing Up: Essential.
-- W. R. Morrison * CHOICE, April 2018 *
Table of ContentsPrologue
Contours
1 Who, What, Where? Arctic Peoples and Places
2 Pawns: The Cold War
3 Born in the Northern Bush: Indigenous Government
4 No Settler Need Apply: The Arctic Council
Community
5 What You Eat and Where You Live: Poverty in the North
6 Knowing Yourself: Education and Health
7 Underfoot: Resources, Renewable and Non-renewable
Conflict
8 Arctic Security: Control or Cooperation?
9 Hungry Ghost: Climate Change
10 Boomers and Lifers: A New Divide
Notes; Bibliography; Index
