Pratt, Kenneth L., and Scott A. Heyes. 2023. Memory and Landscape: Indigenous Responses to a Changing North. Athabasca : Athabasca University Press, 448 pages.

At first glance, Kenneth L. Pratt and Scott A. Heyes’ Memory and Landscape: Indigenous Responses to a Changing North gives the impression of being a beautiful coffee table book. However, its photographs, illustrations, graphics, maps, and drawings do more than simply embellish the book. They enhance Indigenous narratives and “responses to a Changing North” that are told in either the first or third person. In fact, the chapters of the book (twelve in total) are divided into three sections, each one prefaced by “perspectives” of Indigenous Peoples who share their voices and testimonies to name the relationships they nurture with their changing North, in creative ways. The other chapters follow the conventions of academic papers and are built upon the serious work and commitment of non-Indigenous scholars with northern Indigenous communities, Elders, and stories in an attempt to share and value their perspectives. The book intends to demonstrate the entanglements between the memories, homelands, and identities of Indigenous Peoples within the following geographical areas: Alaska, Arctic Canada, Greenland, and Siberia. The three sections do not follow linear timelines or geographical areas. They rather center on different themes focusing on either Indigenous Identities through time and memories (part I), transitions or adaption and resilience in the face of changing landscapes (part II), and in-depth and original studies of place names (part III). The first part of this book specifically explores the connections between “History and Identity” and is beautifully introduced with a poetic honouring of the land by Vinnie Baron and Félix St-Aubin. In this short text, these proud Inuuk share their profound respect and love toward the land and all beings and show that practices on the land not only still thrive today but continue to contribute to defining Indigenous lives and identities. In the first chapter, Aron L. Crowell provides an in-depth account of Yakutat Tlingit of Southeast Alaska migration using multi-source methodologies: archeological records, oral history, and narratives from Elders (p. 50). The author investigates the points of intersection of these two ways of knowing to seek a better understanding of “what really happened” regarding the GinixKwäan migration from Copper River. In the following chapter, Murielle Nagy discusses the entanglements between memories, language, and identities in Inuvialuit toponyms and ethnonyms. Drawing from two different studies conducted decades apart, Nagy examines how Inuvialuit of the Western Canadian Arctic name places and encode memories in these places in different languages and how it relates to the Inuvialuit construction of identity, memories, and emotions. In the next chapter, through an extensive study of historical literature reviews, dictionary interpretation, reports from Elders and interviews, and personal knowledge, Robert Drozda traces the origins of two place names on Nunivak Island. He provides interesting accounts on the connection between language, stories, identity, and toponymy, and specifically on how the migrations and travels of the different Indigenous residents of the Bering Sea region may have affected the local dialects spoken in the Nunivak Island settlement (p. 82). In chapter 4, Martha Dowsley, Scott A. Heyes, Anna Bunce, and Williams Stolz give pride of place to the voices of Inuit women that unfortunately have been largely ignored by researchers “working on human-environment relations” (p. 143). Building on interviews conducted with Inuit women, this chapter sheds light on new perspectives regarding the activity of berry harvesting, which is presented as an activity related not only to subsistence but also to well-being and harmony. The second part of the book, “Force of Change”, is initiated with a heartwarming “perspective” by Apay’u Moore who talks with humility and honesty about the “insecurity of …