This Vanishing Land
A Woman's Journey to the Canadian Arctic
- Publisher
- Caitlin Press
- Initial publish date
- Oct 2009
- Category
- Western Provinces
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781894759380
- Publish Date
- Oct 2009
- List Price
- $28.95
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Where to buy it
Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels
- Age: 16
- Grade: 11
Description
In the spring of 2007 the Canadian Forces and the Canadian Rangers, the regiment responsible for providing a military presence in isolated communities, set out on a treacherous journey across jagged sea ice and over steep and hostile terrain. Their mission was to travel over two thousand kilometres by snowmobile from Resolute to the Canadian Forces Station Alert, and plant a Canadian flag enroute at Ward Hunt Island. Author, photographer and filmmaker Dianne Whelan is the first woman to accompany the Rangers on this never before patrolled route of the northwestern coast of Ellesmere Island. Walking in the path of the historic giants of exploration, they were the first to reach this destination in the High Arctic since American explorer Robert E. Peary's famous voyage in 1906. Operation Nunalivut (the Inuktitut word for "land that is ours") pushes Whelan to her physical and emotional limits. There are some chilling moments, such as when her snowmobile catches fire or later whenshe plunges into a twenty-foot crack in the ice, but Whelan boldly faces conditions only few can imagine and makes history as the first woman to successfully complete the gruelling trip. In This Vanishing Land Whelan shares her personal journey and explores the tumultuous political history and global significance of the Canadian High Arctic.
About the author
Dianne Whelan is an award-winning Canadian photographer and filmmaker residing in Garden Bay, BC.
The subject of her first book, This Vanishing Land, references her experience as an embedded media person on a historical Sovereignty Patrol in the Canadian High Arctic. Her recently-released National Film Board documentary, This Land, is based on the same journey and has won several awards, including Best Short Documentary at both the Planet in Focus Film Festival in Toronto and the 2010 Leo Awards for BC film and television. The film can be viewed online here.
A multi-media web project on her Arctic journey was released in June 2010 and recently won Best Small Multimedia Site at the Online Journalism Awards.
In April 2010, Whelan traveled to Nepal and Mount Everest Base Camp to direct and shoot her next documentary film (currently in post-production for release in the fall of 2011) which is also the subject of her forthcoming book.
Librarian Reviews
This Vanishing Land: A Woman’s Journey to the Canadian Arctic
In the spring of 2007, Dianne Whelan convinced the Canadian Forces and the Canadian Rangers to allow her to join the annual sovereignty patrol from Resolute to Alert. The mission of the patrol was to plant a Canadian flag at Ward Hunt Island, the northern most tip of Canada. Whelan was expected to pull her own weight on the trip, as she was taking the place of a trained Canadian soldier. The result of the patrol was Whelan’s 2009 NFB documentary, This Land.Whelan is an award-winning photographer. Her documentary, This Land, was released by the National Film Board in 2009.
Caution: Includes profanity.
Source: The Association of Book Publishers of BC. BC Books for BC Schools. 2010-2011.
