Location Taken: Ontario, Canada
Time Taken: June 2010
I hadn’t heard of inuksuks before I visited Canada. It’s an aspect of the culture that hasn’t penetrated too far. In Ontario, though, they’re everywhere. Really, they are.
Inuksuks are a pile of flatish rocks arranged into a somewhat human shape. According to all the little history placards that accompanied the inuksuks you can buy in the tourist shops, they’re an Inuit tradition (or some other extreme-north nomadic tribe). They’d build them near where they were staying so that any other group passing by would realize there were other humans near and come to visit. It makes a lot of sense, actually. It’s not a shape that forms naturally, and the pile of rocks would fall down before too long in northern storms. If there was a fully intact one visible, that meant there was a good chance it was newly built.
The ones further south, though, were (most likely) not built by nomads desperate for company. We mainly found them built on top of the hard rock of the Canadian Shield that was cut through so the Trans-Canada Highway was at least somewhat flat. There’s a lot of these outcrops along the side of the road in Ontario, and at least half of them have an inuksuk on top. I’m under the impression that they were built by people walking or biking along the Trans-Canada that left them as a marker that other people have traveled this way before. I’m not sure where I got that idea, but it’s certainly a lot more appealing of a marker than the graffiti you find in the US.
My mom’s very fond of inuksuks, by the way. I got this photo because we stopped so I could take a photo of one for Mom, since it was the first time we’d spotted one before we’d passed it on the road. She’s built one for her garden. I doubt any of the neighbors have a clue of the history behind it. It’s fallen down a few times, but it’s fairly easy to reassemble.
And there’s a lot to be said for something that says “Hey, I’m a human, I’m out here, and so are you, care to visit?”
