How I Survived: Four Nights on the Ice

After his snowmobile breaks down halfway across the sea ice on a trip back from a fishing camp, Serapio Ittusardjuat recounts the traditional skills and knowledge he leaned on to stay alive.

This harrowing first-person account of four nights spent on the open sea ice--with few supplies and no water--shows young readers the determination and strength necessary to survive in the harsh Arctic climate, even when the worst occurs.

Serapio Ittusardjuat was born in a qarmaq (sod house) at Akunniq (between Sanirajak and Igloolik, Nunavut) on February 1, 1945. He went to residential school in Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut, and Fort Churchill, Manitoba. He studied art, jewellery making, and metalwork at the Ottawa School of Art and Nunavut Arctic College, and was a certified journeyman mechanic. Serapio came from a long line of walrus hunters. He organized walrus hunts from his summer camp every year. He also went caribou hunting with family and friends.

Illustrated by

Matthew K. Hoddy (id 411)

National of Australia; Currently resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada;

Biography (HTML)

Matthew K. Hoddy is an illustrator, comic book author, and animator hailing from Brisbane, Australia. Matt came to Toronto in 2014 on a working holiday and never left. His work ranges from material for children and young adults, all the way through to autobiographical and introspective works. He is co-creator of the Space Pyrates and Saga of Metalbeard comics.