Twelve Polar Bears and a Dog

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

A young student named Marilyn has just completed a painting. A classmate
compliments her work, exclaiming, “What a totally awesome dog!”
Another student says, “That’s not how a polar bear looks.” Other
classmates offer opinions; some love the picture, others hate it.
Instead of seeking approval or taking offence at these remarks, Marilyn
marvels at how one little painting can be so many things to so many
people. She puts away her drawing and goes on with her life.

This is an example of “Ajurnamat,” an Inuktitut word that stresses
“it is so,” or sometimes “there is nothing that can be done about
that now.” Identifying Ajurnamat is an Inuit way of coping with the
destructive forces of anger. After years of living and working among the
Inuit, Ray Woollam has assembled this collection of short stories and
poems that challenge the current Eurocentric psychological ideologies
that hold anger to be “inevitable, useful, healthy or good.” Much of
the text is devoted to how destructive anger plagues Inuit society
today; it makes for thought-provoking reading, because Ajurnamat demands
acceptance of reality, no matter how unpleasant. One short story
concludes, “Andrea’s dead, hung herself with a rope. And I accept
her choice. Ajurnamat!” This is definitely a book adults should read
before passing it out to young readers. Recommended.