The Manuela Dias book design and Illustration Awards - General illustrations category
Alexander Kennedy Ishister Award for Non-Fiction
Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book
McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award
This is a truly unique book. It offers an incomparable glimpse into the experiences and history of more than one hundred First Nations and MĂŠtis elders from Canada's North ââthe last generation born on the land.â These stunning graphite pencil portraits are rendered with love, respect, and painstaking detail, along with gripping intimate profiles assembled from oral accounts and anecdotes.
Their poignant facial features, lines, and creases, weathered by the harsh outdoors and a lifetime of challenges, are like badges of their remarkable achievements, sustained resolve, inspired patience, and deep-set defiance to the hardships their people have endured for generations.
The masterful realism of Kuehlâs work helps uncover the tales of these seasoned individualsâtheir many triumphs and trialsârevealing in turn a greater portrait of life in the communities of Northern Canada, a compelling homage, and an enduring historical legacy.