Norman Hallendy's interest in how traditional Inuit perceived their
environment is central to his work. By conducting community-based research
with elders who lived in hunting camps on southwest Baffin Island and
by learning Inuktitut, he has gained over the last thirty years a deep
respect for Inuit traditions. Affectionately known by his Inuit friends
as "ah-peer-suk-ti," or the inquisitive one, he learned to
see things around him in ways unfamiliar to many and was taught words
and expressions that define perceptions and concepts of the material
and spiritual world of his mentors.
Hallendy's professional background is diverse. He was
a senior civil servant in the government of Canada and contributed directly
to the formulation of public policy aimed at improving conditions for
the Inuit throughout the north. He was senior vice president of one
of Canada"s largest Crown corporations, where he improved housing
policies and delivery programs in the Arctic. His responsibilities in
the Department of Northern Affairs and the National Film Board of Canada
allowed him to contribute significantly to the development and worldwide
recognition of Inuit art. He has lectured at Cambridge, Oxford, and
universities in the United States and Canada. His work has drawn the
attention of the World Archaeological Congress, the American Anthropological
Society, the Arctic Institute of North America, the Canadian Museum
of Civilization, and the Smithsonian Institution. He is the author and
photographer of Inuksuit: Silent Messengers of the Arctic (University
of Washington Press, 2000).
His slide lecture, based on conversations with elders in several Arctic
communities, draws on the hauntingly beautiful Arctic landscape, its
places of power and objects of veneration, and on many Inuktitut words
and expressions whose meanings verbalize a number of spiritual entities.
For example, some Inummariit, Inuit who live in the traditional
manner, believe that Nuna, the earth, possesses Inua,
a life force. They perceive the earth as both a place and a living being.
Similarly, the expression Sarqarittukuurgunga, "I travel through
places of vast horizons," is a metaphor for journeys to unusual places
on the temporal landscape and traverses through a metaphysical world.
