Who am I with regard to this blog?

A few years ago, I travelled to Nunavik. It was an event that had a profound impact on my life. 

When I first met the Inuit, I was able to communicate with them almost immediately even if I did not speak Inuktitut. They came to me easily, maybe because they considered me an elder. In the Inuit culture, being an elder counts. “Elders” are considered culture-bearers. Respect is not only a matter of one’s chronological age: elders are perceived as role models who serve as advisors, philosophers and professors.

Due to health reasons, it was a hard decision not to go back when I felt better. It seemed like I packed a lifetime of observations as I began writing a yet unpublished book. When I finished  writing it, I decided to write a children's book. The girl in my book asks a lot of questions about what is happening to her community, for example, how come, when her little friend is abused and violated, she goes to court and the charge is rejected, because, according to the defense lawyer, her friend is not smart enough to be trusted to say the truth. My girl hero cannot understand this logic.

A short while ago, I picked up a an architectural magazine because I read the name of the last Nunavik village I was in. Architects are interested in doing urban planning up North with the added advantage that  the houses would be much more functional.

To my surprise and general hilarity, when I turned over the magazinet  to find out that the journalist doing the report was Laurent K. Blais, there was a picture of the girl I pictured as my girl hero taken by photographer Benoît Paillé. The attitude is there: this girl is auhentic. Nothing short of the truth is going to satisfy her, that is what all she wants.