Published in 2014
420 pages
Shelley Wright has lived and travelled in the Arctic for more than ten years beginning with her experiences as the Northern Director of the Akitsiraq Law School based in Iqaluit. She has published widely as an academic on Indigenous and women’s issues. Her special interests include the history of the Arctic from both a European and an Inuit perspective, the creation of Nunavut and the circumpolar lands of the Inuit known as Nunaat (including Greenland, Canada, Alaska and Siberia), legal questions surrounding sovereignty and Inuit rights, resource development, climate change and the impact of changes to the Arctic environment and the people who live there. She is a committed advocate for Inuit and Indigenous peoples’ rights as well as an enthusiastic amateur photographer and singer.
What is this book about?
The Arctic is ruled by ice. For Inuit, it is a highway, a hunting ground, and the platform on which life is lived. While the international community argues about sovereignty, security, and resource development at the top of the world, the Inuit remind us that they are the original inhabitants of this magnificent place – and that it is undergoing a dangerous transformation. The Arctic ice is melting at an alarming rate and Inuit have become the direct witnesses and messengers of climate change. Through an examination of Inuit history and culture, alongside the experiences of newcomers to the Arctic seeking land, wealth, adventure, and power, Our Ice Is Vanishing describes the legacies of exploration, intervention, and resilience. Combining scientific and legal information with political and individual perspectives, Shelley Wright follows the history of the Canadian presence in the Arctic and shares her own journey in recollections and photographs, presenting the far North as few people have seen it. Climate change is redrawing the boundaries of what Inuit and non-Inuit have learned to expect from our world. Our Ice Is Vanishing demonstrates that we must engage with the knowledge of the Inuit in order to understand and negotiate issues of climate change and sovereignty claims in the region.
