Michael Kusugak
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Michael Arvaarluk Kusugak ( Inuktitut: ᐊᕐᕚᕐᓗᒃ ᑯᓱᒐᖅ) is a storyteller and a Canadian
Inuk Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and ...
children's writer, who tells stories about
Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, N ...
and Inuit culture. He was born April 27, 1948, just north of
Chesterfield Inlet Chesterfield Inlet (Inuit: ''Igluligaarjuk'')Issenman, Betty. ''Sinews of Survival: The living legacy of Inuit clothing''. UBC Press, 1997. pp252-254 is an inlet in Kivalliq Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is an arm of northwestern Hudson Bay, and the ...
, at a point of land called Qatiktalik (known as Cape Fullterton in English). That same spring of 1948 he and his family moved to
Repulse Bay Repulse Bay or Tsin Shui Wan is a bay in the southern part of Hong Kong Island, located in the Southern District, Hong Kong. It is one of the most expensive residential areas in the world. Geography Repulse Bay is located in the southern ...
and in 1960 to
Rankin Inlet Rankin Inlet ( iu, Kangiqliniq; Inuktitut syllabics: ᑲᖏᕿᓂᖅ or ''Kangirliniq'', ᑲᖏᖅᖠᓂᖅ, or ''Kangir&iniq'' meaning ''deep bay/inlet'') is an Inuit hamlet on Kudlulik Peninsula in Nunavut, Canada. It is the largest hamlet and ...
. In 2019, he lives in
Sooke Sooke is a district municipality on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, Canada, by road from Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. Sooke, the westernmost of Greater Victoria's Western Communities, is to the north and west of the Sooke ...
,
British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
and plans to move to
Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...
in the summer. In 1954, a plane arrived and at the age of six, Michael Kusugak and many of his friends were sent away to residential school. The teachers were strict and did not allow the children to speak their own language, Inuktitut. Kusugak remembers sitting in the back of the class crying most of the time. The following year, Michael successfully hid when the plane came to take him and his friends away again. However, he returned the following year and became one of the first Inuit in the eastern
Arctic The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, N ...
to graduate from high school. He was also educated in
Yellowknife Yellowknife (; Dogrib: ) is the capital, largest community, and only city in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, about south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the ...
,
Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from 1 ...
and Saskatoon. He has later worked as an educational administrator for
Nunavut Arctic College Nunavut Arctic College ( iu, ᓄᓇᕗᒻᒥᓯᓚᑦᑐᖅᓴᕐᕕᒃ, french: Collège de l’Arctique du Nunavut, Inuinnaqtun: ''Nunavunmi Inirnirit Iliharviat'') is a public community college in the territory of Nunavut, Canada. The colle ...
. Michael Kusugak grew up living a traditional, nomadic Inuit life with his family. Every night, Michael pleaded with his grandmother to tell him a story, until she eventually gave in. In this environment, Michael's love of storytelling was born. It wasn't until Michael had his own children that he realized that there was hardly anything written for children about life in the Arctic, so he started telling them his grandmother's stories. In the late 1980s, Robert Munsch visited a local school and stayed in the Kusugak household. Along with Munsch as a co-author, Michael wrote his first book, ''A Promise is a Promise,'' published in 1988. Michael Arvaarluk Kusugak has been writing ever since. His books have been published in French, Korean, Japanese and Braille. All of Kusugak's books, except for ''T is for Territories'', which is part of a non-fiction series, are illustrated by Vladyana Krykorka. Krykorka came to Toronto from Prague when the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia. She illustrated ''A Promise is a Promise'' in 1988, and since then has been to Nunavut many times to visit, photograph and paint the land and people. She has also written and illustrated a set of her own books depicting the land and animals of the north: ''Arctic Land'', ''Arctic Sea'', and ''Arctic Sky''. Ijiraq,
Kiviuq Kiviuq (also spelled "Qiviuq", "Kiviok" and other variants) is a legendary hero of the epic stories of the Inuit of the Arctic regions of northern Canada, Alaska and Greenland. Kiviuq is an eternal Inuit wanderer. Spirits, giants, cannibals, bea ...
, and Siarnaq, moons of Saturn, were named by astronomer John J. Kavelaars after encountering the figures in one of Kusugak's books.
Paaliaq Paaliaq is a prograde irregular satellite of Saturn. It was discovered by J. J. Kavelaars, Brett J. Gladman, Jean-Marc Petit, Hans Scholl, Matthew J. Holman, Brian G. Marsden, Philip D. Nicholson and Joseph A. Burns in early October 2000, and gi ...
, another moon, was named after one of Kusugak's original characters featured in ''The Curse Of The Shaman: A Marble Island''.


Reception

Kusugak holds a unique place in Canadian children's literature, speaking from "the in-between of cultures" and finding common ground that relates to the very different parts of Canada. He is valued not only for the captivating content of his books, but also for his role as one of very few Inuit authors, and his commitment to sharing stories. Kusugak has to take stories that he naturally tells out loud in Inuktituk, and put them into writing in English. He rehearses his stories first out loud, and his books are praised for having "the well-worn feeling of an old, much-told tale". Michael Kusugak is known for his power to keep large groups of kids captivated for long periods of time with his stories. He is a storyteller, not only a writer of children's books, and spends a lot of his time telling stories to children in schools and libraries. At these events, he doesn't read his books out loud; he tells stories that he heard as a child and stories from his own life. "Before books, or even reading, should come the story, says Inuit storyteller and children's author Michael Kusugak. It should be told in person, with lots of repetition, facial expressions and feedback from listeners," he says. "You can take these stories and write them down, but I think you lose something if you don't actually go and tell them". His stories stimulate interesting questions and prompt classroom discussion. They seem to have a power in their unique nature and topics. A group of teachers who introduced their classes to Kusugak's books reported that their students were keenly interested in learning more about Canada. Rich discussions were held in classrooms and the children expressed pride in being part of such a large country with diversity in geography and people. They often asked challenging questions about life in the various regions of Canada.


Awards

Winner of the Ruth Schwartz Award for Children's Literature for ''Northern Lights: The Soccer Trails'' in 1994. Winner of the Vicky Metcalf Award for Children's Literature in 2008. Kusugak has also been shortlisted for many other awards The Hnatyshyn Foundation, REVEAL Indigenous Art Awards, Laureate (2017)


Themes

Kusugak's work reflects many of the common themes in Canadian Indigenous children's literature. In his books, many of the heroes are strong female protagonists, girls who get themselves out of tight situations by being clever and resourceful. This is one of the ways that Indigenous authors try to counteract the particularly harsh destruction of Indigenous women, by European colonizers. Another theme is Kusugak's focus on home and family, and the essential role of elders, particularly grandmothers. This is common as a way for Aboriginal authors to create positive cultural associations for children, and a positive image of home, which includes ‘the land’ much more than a physical house in Kusugak's stories. Often, his main characters are warned by a parent or grandparent about a potential danger, but don't believe them. In the end, they learn their lesson the hard way and learn to trust the knowledge of their elders. In Kusugak's first book, ''A Promise is a Promise'', a girl named Allashua decides that her mother's warnings about the sea ice must be wrong, and decides to go and play near the cracks in the spring ice. She is taken by creatures who live under the ice, the Qallupilluit, who crave children but have promised never to take children who are with their parents. Allashua makes a bargain with the creatures, and promises that she will bring them more children if they let her go. She gets all the way back home before freezing solid, and after her parents warm her up, she tells them what she promised. They come up with a plan and together outwit the Qallupilluit, so Allashua and all her brothers and sisters are safe.


Works

Michael Kusugak has written picture books, young readers’ novels and chapter books, and one non-fiction picture book. * ''A Promise is a Promise'' (co-authored with
Robert Munsch Robert Norman Munsch (born June 11, 1945) is an American-Canadian children's author. Personal life and career Robert Munsch was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on June 11, 1945. He grew up in a family of 9 children. He graduated from Fordha ...
, 1989) * ''Baseball Bats for Christmas'' (1990) * ''Hide and Sneak'' (1992) * ''Northern Lights: The Soccer Trails'' (1993) * ''My Arctic 1,2,3'' (1996) * ''Arctic Stories'' (1998) * ''Who Wants Rocks?'' (1999) * ''The Curse of the Shaman, A Marble Island Story'' (2006) * ''The Littlest Sled Dog'' (2008) * ''T is for Territories: A Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut Alphabet'' (2013) *''Baby Arctic Animals'' (2014) *''Birds Come and Go'' (2014) *''A Dog Team'' (2014) *''I Build an Igloo'' (2014) *''Snow'' (2014) *On Waiting (Illustrated by Susan Thurston Shirley, 2016) *''Inuit,Tundra and Ravens'' (2017)


References

Bergman, B. (1996, Apr 08). Arctic myths and magic. Maclean's, 109, 75–76. Ellis, Sarah. (2000). From Reader to Writer: Teaching Writing Through Classic Children's Books. Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre Nicholls, Liz. "Michael Kusugak's Arctic Tales Warm Kids' Hearts." CanWest News: 1. May 31, 2005. ProQuest. Web. 4 Feb. 2014 Ruurs, Magriet."Michael Kusugak: Author Interview". The Bookmark 5.1, 2011: 30. Web. 1 Feb. 2014. Saltman, Judith. "Canadian Children’s Literature at the Millennium" Windows and Words: A Look at Canadian Children's Literature in English. Susan-Ann Cooper, et al. Vol. 25. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2003. UBC ebrary. Web. 4 Feb. 2014.


External links


Michael Kusugak


in
The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available f ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kusugak, Michael 1948 births Canadian children's writers Inuit from the Northwest Territories Writers from Nunavut Living people Inuit writers People from Rankin Inlet Inuit from Nunavut