Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society
print


Breadcrumb Navigation


Content
Johnny Issaluk

Johnny Issaluk

Carson Fellow

Johnny Issaluk is an Inuit traditional knowledge keeper and educator originally from the small Arctic hamlet of Igluligaarjuk, on the west coast of Hudson Bay in Nunavut. He is explorer-in-residence at the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and one of the first sixty Canadian recipients of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for his contributions to the health and well-being of Nunavummiut. As an actor he has appeared in film, television, and the play The Breathing Hole at the 2017 Stratford Festival, which was the first play at a major festival to cast Inuit actors in Inuit roles. He is also one of the most successful Inuit Games athletes of his generation, earning over 200 medal finishes in his twenty year career, and he now travels the world as an Arctic ambassador working with youth to encourage positive mental, physical, and environmental health. At the Rachel Carson Center he will work on his book Out Land with writing partner Kelly Bushnell. To learn more visit kellypbushnell.com/iji.

RCC Research Project: ᓄᓇᒥ / Out Land: An Arctic Life

Lunchtime Colloquium Video - Isumaqatigiingniq (Thinking Together) on Arctic Ice and in the Classroom


Selected Publications:

  • Games of Survival: Traditional Inuit Games for Elementary Students. Iqaluit: Inhabit Media, 2013. 

Film Credits:

  • Falls Around Her (2018).
  • The Terror (2018).
  • Indian Horse (2017).
  • Two Lovers and a Bear (2016).
  • Kajutaijuq: The Spirit That Comes (2014).
  • The Orphan and the Polar Bear (2014).