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These memoirs of James Houston’s life in the Canadian Arctic from 1948 to 1962 present a colorful and compelling adventure story of real people living through a time of great change. It is extraordinarily rich material about a fascinating, distant world. Houston, a young Canadian artist, was on a painting trip to Moose Factory at the south end of Hudson Bay in 1948. A bush pilot friend burst into his room with the news that a medical emergency meant that he could get a free flight into the heart of the eastern Arctic. When they arrived, Houston found himself surrounded by smiling Inuit – short, strong, utterly confident people who wore sealskins and spoke no English. By the time the medical plane was about to leave, Houston had decided to stay. It was a decision that changed his life. For more than a dozen years he spent his time being educated by those kindly, patient people who became his friends. He slept in their igloos, ate raw fish and seal meat, wore skin clothing, traveled by dog team, hunted walrus, and learned how to build a snowhouse. While doing so, he helped change the North. Impressed by the natural artistic skills of the people, he encouraged the development of outlets in the South for their work, and helped establish co-ops in the North for Inuit carvers and print-makers. Since that time, after trapping as a way of gaining income began to disappear, Inuit art has brought millions of dollars to its creators, and has affected art galleries around the world. In the one hundred short chapters that make up this book, James Houston tells about his fascinating and often hilarious adventures in a very different culture. He tells of raising a family in the Arctic (his sons bursting into tears on being told they were not really Inuit), and of the failure to introduce soccer to a people who refused to look on other humans as opponents. He tells about great characters – Inuit and kallunait – who populated the Arctic in these long-lost days when, as a Government go-between, he found himself grappling with Northern customs that broke Southern laws. A remarkable, modestly told story by a truly remarkable man.… (more)
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This book starts with Houston's first trip to the Arctic. He was staying in Moose Factory and a pilot offered him a free ride to the eastern side of Hudson's Bay with him and a doctor. From that first visit Houston knew he wanted to live in the Arctic and he started finding a way to do so. An artist who had trained with Arthur Lismer, Houston started doing sketches of the Inuit with whom he spent time. When he gave these sketches to the subjects they in turn gave him small carved sculptures that they had made. Houston showed them to people at the Canadian Handicrafts Guild in Montreal they recognized the artistry. Houston arranged to go back north and trade for more sculptures which the Guild would then sell. The Inuit did not use money at the time so Houston gave them items like rifles and cloth that they could use. Later he arranged that they would be given vouchers that they could turn in at the Hudson's Bay Company stores for products that they wanted. As the Inuit gave up their nomadic lifestyle and settled in villages their ability to earn money by creating art meant they were not reliant on government handouts. Houston made many friends among the Inuit and often went on hunting trips with them. As the title suggests on these trips they built igloos and stayed in them. Houston's descriptions of survival on the land are fascinating. He left the north on his own volition after ensuring that the artistic endeavours were established and that they would be maintained by the Inuit. After living in the far north it is almost beyond belief that he would take up living in New York City as a designer for Steuben Glass. That portion of his life is documented in his next memoir, Zigzag.