From Publishers Weekly
In Walking on the Land, a third chronicle of the embattled, exiled Ihalmiut people of the Arctic, Farley Mowat (Never Cry Wolf) aims "to help ensure that man's inhumane acts are not expunged from memory, thereby easing the way for repetitions of such horrors." After reading Mowat's The Desperate People, an Ihalmiut woman raised after the 1957 removal of her people from their home sought him out for further information, resulting in this account of the Ihalmiut's tragic plight. His earlier reports of Ihalmiut culture and the "unwitting genocide" waged on them by government, commerce and missionaries were received with accusations of falsity, denials that the Ihalmiut existed or dismissive silence. Mowat's typically lively, sensitive, plainspoken book traces responsible and victimized parties through devastating misunderstanding and mistreatment. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Canadian naturalist and Arctic specialist Mowat started his career 50 years ago with the publication of People of the Deer, which described the lives and customs of the Ihalmuit (Barren Ground Inuit), with whom he lived for two years, and also helped bring attention to their "unwitting genocide" by establishment institutions. Some 30 years later, Mowat wrote another influential book, Sea of Slaughter, which focused on environmental destruction along the northern Atlantic seaboard. Now, in this passionate account, the prolific author of 30 books revisits the controversial subject and place and learns that his past predictions of tribal decline have been fulfilled as he again witnesses disease, starvation, and violence. Known for his extraordinary storytelling, Mowat presents a multigenerational viewpoint through his accounts of Hudson Bay men, missionaries, and other Arctic people as he subtly describes the desolate landscape. Recommended for public libraries. Margaret W. Norton, Oak Park, IL Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
One of Canada's best-known writers reworks his People of the Deer (1952) and The Desperate People (1960), adding new material. Those books, which depicted the plight of an Inuit band called the Ihalmiut ("people from beyond"), displeased officials responsible for the Arctic, some of whom sarcastically referred to Mowat as "Hardly Knowit." The new book primarily covers Mowat's 1958 plane-and-canoe trip to the district then named Keewatin, which the Ihalmiut more descriptively called the Barren Lands. Something terrible had befallen the Ihalmiut the previous winter, leaving only some dozens of survivors, one of whom, Kikik, was charged with murder. Looking into the disaster involved Mowat alighting from contraptions of dubious airworthiness at outposts scattered across the vast, flat, water-coursed land. In the recounting, he straightway notes Kikik's acquittal, then subtly integrates her case into a pithily expressive travelogue. At its center is a canoe voyage to Inuit camps with Father Choque, a Catholic missionary with a "a heron-like alertness about him" and his own mystery to investigate, which concerned a devoted but undiplomatic brother cleric. The tragedy of the proselytizing Father Buliard encapsulates Mowat's contextual theme of the corruption of the Ihalmiut's hunting culture by the encroachment of white society. Yet Mowat is too perceptive to cut his story to fit the conventions of a cultural clash. Rather than using them functionally, he individuates all the characters of his story. His skillful writing, familiar to his many fans, should also engage new readers as well as anyone concerned about indigenous peoples. Gilbert Talylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
"Mowat's art is to make metaphors out of his personal experience, to bring home realities as through parable." — The Globe and Mail

"Farley Mowat is a brilliant writer." — James Herriot


Review
"Mowat's art is to make metaphors out of his personal experience, to bring home realities as through parable." ? The Globe and Mail

"Farley Mowat is a brilliant writer." ? James Herriot


Book Description
No one writes about the Arctic and its inhabitants better than Farley Mowat. In Walking on the Land, he returns to this subject and, in the tradition of The People of the Deer, brings to life the plight of the Ihalmuit, or Barrenground Inuit, a people almost wiped out by famine and epidemics. Enlivened by vivid descriptions and larger-than-life characters, this book brings Mowat’s writing full circle, and will stand as a testament to his lifelong passion for the Arctic and his unparalleled talent as its champion.


From the Inside Flap
Using one of his own trips through the Eastern Arctic as a starting point, Farley Mowat interweaves the stories of the Barren Ground Inuit with stunning, lyrical descriptions of the Northern landscape.

With great beauty and terrible anguish, Mowat traces the history of the Inuit, revealing how the arrival of the Kablunait — white man — in the early part of the century and the subsequent obliteration of the caribou herds combined to unleash a series of famines and epidemics that virtually wiped out the Barren Ground Inuit population.

Full of larger-than-life characters — old-time Hudson's Bay company men, eccentric priests, wild bush pilots and well-meaning interlopers — Walking on the Land is an unforgettable account by one of Canada's most committed and impassioned voices.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"No one has written about the Arctic and its people better than Farley Mowat. It has been fifty years since his first book, The People of the Deer, made his reputation and, more importantly, brought the plight of the Ihalmiut, or Barren Ground Inuit, to the world's attention. The New York Times Book Review recently called Mowat "a master storyteller" and, as always, he presents a saga peopled by a cast of larger-than-life characters: old-time Hudson's Bay Company men, eccentric priests, wild bush pilots, and well-meaning interlopers. He interweaves the personal stories of individual Ihalmiut with stunning, lyrical descriptions of their homeland, and he movingly dramatizes the injustices that inevitably befall a people when they are controlled by a faraway government that neither represents their interests nor understands their needs and circumstances. Walking on the Land brings Mowat's writing full circle, and will stand as a testament to his lifelong passions and unparalleled career."--BOOK JACKET.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

Canadian naturalist and Arctic specialist Mowat started his career 50 years ago with the publication of People of the Deer, which described the lives and customs of the Ihalmuit (Barren Ground Inuit), with whom he lived for two years, and also helped bring attention to their "unwitting genocide" by establishment institutions. Some 30 years later, Mowat wrote another influential book, Sea of Slaughter, which focused on environmental destruction along the northern Atlantic seaboard. Now, in this passionate account, the prolific author of 30 books revisits the controversial subject and place and learns that his past predictions of tribal decline have been fulfilled as he again witnesses disease, starvation, and violence. Known for his extraordinary storytelling, Mowat presents a multigenerational viewpoint through his accounts of Hudson Bay men, missionaries, and other Arctic people as he subtly describes the desolate landscape. Recommended for public libraries. Margaret W. Norton, Oak Park, IL Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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