Carp resident shares his Arctic exploration experiences with ADHS high school students
Posted Jan 26, 2012 By Theresa Fritz
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EMC Lifestyle -Some Grade 11 high school students got a view of the Arctic few have seen, thanks to the lifelong passion of a Carp explorer.
Theresa Fritz, West Carleton EMC
Noman Halleny, a leading expert on inuksuit and Inuit sacred places, spoke to Grade 11 Native Studies students at Almonte District High School last week. The Carp resident, has spent more than 50 years travelling to the Arctic and has written two books.
Norman Hallendy, considered the world's leading expert on inuksuit -the stone structures built by Inuit to convey messages -and Inuit sacred sites, spoke to students in two Native Studies classes last Thursday at Arnprior District High School. Having travelled the Canadian Arctic for more than 50 years, he spoke about the beauty, culture and the mystery of the area and its people.
"What started as a necessity became the second love of my life," Hallendy told the students.
He recalled how his father offered to pay for his postsecondary education only if he were to pursue medicine, law or engineering. He wanted to study art so his father told him to pay for his own education.
"The only way to really make some money was working for the mining companies during exploratory work," Hallendy recalled. "Gradually, we (mining company) we began to move further north."
While he would eventually become a career civil servant with the federal government, his love of the north and its people continues, even after retiring from work.
Hallendy first saw inuksuit in 1958 while on a trip to Baffin Island for the Department of Northern Affairs and Natural Resources. And, after that, there were many more to see.
Students were shown photographs of a variety of inuksuit and Inuit sacred places -from warnings of hazardous terrain to burial grounds and playground areas.
Along with many travels, he got to know the people who called the north home. They became, as he said, "surrogate grandmothers and surrogate grandfathers."
Many of the Inuit who helped along his journey of discovery in the north were shown to the students in photographs. All of those individuals, with whom he forged special relationships, are now deceased.
"What started as a necessity became the second love of my life," Hallendy said.
One of the photographs he shared with students was taken 30 years ago. It showed ice covering part of a landscape. He said today, if one to venture to that area, the ice would hardly be visible because of the warming temperatures in the Arctic.
He also recalled standing in a glacial field and hearing water run below him and finding that "scary" and sounded much like a subway train rumbling on a track.
"The landscape we see in the Arctic now is because of the ice," Hallendy explained. "Some places are unbelievable."
He spoke of the art created by wind, ice and the cold on the rocks along the landscape.
"The Arctic is virtually a desert. It has the same amount of precipitation as the Sahara, very few places sustain life," Hallendy noted. "The cold and frost can create very unique patterns."
Over the years, as the Arctic landscape has changed, so too has what lives there. There is emergence of plants such as Aortic cotton and in turn, the plants have attracted musk ox, which "live and die at the edge of the ice." Peregrine falcons and foxes also call the Arctic home.
During a short question period at the end of the presentation, one of the students commented on the beauty of Hallendy's photographs and asked if he has done anything with those photos.
He responded he has donated 8,000 of his photographs. They were donated to the Mc-Michael Canadian Art Collection in Vaughan, ON. His photographs from his years of Arctic exploration can also be found in the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Northern Heritage Centre.
"I learned a lot about myself in the north," he told the students. "I learned we are vulnerable and we don't even know it...You begin to learn how to question things, not just about myself but about life in general," Hallendy offered. "What I learned is you have to keep going. And that is why I am working on my third book right now."
Hallendy also spearheads the Tukilik Foundation, which is an online database of his knowledge and experiences. He also speaks regularly about his experiences and is a research associate of the Arctic Institute of North America, a research fellow of the Canadian Museum of Civilization and an associate of the World Archaeological Congress. He is and will always remain in awe of the Arctic, its peoples and its inuksuit and sacred places.
"There are places that have power," he concluded.
theresa.fritz@hotmail.com
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