Breaking The Silence
For centuries, newcomers to the Arctic have marvelled at its powerful stillness. But as the ice melts away and shipping traffic rises, can the Arctic fight back against noise?
Samia Madwar
I'm currently the managing editor at The Walrus. Previously, I've worked at Up Here and Canadian Geographic magazines.
Hummus In The Land Of Caribou
For refugees, the North might as well be another planet. Can the right flavours make them feel at home?
Raindrops On Ice
My first attempt at a science comic examines the effects of increased precipitation in the North.
Inuit Games
Want to develop the agility to hop over cracks in the ice? Want to train your knuckles to withstand the freezing pain of creeping up to a seal hole on the ice? Practise the Inuit high kick and the knuckle hop several times a day, and you might be ready.
Get Your Burn On In The Cold
You don’t need a weight room to get fit; just spend a season hauling fish nets, chopping wood, or sawing blocks of snow. Or at least pretend to.
VIDEO: How To Build a Fire
I assisted Hannah Eden, Up Here's photographer/videographer, with this shoot. Lesson learned: always wear the right boots if you're going to spend more than five minutes shooting outdoors in a Yellowknife winter.
How To Build An Airstrip On The Tundra
How one RCMP officer and pilot did it with his bare hands.
The Middle of Everywhere: Mapping traditional knowledge in the North
Most official maps today show the North to be a vast, empty land, with scattered communities and various geographical features named by European explorers who once passed through. Communities and researchers are teaming up to change that.
How To Build Your Own Plane
There’s a half-built aluminum two-seater plane in Chris Holloway’s garage, and he’s hoping to have it in the air by the summer. “Some people build airplanes because they want to build airplanes,” he says. “Some people want to build airplanes so they can fly. I fit into the latter category.”
He Speaks for the Polar Bears
Ian Stirling received the Weston Family Prize for lifetime achievement in Northern research in December 2015. I interviewed him about his polar bear research.
Escape Artist
For Up Here's annual travel issue, I wrote about artist residencies in the North. Playwright Reneltta Arluk reveals how spending a couple of weeks aboard a tallship helped break her writer's block.
Casting Doubt
The Revenant, the Oscar-winning film by Alejandro Inarritu, featured a Dene actress from Yellowknife, NWT. She played the role of Powaqa, an Arikara warrior and daughter of Elk Dog, played by Duane Howard. Here's the story of the day the casting crew came to Yellowknife.
The Sound of Silence
Inside the gutted cavern with its paint-splattered floor, missing ceiling panels, leaky pipes and only two functioning outlets, everything is vibrating. It sounds like a mix of a ship’s horn blasting, the click of a call connecting, a plane preparing for take off, a dentist’s drill, the distant rumble of an oncoming storm.
Don't Worry, It's Not Rudolph: How to celebrate the holidays with a Northern, on-the-land feast
During the holidays, it's customary for magazines to offer tips and recipes for all those dinners with family, friends, and coworkers. We decided to have a bit of fun with that idea.
Identity Crisis
What does it mean to be Inuk in 2015? I spoke with Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Natan Obed, Jesse Mike, and National Inuit Youth Council leader Maatalii Okalik.
Up Here's Northerners of the Year: FOXY
Every year, Up Here magazine names a Northerner of the Year. In 2015, we chose FOXY, Fostering Open eXpression among Youth, for their work with young northerners. This is their story.
NOTY Shortlist: The Preserver
Jacey Firth-Hagen’s Gwich’in language revival campaign—with its flagship movement, #SpeakGwichinToMe—has just over 800 Facebook likes. In the age of Internet virulence, that doesn’t sound like much, until you consider that it’s nearly twice the number of people fluent in the Gwich’in language today.
Inappropriation
Northern artists discuss the misappropriation of aboriginal culture and art, an issue that continues to plague popular culture and fashion today. This story was the cover story for Up Here's June 2014 issue, and was nominated for a National Magazine Award in the Arts category.
Playing It By Ear
Fiddling and dancing have entertained Northerners for the past two centuries. But in this age of constant distraction, will music survive? I met with some of the North's Metis fiddling masters to find out.
From A Different Mould
In the early sixties, the federal government brought ceramics to Rankin Inlet to build a traditional arts economy. They didn’t count on the artists actually getting creative.
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