Kenn Harper

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Kenn Harper (aka Ilisaijikutaaq, tall teacher [1] ) is a Canadian writer, historian and former businessman. He is the author of Give Me My Father's Body, an account of Greenland Inuk Minik Wallace, had a regular column on Arctic history in Nunatsiaq News and is a former landlord. [2]

Contents

Early life

Harper relocated to the Arctic in 1966 as a teacher at Broughton Island, now known as Qikiqtarjuaq. [3] He later lived in Padloping Island, Pangnirtung, Arctic Bay (all in the Canadian Eastern Arctic) and Qaanaaq, Greenland, [3] and worked at various times as a teacher, development officer, and entrepreneur. [4] He eventually settled in Iqaluit, Nunavut, where he bought the Arctic Ventures general store, which was previously owned by Bryan Pearson. He sold the company to Arctic Co-operatives Limited in 2012. [3] [5] [6] [7]

Harper became known as a historian of the Arctic. For ten years (2005-2015), he wrote "Taissumani", a regular column on Arctic history in Nunatsiaq News . [8] He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. [3] In 1986 he published Give Me My Father's Body: The Life of Minik, the New York Eskimo, which tells the story of Minik Wallace, a member of the Inughuit or "Polar Eskimo" tribe who was among a group taken by Robert Peary from his home in northwest Greenland to New York City. [9] It was republished under the same title in 2000 by Steerforth Press. In 2017 Steerforth Press published a much-expanded version, containing new information on Minik's life, under the title Minik, The New York Eskimo.

From 2005 to 2017, Harper was Honorary Danish Consul, an unpaid posting in Iqaluit. [10] On 9 June 2014, Harper was recognized by the Government of Denmark for his work with the presentation of the Order of the Dannebrog. The appointment of Ridder (Knight) had been made in April and was approved by the Government of Canada. [1]

Harper is also an enthusiastic wrestling fan, notable for bringing Maximum Pro Wrestling to Iqaluit as a charity show to raise money for youth sports. [11]

Harper is fluent in English, Inuktitut and conversational Danish.

Works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iqaluit</span> Capital city of Nunavut, Canada

Iqaluit is the capital of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. It is the territory's largest community and its only city. It was known as Frobisher Bay from 1942 to 1987, after the large bay on the coast on which the city is situated. The northernmost city in Canada, its traditional Inuktitut name was restored in 1987.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inuit languages</span> Branch of the Eskaleut language family

The Inuit languages are a closely related group of indigenous American languages traditionally spoken across the North American Arctic and the adjacent subarctic regions as far south as Labrador. The Inuit languages are one of the two branches of the Eskimoan language family, the other being the Yupik languages, which are spoken in Alaska and the Russian Far East. Most Inuit people live in one of three countries: Greenland, a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark; Canada, specifically in Nunavut, the Inuvialuit Settlement Region of the Northwest Territories, the Nunavik region of Quebec, and the Nunatsiavut and NunatuKavut regions of Labrador; and the United States, specifically in northern and western Alaska.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Peary</span> American Arctic explorer (1856–1920)

Robert Edwin Peary Sr. was an American explorer and officer in the United States Navy who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was long credited as being the discoverer of the geographic North Pole in April 1909, having led the first expedition to have claimed this achievement, although it is now considered unlikely that he actually reached the Pole.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pond Inlet</span> Place in Nunavut, Canada

Pond Inlet is a small, predominantly Inuit community in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada, located on northern Baffin Island. To the Inuit the name of the place "is and always has been Mittimatalik." The Scottish explorer Sir John Ross had named an arm of the sea that separates Bylot Island from Baffin Island as Pond's Bay, and the hamlet now shares that name. On 29 August 1921, the Hudson's Bay Company opened its trading post near the Inuit camp and named it Pond Inlet, marking the expansion of its trading empire into the High Arctic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inuktitut</span> Name of several Inuit languages spoken in Canada

Inuktitut, also known as Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the North American tree line, including parts of the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, to some extent in northeastern Manitoba as well as the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. It is one of the aboriginal languages written with Canadian Aboriginal syllabics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minik Wallace</span> Inuit child (1890-1918)

Minik Wallace was an Inughuaq (Inuk) brought as a child in 1897 from Greenland to New York City with his father and others by the explorer Robert Peary. The six Inuit were studied by staff of the American Museum of Natural History, which had custody. The adults and one child died soon of tuberculosis (TB), and one young man was returned to Greenland. After deceiving Minik with a staged burial, the museum put the skeleton of his father on exhibit. Minik was adopted by William Wallace, the museum's building superintendent, and did not return to Greenland until after 1910. He returned to the United States a few years later, where he remained and worked until dying of influenza in the 1918 pandemic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blond Eskimos</span> Light-haired Inuit from the Coronation Gulf area of Canada

Blonde Eskimos or Blond Eskimos is a term first applied in accounts of sightings of, and encounters with, light-haired Inuit peoples of Northern Canada from the early 20th century, particularly around the Coronation Gulf between mainland Canada and Victoria Island. Sightings of light-haired natives of the Arctic have been mentioned in written accounts as far back as the 17th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nunavut</span> Territory of Canada

Nunavut is the largest, easternmost, and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, which provided this territory to the Inuit for self-government. The boundaries had been drawn in 1993. The creation of Nunavut resulted in the first major change to Canada's political map in half a century since the province of Newfoundland was admitted in 1949.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abe Okpik</span> Inuit politician and leader

Abraham "Abe" Okpik, CM was an Inuit community leader in Canada. He was instrumental in helping Inuit obtain surnames rather than disc numbers as a form of government identification. He was also the first Inuk to sit on what is now the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories and worked with Thomas Berger.

The Ahiarmiut ᐃᓴᓪᒥᐅᑦ or Ihalmiut or are a group of inland Inuit who lived along the banks of the Kazan River, Ennadai Lake, and Little Dubawnt Lake, as well as north of Thlewiaza River, in northern Canada's Keewatin Region of the Northwest Territories, now the Kivalliq Region of present-day Nunavut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inuit</span> Indigenous peoples of northern North America

Inuit are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of North America, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Yukon (traditionally), Alaska, and Chukotsky District of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia. Inuit languages are part of the Eskimo–Aleut languages, also known as Inuit-Yupik-Unangan, and also as Eskaleut. Inuit Sign Language is a critically endangered language isolate used in Nunavut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inuit culture</span> Culture of the Inuit in the Arctic and Subarctic region

The Inuit are an indigenous people of the Arctic and subarctic regions of North America. The ancestors of the present-day Inuit are culturally related to Iñupiat, and Yupik, and the Aleut who live in the Aleutian Islands of Siberia and Alaska. The term culture of the Inuit, therefore, refers primarily to these areas; however, parallels to other Eskimo groups can also be drawn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian Klengenberg</span> Danish whaler, trapper, and trader in the Arctic

Christian Klengenberg Jorgensen was a Danish whaler, trapper, and trader, active for 34 years in Alaska and Northern Canada. He is notable for opening trade routes to the Copper Inuit territory. Klengenberg is also credited with the discovery of Blond Eskimo and recounting his experience to the anthropologist Vilhjalmur Stefansson who went on to publish about their existence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Kleinschmidt</span>

Samuel Petrus Kleinschmidt was a German/Danish missionary linguist born in Greenland known for having written extensively about the Greenlandic language and having invented the orthography used for writing this language from 1851 to 1973. He also translated parts of the Bible into Greenlandic.

George Michanowsky is known for his interpretation of rock art in Bolivia and Mesopotamian artefacts which he interpreted as referring to a supernova explosion in the Vela (constellation) which he dated to about 6000 years ago. He is described by Kenn Harper as a having "claimed to be a self-taught archaeologist, linguist, Egyptologist, epigrapher, and expert in Mesopotamian astronomy.

Aviaq Johnston is a Canadian Inuk writer from Igloolik, currently living in Iqaluit, Nunavut. Her debut young adult novel Those Who Run in the Sky won the inaugural Indigenous Voices Award for English Prose. The novel was also a shortlisted finalist for the Governor General's Award for English-language children's literature at the 2017 Governor General's Awards, and for the Burt Award for First Nations, Inuit and Métis Literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uqqurmiut Centre for Arts & Crafts</span> Arts centre

Uqqurmiut Centre for Arts & Crafts is an arts centre that was established by the Uqqurmiut Inuit Artists Association in 1990, in Pangnirtung, in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada. The Centre includes a Tapestry Studio, a Craft Gallery, and a Print Shop. In spite of its remote location and small population, numerous Inuit from Pangnirtung have successfully marketed their prints, carvings, sculptures, and textile arts, such as woven wall hangings, to southern collectors. Starting in the 1970s, limited edition prints from the original Print Shop were published annually as the Pangnirtung Prints Collection through the then-Eskimo Co-operative. In 1970 a weaving studio was established and over time the tapestries attracted an international market.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simonie Michael</span> Canadian Inuit politician (1933–2008)

Simonie Michael was a Canadian politician from the eastern Northwest Territories who was the first Inuk elected to a legislature in Canada. Before becoming involved in politics, Michael worked as a carpenter and business owner, and was one of very few translators between Inuktitut and English. He became a prominent member of the Inuit co-operative housing movement and a community activist in Iqaluit, and was appointed to a series of governing bodies, including the precursor to the Iqaluit City Council.

John Amagoalik is an Inuit politician from Nunavik (Québec). He campaigned for Inuit rights and made a significant contribution to the founding of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. He was Chairman of the Nunavut Implementation Commission and is widely regarded as the "Father of Nunavut".

References

  1. 1 2 Nunavut historian, linguist, teacher, businessman becomes Danish knight
  2. Chavich, Cinda (11 February 2003). "Arctic hot for Northern Property". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved 7 August 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Harper, Arctic historian, knighted by Denmark
  4. Give Me My Father's Body : The Life of Minik, The New York Eskimo, book jacket biography
  5. A Nunavut institution changes hands: ACL buys Arctic Ventures
  6. "Politics involved in Nutrition North: businessman". CBC News. 2 June 2011.
  7. Extreme shopping - Iqaluit
  8. Taissumanni, a weekly article of historical interest by Harper, published in the Nunatsiaq News
  9. Kenn Harper at Salon.com
  10. "Harper named Danish honorary consul". Nunatsiaq News . 7 October 2005. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
  11. "Maximum Pro Wrestling in Iqaluit, Nunavut - Arctic Classic 2011". Maximum Pro Wrestling . Retrieved 7 August 2023.
  12. "In Those Days: Tales of Arctic Whaling". Inhabit Media. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  13. "In Those Days: Shamans, Spirits, and Faith in the Inuit North". Inhabit Media. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  14. "In Those Days: Inuit and Explorers". Inhabit Media. Retrieved 3 June 2022.