"Give Me My Father's Body" by Kenn Harper tells the story of Minik, the "New York Eskimo," a young boy from northwestern Greenland, brought to New York by explorer Robert Peary in 1897. Harper's book is a harrowing biography of Minik's devastating experiences, including being presented to the American Museum of Natural History as one of six Eskimo "specimens," being stared at by the paying public, and other horrors of his twelve years as the only Eskimo in New York City.
Kenn Harper has lived in the Arctic for over thirty years in Inuit communities in the Baffin Region and in Qaanaaq, Greenland. He has worked as a teacher, development officer, historian, linguist, and businessman. He speaks Inuktitut, the Eskimo language of the eastern Canadia Arctic and has written extensively on northern history and the Inuktitut language. He presently lives in Iqaluit, capital of the new Arctic territory of Nunavut, and was recently elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Listen to an exclusive excerpt of Harper reading from "Give Me My Father's Body."
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