Nunavut Commissioner Peter Irniq performs an Inuit drum dance at a Quest for the Modern North seminar at the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi, Finland.
northern trips, that we share a climate with other countries, and what lessons they have learned we could learn. What lessons we have already implemented, they could implement. I think that our social and political constructs interpenetrate in that way. Tom Strickland : Your point is very clear that the challenges in the North can be as pragmatic and everyday as the challenges of lighting. In meeting those challenges we will learn a lot about Canada as a northern country. Adrienne Clarkson : What’s interesting is we talk all the time about being challenged in Canada, by our climate, our geography and the kind of nation that we are, which is an immigrant nation built on an aboriginal foundation.The North brings us back to our aboriginal foundation all the time. If the buildings all disappeared the Inuit could still live there as they have always lived there. Anyone who has been there the number of times I have been and seen somebody build an igloo out of a north-fac- ing slope of snow in twenty minutes knows that they know something about shelter and design.The design of an igloo is utterly wonderful, done with one instrument, just the snow knife — it’s a marvel to behold. If a blizzard is coming and there are two people hunting they can build that igloo and get out of the blizzard.We think of it as survival architec- ture, but it is actually highly sophisticated architecture, a perfect blend of function and necessity.We have to learn how to do that for the kind of constructions that we do now, using all the materials of the world, artificial or natural, that we have access to. Tom Strickland : This is a key point — learning from the challenge of our climate rather than trying to resist it, or finding something other than it. Adrienne Clarkson : We are very interested in this in our personal lives.We built an ecologically complete set of buildings on an island
in Georgian Bay where there is no electricity or sewage system. You do not have to have a septic tank that has to be pumped out by some boat going around doing the pumping. People say to me,‘How do you do dishes?’ I say,‘Well you do dishes by putting two large pasta pots on your stove, heating water and that will wash your dishes, surpris- ingly enough’. For general hot water we have a solar panel that pumps water to the sink and then we have an outdoor composting toilet, which makes wonderful compost within about three weeks. You can live like this. It’s not a hobby, it’s not a joke. In a strict environment where there is only two inches of top soil and you’ve got 116 trees and all of them could be blown over in a big west wind, you want to make sure that you are at one with whatever technologies you have that do not destroy the environment. Tom Strickland : It’s a matter of making the effort. Adrienne Clarkson :That’s right. In a situation like that you do have water, which is clean, all around you with a minimum amount of filtering, but the lesson is there which is to learn how to live in this environment. Tom Strickland :Thank you very much Your Excellency. Adrienne Clarkson : You’re very welcome Tom. It’s nice to talk to you and good luck with the magazine, it’s a good one.
Tom Strickland is an architect working in Calgary for Zeidler Carruthers. This interview took place in March 2004 in response to the Governor-General’s tour of the circumpolar region. Writers, artists, architects, musicians accompanied the Governor-General.
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Spring 2004
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