Those natives did not have the personal connection, the friendship. But they never returned, along with the other natives Peary had selected. Several years later, her parents also traveled with Peary. The novel explores the tension between the heroine's "two worlds." On the one hand, as a child, she went with Peary and lived with his family for about a year in the United States. It is told from the native perspective, a young woman named Eqariusaq, nicknamed Billy Bah by Robert E. The novel is set in Greenland at the turn of the twentieth century. I have more to say, over at my site: Between Two Worlds was an interesting and thoughtful novel. ![]() In this article, David Joanasi, of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, says "When you're an infant and a little kid, your parents and older siblings sniff you and rub your face with their nose", and Erin Eckman, who is Inupiaq and works for the Alaska Native Heritage Center said "Growing up in Alaska, I only really saw women do it to babies."ĭid you notice how many times Kirkpatrick uses "rubbing noses" in the story? I did. Wrong! It is actually a gesture of affection called a kunik by those who do it. Everyone knows that is the way Eskimos kiss, right? The degree to which that "knowledge" has come to pass as legitimate information explains 1) why Kirkpatrick could write such a book, 2) why her editor at Random House would not spot the outsider perspective, 3) and why reviewers give the book a thumbs up. Generally, there's a kernel of truth in such things, but when they seep into an outsider's conscience as THE thing(s) they know about a people, that outsider "knowledge" is vividly on display as ignorance and stereotype. The men get trade goods by offering sex with their wives as their unit of trade. There are certain things about Inuit people that most people take to be fact. "this does not strike me as an insider's voice." Peary, one of the white men who claimed to reach the North Pole (I used 'white' deliberately because all the fuss over "first" white men to reach this or that place always make me pause). ![]() The protagonist in Kirkpatrick's story is supposed to be an Inuit teen, Billy Bah, who was the seamstress for Robert E. It is getting good reviews, which represents another fail in the reviewing world. Katherine Kirkpatrick's Between Two Worlds is another example of an author and major publisher trying to tell a Native story, but failing.
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