On Defining the Canadian Identity
Peter C. Newman, one of Canada's best-known writers, wrote an article on Canada in the December 1989/January 1990 issue of the Canadian Geographic magazine entitled, "This Vast Land That Shapes Us."
In it, he quotes a number of well known secular authors whose perspective has relevance, I believe, to the healing the land movement that is presently taking place in Canada's North.
The statements below that are not in quotations will be Peter Newman's words, and where they are in quotations, they will be attributed to the author quoted by Peter Newman.
Bowhead Whale Hunt in Nunavik -- 2008 
"We came to know that it is only through the deep and vital experience of its total environment that a people identifies itself with its land and gradually a deep and satisfying awareness develops. We were convinced that no virile people could remain subservient to, and dependent upon, the creations in art of other peoples...To us there was also the strange brooding sense of nature fostering a new race and a new age." --Lawren Harris, reminiscing after one northern journey.
While no single factor forms a nation's character, winter's dominance, and the North that symbolizes it, rank among Canada's most potent influences.
"When we face south, our conscious mind may be directed towards crowds, bright lights, some Hollywood version of fame and fortune--but the North is at the back of our minds, always. There's something...looking over our shoulders; there's a chill at the nape of the neck.
"The North focuses our anxieties. Turning to face north, we enter our own unconscious. Always, in retrospect, the journey north has the quality of dreams." Novelist Margaret Atwood.
"Because of our origin in the northern frontier, Canadian life to this day is marked by a northern quality. The line which marks the frontier from the farmstead, the wilderness from the baseland, the hinterland from the metropolis, runs through every Canadian psyche."
--Historian W. L. Morton.
Even in contemporary and highly urbanized Canada, our landscape is our lifeblood. Being Canadian means paying heed to the country's seasonal rhythms, turning our inner ear to the land's music.
"From the land (soil) must come the soul of Canada." --Historian A. R. M. Lower.
In it, he quotes a number of well known secular authors whose perspective has relevance, I believe, to the healing the land movement that is presently taking place in Canada's North.The statements below that are not in quotations will be Peter Newman's words, and where they are in quotations, they will be attributed to the author quoted by Peter Newman.
Bowhead Whale Hunt in Nunavik -- 2008Most city dwellers, especially in Central Canada, seldom travel any farther northward than their summer cottages. Yet we are all marked by the wild.
Our image of ourselves is based largely on the contours and colors of our North...To most Canadians, North is less a place than a direction--the ultimate reflection of how we view ourselves in relation to the land we call home.
"I've always felt that in Canadians' novels the geography, nature, is not a background, it's a character, as it is in Russia. Canadians fiction is much more like Russian fiction than it is like American or English or French." --John Ralston Saul.
"We came to know that it is only through the deep and vital experience of its total environment that a people identifies itself with its land and gradually a deep and satisfying awareness develops. We were convinced that no virile people could remain subservient to, and dependent upon, the creations in art of other peoples...To us there was also the strange brooding sense of nature fostering a new race and a new age." --Lawren Harris, reminiscing after one northern journey.
While no single factor forms a nation's character, winter's dominance, and the North that symbolizes it, rank among Canada's most potent influences.
"When we face south, our conscious mind may be directed towards crowds, bright lights, some Hollywood version of fame and fortune--but the North is at the back of our minds, always. There's something...looking over our shoulders; there's a chill at the nape of the neck. "The North focuses our anxieties. Turning to face north, we enter our own unconscious. Always, in retrospect, the journey north has the quality of dreams." Novelist Margaret Atwood.
"Because of our origin in the northern frontier, Canadian life to this day is marked by a northern quality. The line which marks the frontier from the farmstead, the wilderness from the baseland, the hinterland from the metropolis, runs through every Canadian psyche."--Historian W. L. Morton.
Even in contemporary and highly urbanized Canada, our landscape is our lifeblood. Being Canadian means paying heed to the country's seasonal rhythms, turning our inner ear to the land's music.
"From the land (soil) must come the soul of Canada." --Historian A. R. M. Lower.3 comments
Roger and Marge Armbruster are bridge-builders and advocates of reconciliation and social justice between people groups and cultures. They both minister cross-culturally -- Marge by teaching English to new immigrants in rural southern Manitoba, and Roger by helping to build relationships between various indigenous groups who understand the connection that there is between people and land, with a special focus on the Inuit of Canada's North.
