Pierre Parent describes his entire career as a “life-changing experience.” A retired Transport Canada technician who spent 14 years working in the Arctic, Parent now lives in Gimli and has published a book offering a glimpse into his pivotal time in the North.
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Gimli’s Pierre Parent has published My Arctic Travels, recounting his 14-year career as a Transport Canada technician in the Arctic
“I have become fond and most respectful of the Inuit who have been here for hundreds and hundreds of years,” Parent said. “I learned to admire them for who they were and are, and enjoyed how they lived their lives to the ways they see fit.”
His memoir, My Arctic Travels, is a short collection of stories from his years up north. It explores his successes, his hardships and the Inuit way of life. Parent notes that for readers who may never experience the true Arctic for themselves, his book offers only a small but eye-opening introduction to a place he has wanted to write about since retiring in 1995.
“This story had been nagging me for a while, and every time I tried to describe it to somebody, it seemed people did not fully appreciate what I was trying to explain,” he said. “The rapport between the people from the south and the people of the north just isn’t there. Life is just so different from what people can relate to here. I want to try and break away from the negative attitudes people hold.”
He added that he wanted to challenge himself by writing a book nobody had ever read — for him, that meant sharing his journey.
My Arctic Travels is a moving account that captures Parent’s emotions and experiences. As a Transport Canada technician, he travelled wherever equipment needed repair. “If the equipment was failing, we will fix it no matter how we got there,” he said. That meant flying long distances in and out of remote regions and spending many frigid days outdoors.
Readers will learn about some of Parent’s “near-death experiences” while flying and getting lost in hazardous conditions, along with several heart-warming tales of budding friendships over tea and bannock around a qulliq — a traditional heat-producing lamp — inside an igloo.
“My experience flying up north was totally unique, and it was so hard to put into words the full impact because ultimately it made me aware how much bigger this land is than I am,” he said. “The people I met, their outlook on life and their acceptance of me as a Kabloona — an Inuktitut term used to describe visitors with pale faces from outside their communities — completely boggled my mind because I just felt so at ease and comfortable in those communities.”
Parent is selling personal copies of My Arctic Travels. Anyone interested in obtaining a copy can request one by emailing pparent@mymts.net.
