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Larry Audlaluk was born in Uugaqsiuvik, a traditional settlement west of Inujjuak in northern Quebec, or Nunavik. He was almost three years old when his family was chosen by the government to be one of seven Inuit families relocated from Nunavik to the High Arctic in the early 1950s.They were promised a land of plenty. They were given an inhospitable polar desert.
Larry tells of loss, illness, and his family’s struggle to survive, juxtaposed with excerpts from official reports that conveyed the relocatees’ plight as a successful experiment. With refreshing candour and an unbreakable sense of humour, Larry leads the reader through his life as a High Arctic Exile—through broken promises, a decades-long fight to return home, and a life between two worlds as southern culture begins to encroach on Inuit traditions.
"Amid some terrible histories, Audlaluk offers moments of unexpected tenderness and beauty."—Literary Review of Canada
"Weaving together his own memories and interviews with family and friends, Audlaluk writes like a storyteller...This book will be eye-opening for southern Canadians who are just now realizing the depth of the history they were never taught."—Broadview Magazine
"If those interested in the modern history of the Inuit people of eastern Canada were to read just one book on the subject, Larry Audlaluk's What I Remember, What I Know, should be it."—Arctic Book Review
Larry Audlaluk’s life story is recounted in this important memoir that outlines the experiences and immense hardships experienced by his family throughout a forced life in the desolate High Arctic. Audlaluk’s family was one of several who were forcibly relocated in the High Arctic Relocation Program to some of the most inhospitable climates on Earth while being severed from the land that they and their ancestors had been living on since time immemorial. Their experiences of being uprooted from their homes and denied ties to their family and cultural practices, paired with extreme circumstances, is a story of survival against all odds. He shares how important reconnection to family, land, and culture has been in order for him to be a whole person despite such obstacles.