The Breathing Hole - Aglu - by Colleen Murphy (Paperback)

About the Book

Stories of the Canadian Arctic intersect in this epic five-hundred-year journey led by a one-eared polar bear.

Book Synopsis

In 1535, Hummiktuq, an Inuit widow, has a strange dream about the future. The next day, she discovers a bear cub floating on a piece of ice near a breathing hole. Despite the concerns of her community, she adopts him as her own and names him Angu'řuaq. In 1845, Angu'řuaq and his mate Panik wander into a chance meeting between Inuit hunters and explorers from the Franklin Expedition. By 2029, when surveyors and entrepreneurs examine the now-melting land for future opportunities, Angu'řuaq encounters the passengers and crew of a luxury cruise ship as it slinks through the oily waters of the Northwest Passage.

Humorous and dramatic, and published in both English and Nattilingmiutut, The Breathing Hole is a respectful and profound saga that traces the paths of colonialism and climate change, revealing the devastating scars left on the land and in history.

Review Quotes

"The play and production gently invite audiences to consider relations between Native people, settlers and the natural world through perspectives that are novel--perhaps even a little revolutionary..." --Karen Fricker, Toronto Star

About the Author

Born in Quebec and raised in Northern Ontario, Colleen Murphy won the 2016 and 2007 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama for her plays Pig Girl and The December Man (L'homme de décembre) respectively. Both plays were also awarded the Carol Bolt Award. Her other plays include The Society for the Destitute Presents Titus Bouffonius, I Hope My Heart Burns First, The Piper, and Beating Heart Cadaver, which was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award. She is also a librettist and an award-winning filmmaker. She has been the writer-in-residence at six Canadian universities and playwright-in-residence at two Canadian theatres, as well as the Finborough Theatre in the UK. She lives in Toronto.

Siobhan Arnatsiaq-Murphy has been a traditional Inuit drum dancer and choreographer for over twenty years. She also earned a law degree and has worked as a policy analyst. Siobhan lives in Iqaluit and has three wonderful daughters.

Janet Tamalik McGrath grew up between traditional Inuit and modern influences in the 1970s Canadian Arctic, in the Nattilingmiut region. A fluent speaker of Inuktut and lifelong language proponent, her doctoral work at Carleton University challenged Canadian academic norms by foregrounding Inuktut while also creating a unique bridge between epistemologies. She published this research in her book, The Qaggiq Model: Toward a Theory of Inuktut Knowledge Renewal, in 2018. As Nattilingmiutut dialect translator for The Breathing Hole, she brings over forty years of personal and professional experience in bridging cultures, time spans, and historical contexts.