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Children's Fiction Country & Ethnic

The Shaman's Apprentice

Inuktitut

by (author) Zacharias Kunuk

illustrated by Megan Kyak-Monteith

Publisher
Inhabit Media
Initial publish date
Jan 2020
Category
Country & Ethnic, Native Canadian, Monsters, Polar Regions
Recommended Age
9 to 12
Recommended Grade
4 to 6
Recommended Reading age
9 to 12
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781772272680
    Publish Date
    May 2021
    List Price
    $16.95
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781772272208
    Publish Date
    Jan 2020
    List Price
    $12.95

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Description

Inspired by award-winning Inuk director Zacharias Kunuk’s short film of the same name, The Shaman’s Apprentice tells the story of a young shaman in training who must face her first test—a trip to the underground to visit Kannaaluk, The One Below, who holds the answers to why a community member has become ill.

Facing dark spirits and physical challenges, the young shaman must learn to stifle her fear and listen to what Kannaaluk has to tell her.

About the authors

Born in 1957 in a sod house on Baffin Island, Zacharias Kunuk was a carver in 1981 when he sold three sculptures in Montreal to buy a home video camera and 27” TV to bring back to Igloolik, a settlement of 500 Inuit who had voted twice to refuse access to outside television. After working six years for Inuit Broadcasting Corporation as producer and station manager, Kunuk co-founded Igloolik Isuma Productions Inc. in 1990 with Paul Apak Angilirq, Pauloosie Qulitalik, and Norman Cohn, and Kunuk Cohn Productions Inc. in 2004 with Norman Cohn. In 2001, Kunuk’s first feature, Atanarjuat The Fast Runner, won the Camera d’or at the Cannes Film Festival and was shown around the world. Kunuk has directed more than 30 films and videos screened in film festivals and theatres, museums and art galleries, and on TV. He has honorary doctorates from Trent University and Wilfred Laurier University; is the winner of the Cannes Camera d’or, three Genie Awards including Best Director and Best Picture, a National Arts Award, and the National Aboriginal Achievement Award, and the 2017 Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award from the Toronto Film Critics Association. Zacharias Kunuk was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2015.

Zacharias Kunuk's profile page

Megan Kyak-Monteith is an Inuk illustrator and painter born in Pond Inlet, Nunavut. She is currently living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and studying interdisciplinary arts at NSCAD University with a focus on painting. When she is not working on illustrations, she can be found watching movies with her friends, shopping, or working in her studio on her large-scale oil paintings.

Megan Kyak-Monteith's profile page

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