Letter to an Inuk from 2022

by Jean Malaurie, Drew S. Burk (Translator)

As climate change transforms the landscape of the ice sheet in Greenland and future industries prepare to extract precious metals and petroleum, Jean Malaurie addresses a younger generation of Inuit, caught between assimilation into Western societies and heritage of thinking with the earth and the environment. With his sweeping personal narrative as explorer, scientist, and goodwill ambassador for indigenous knowledge, Malaurie calls on these inhabitants of a young nation to preserve their cultural knowledge and develop a healthful relation between future and past forms of sustainable living.  

It is urgent to recognize the prescience of indigenous populations and their obstinate will to respect the land on which they live—not as latecomers to our current times but as precursors to our future.

100 pages, Paperback

First published October 28, 2015

About the author

Jean Malaurie was a French cultural anthropologist, explorer, geographer, physicist, and writer. He and Kutsikitsoq, an Inuk, were the first two men to reach the North Geomagnetic Pole on 29 May 1951.

Jean Malaurie était un anthropologue culturel, explorateur, géographe, physicien et écrivain français. Lui et Kutsikitsoq, un Inuk, furent les deux premiers hommes à atteindre le pôle géomagnétique Nord le 29 mai 1951.