Huffington Post names Inuit publication Best Bedtime Book of 2014

Flipping through the pages of Celina Kalluk’s children’s story, Sweetest Kulu, it’s not hard to understand why The Huffington Post named it the Best Bedtime Story of 2014. The book is a breathtaking work of art that celebrates Inuit culture, children and the precious gift of wildlife in the High Arctic.

Every December the popular online newsmagazine publishes a list of the year’s Best Picture Books. This year, Sweetest Kulu was its only Canadian nomination.

While she wasn’t expecting the international recognition for her book, Kalluk, a Nunavut mother of four who lives in Iqaluit but hails from Resolute Bay, said the acknowledgment was very surprising.

“It’s pretty exciting! This little book has been part of me for all of my life so having it read and understood and appreciated is amazing. Children deserve this kind of worship from us, the world, the land and from the animals. It is like a universal language, this love for a child.

“I am very appreciative and happy that it has taken off so well as it comes from a place within me that was true to my children,” said Kalluk.

Sweetest Kulu is a bedtime poem told from the perspective of a mother to her baby about the child’s birth and the many gifts that come from the animals in the north to ensure the survival of the child.

Discussing how the book came about, Kalluk said she had met one of the book’s publishers, Neil Christopher, years before the establishment of Inhabit Media, an Inuit-owned publishing company based in Iqaluit.

“I have known Neil Christopher for years as he was my high-school teacher in Resolute Bay. It was one of his first teaching jobs and here he was all of the way out in my hometown. We learned about each other’s artistic styles that way. He encouraged and inspired me as he is very artistic himself,” said Kalluk.

Since Inhabit Media’s mission is to encourage Inuit and non-Inuit Arctic residents to share their stories and their knowledge by publishing a series of breathtaking children’s picture books, it was actually Christopher’s idea to approach Kalluk about writing her book.

Artistic in other mediums, such as sewing, painting and drawing, Kalluk said Christopher really liked her work, which is inspired by where she comes from.

There is a tremendous amount of art in Inuit communities and that inspiration is something Kalluk cherishes deeply.

Inhabit Media is an Inuit publishing house, and all their books are published in English and Inuktitut. Kalluk wrote the English and Inuktitut versions of her poem at the same time. She said the title, Sweetest Kulu, has a different ring to it than its Inuit version, but it means the same thing in terms of love and affection: in Inuktitut, “Kulu” is a tender term of endearment for little ones.

“Much of my life is consumed by being a mother and also having been raised in an Inuit environment in the High Arctic, this poem came very naturally to me because it is all about the life, the land and the animals I know. There is so much magic in the High Arctic because it’s such an unbelievable place to live and at the same time one of the harshest places to live,” said Kalluk.

Kalluk said she wrote the book while living in Toronto and pregnant with her last child. She deeply felt the fact that she was living away from friends, family and her other children.

As a result, Kalluk said she had lots of time to be completely consumed and in love with the child growing within her even though she was missing home tremendously. So when her mother would send her little gifts from the north, such as caribou and polar bear meat that was otherwise unavailable in Toronto, she would reflect on home.

“With this it wasn’t hard to acknowledge the ancient relationship between these beautiful animals and the Inuit that is all about thriving on the land, survival, celebration and thankfulness,” she observed.

“I was always told that these animals give themselves to us and we have to be deserving of them. If we are not, they are not going to give themselves to us. They are either going to decline in numbers and become extinct because we are messing around with them by not being all of the bad things that we can be, but by being well in the heart and balanced in life you are given abundance because you deserve it. This rings true about so many other aspects in life; in particular how a baby will survive in the High Arctic if an animal gives itself and its gifts to that child.”

Alexandria Neonakis’ phenomenal artwork brings this story to life. Kalluk said she has never met or spoken with illustrator, but the results are something very special.

The book’s author and illustrator have never met, explained Kalluk. She had made a storyboard for the book and then was shown samplings of Neonakis’ work, and she immediately fell in love with the illustrator’s style.

While Kalluk said she wasn’t entirely familiar with the Huffington Post prior to the big nod, she welcomed the acknowledgement of her work because it gives her the opportunity to share her culture and story with so many more people around the world.