Through gritty characters facing harsh realities, the collection delves into the complexities of northern life and Inuit identity. Norma Dunning draws from her own experiences of racism and colonialism, offering a powerful exploration of her Inukness. The stories challenge misconceptions about Inuit culture, incorporating Inuktitut language and symbolism to provide a nuanced perspective. Echoing the works of Alootook Ipellie, this collection brings contemporary Inuit experiences to the forefront, highlighting resilience and authenticity in the face of adversity.
The collection pays tribute to the Inuit community, honoring those lost to unmarked graves and those yet to come. It addresses the injustices faced by Inuit individuals, particularly the neglect from Canadian authorities regarding the deaths and burials of their people. Through poignant poetry, the author envisions a future liberated from colonialism, advocating for a deeper recognition of Inuit lives and histories, and emphasizing the importance of returning their stories and bodies to their families.
Drawing on both lived experience and cultural memory, Norma Dunning brings together six powerful new short stories centred on modern-day Inuk characters in Tainna. Ranging from homeless to extravagantly wealthy, from spiritual to jaded, young to elderly, and even from alive to deceased, Dunning’s characters are united by shared feelings of alienation, displacement and loneliness resulting from their experiences in southern Canada. In Tainna—meaning “the unseen ones” and pronounced Da‐e‐nn‐a—a fraught reunion between sisters Sila and Amak ends in an uneasy understanding. From the spirit realm, Chevy Bass watches over his imperilled grandson, Kunak. And in the title story, the broken-hearted Bunny wanders onto a golf course on a freezing night, when a flock of geese stand vigil until her body is discovered by a kind stranger. Norma Dunning’s masterful storytelling uses humour and incisive detail to create compelling characters who discover themselves in a hostile land where prejudice, misogyny and inequity are most often found hidden in plain sight. There, they must rely on their wits, artistic talent, senses of humour and spirituality for survival; and there, too, they find solace in shining moments of reconnection with their families and communities.
