Make Your Own Inuksuk

Christine Linge MacDonald, a past director of the Toronto & District
Parent Co-operative Preschool Corporation and a freelance writer, is an
elementary school teacher in Whitby.

Award-winning author Mary Wallace has written a fine book about the
“beautiful balanced-stone sculpture traditionally built by the
Inuit.” Part how-to manual and part cultural treatise, this volume
will undoubtedly inspire a young reader to try his or her hand at
creating an original inuksuk for any of the many authentic traditional
purposes that Wallace describes. The step-by-step instructions are clear
and simple, and several sequential photo-plans are featured on the
sidebars.

Wallace’s tone is serious and respectful when recounting the various
meanings that the Inuit people have ascribed to these sculptures (as a
message place, navigational aid, or token of respect), and this tender
language spills over into her suggestions of how others might use the
inuksuk for their own interpretations and purposes. Translated
quotations from Inuit elders, highlighted outside the text, help support
Wallace’s position that the Inuit people are in favor of the building
of inuksuk by other peoples, if done for “recreational purposes.”

Mary Wallace displays great talents as a photographer, as well. All the
lovely, textured and detailed photos in the book are hers; they convey
such serenity that one is inspired to build an inuksuk right away.
Highly recommended.