Creating a short bio for John Houston was no easy task. We met him while travelling through Nunavut with Adventure Canada and truly loved his passion for Inuit art and culture. Born in 1954, John Houston spent his first eight years in the Canadian Arctic and that early immersion in Inuit culture has affected his entire life. He now lives in Halifax and is, among many things, a filmmaker, explorer, art director, husband, and father. He also co-founded the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival and has written and directed six of his own films, all winners of international and domestic awards.
When we joined you on an expedition cruise to Nunavut and Greenland back in 2019, we remember your passion for the Inuit culture. Can you explain where that came from?
I grew up among Inuit, and continue to participate in their language and culture. My daughter, Becky Qilavvaq, who sometimes staffs on Adventure Canada, is Inuk and lives in Iqaluit, on Baffin Island. My passion for Inuit culture was also kindled by my parents, the late James and Alma Houston, who would read or recite to me the ancient Inuit drum-songs, etc.
We also remember your passion for Inuit art and in fact, we saw a picture of you at the Indigenous art gallery in Lac La Biche, Alberta! What inspires you about Inuit art?
Inuit art is to me like the codex or Rosetta Stone of an ancient culture. Our Christian missionaries suppressed their religion, their music, their traditional knowledge, fearing that it came from the devil. Inuit continued to express those forbidden ideas, but without words, through their art. I help people to “read” the art, in which all kinds of revelations lie hidden.
You've had some pretty unique and incredible experiences and adventures within Canada. What's one that really stands out for you?
Arctic travels to research and shoot my films have certainly been unique and incredible, as they have been travels simultaneously in a beautiful physical surround and the rich landscape of the Inuit oral tradition. But if I was to pick one stand-out experience, it would be a 2007 voyage with Adventure Canada, up the West Coast of Greenland and into Jones Sound, farther North than we had ever been able to get our little ship. The weather was perfect, dancing with magical Arctic light. Skirting the edge of the ice, we crossed over into Canada, and were treated to a tableau of an ice floe, complete with polar bear, fresh seal kill… and, rarest of sightings, a “holy grail” for birders, an Ivory Gull standing nearby, awaiting his/her turn to share in the kill. Without requiring a word of interpretation, the floating tableau off the bow of our ship communicated clearly to all passengers and staff a vast amount about the fragile balance of the Arctic, and why so many Northern species depend on the continued existence of floating ice.
For those interested in exploring Nunavut, what tips or advice would you give them?
If you have the resources, the first step I recommend is for you to sign on for an Arctic voyage with Adventure Canada. I have travelled with them as a resource staffer for thirty years now. I am originally from an area that is now part of Nunavut, and one of the reasons I keep coming back is because I know of no better way for people to gain a quality first-hand experience of Nunavut in all its vastness. Another reason to start here is because of the Inuit, who are part of the resource staff for all Arctic sailings, making it a rich and immersive experience. Such a trip may also help you to identify a place and some people you’d like to spend more time with. Once you are home from the voyage with Adventure Canada, you can have fun planning your return to that one favourite Inuit community, which you would accomplish by air travel.
You've made many films. For those wanting to learn more about the Inuit culture, what film would you recommend they watch first?
I’ve made eight films to date, all in indigenous Canada, and all but one among Inuit. They start off with my Arctic Trilogy: “Songs in Stone: an arctic journey home,” a documentary about my parents, Inuit art pioneers James and Alma Houston, the Inuit of Cape Dorset, and their very special collaboration that launched Inuit art onto the world stage. Then "Nuliajuk: Mother of the Sea Beasts” is a quest for the female deity known to many as Sedna, alive in countless Inuit artworks, yet rarely mentioned… but maybe you should start with the capper to the trilogy, “Diet of Souls,” a look inside the mind of the Inuit hunter, guided by the Inuit shaman who explained: “The great peril of our existence lies in the fact that our diet consists entirely of souls.” Happy exploring!
