Hidden Among Us

“It was the coldest of cold cases. Lucy Johnson, a 25 year-old married mother of two, had last been seen by a neighbour in Surrey, B.C., in September 1961. Fifty-one years and 10 months later, in late June 2013, the Missing Persons Unit at the Surrey detachment of the RCMP decided to knock the dust off her file.”

Eva Holland – Up Here – December 2013

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Setting a Standard

“Like many families, Kotierk can speak Inuktut but her children can’t. Several years ago, one of her daughters was angry and frustrated that Kotierk hadn’t taught her enough Inuktut to carry on a fluent conversation. But Kotierk was attending university in Ontario when her daughter was young. She was trying to be a good student and a good mother and trying to make ends meet. ‘I was doing the best I could. We are all products of our environment and our circumstances,’ she says. Still, Kotierk wrestles with the feeling that she failed her daughter—a feeling she now channels into championing Inuktut to ensure it’s visible in every aspect of life in Nunavut.”

 

Kassina Ryder – Up Here – June 2018

A Refuge at Risk

“The two men we meet at the floe edge have just chased off a polar bear. A giant paw reached out of the water and pulled its shaggy yellow body up onto the ice, not 10 metres in front of them. They yelled and the beast returned to the water. The men hardly seem shaken, sitting back in folding chairs. They are here to hunt narwhal, but right now only seabirds ride the waves of Baffin Bay.”

Elaine Anselmi – Up Here – September 2017