Guide markers

In winter months, firefighters rely on guide markers to help them locate fire hydrants buried beneath snow. Boaters count on navigation markers to steer cruisers and sailboats through narrow or rocky channels.

We all use guide markers from time to time. Perhaps you install temporary markers at your lawn’s edge to make sure you don’t mangle your grass as you rid your driveway of snow and ice.  Or, maybe you’ve hiked remote trails and relied on guide markers to lead you through dense forest. 

When the usual doesn’t suffice
At least trees, driveways and fire hydrants stay put. In Canada’s Far North, the landscape changes, so guide markers are a matter of survival. Inuit cope with extreme winds and cold, shifting ice, near-zero visibility, extensive periods of darkness and other challenges. Mere flags, sticks and posts cannot withstand or be seen in such harsh conditions.

That’s where a rock inuksuk (pronounced ee-nook-sook) comes in. Towering up to a metre or more in height, an inuksuk can mark an abundant hunting ground, guide the way between Inuit communities, signal a sacred place or just let someone know they aren’t alone in crossing the vast land.

The Inuit Nunangat―arctic and subarctic regions inhabited by Inuit― account for nearly a third of Canada’s land surface. A single inuksuk cannot serve the entire Inuit Nunangat; many inuksuit (plural of inuksuk) are needed. 

What's in a name?
Those of us who don’t live in the Arctic associate the word inuksuk with rocks assembled to form a human shape. The Inuit have a separate word for such an inuksuk resembling a person: inunnguaq.

The 2010 Vancouver Olympics made the term inuksuk (or the committee spelled it: inukshuk) commonplace, even though the emblem for the 2010 Winter Games was in fact an inunnguaq.

Now, you can find these guide markers cropping up everywhere. A journalist dubbed this inukshukification in his article about inunnguaq lining the route of a Canadian highway.

Recently, I spotted an inuksuk at a French daycare centre in Kanata and another one built in the icy Remic Rapids near the Champlain Bridge. At times, various inunnguaq decorate the seawall protecting Charlottetown’s Victoria Park.  

Where did you last see an inuksuk or other guide markers? Comment away below.

Source: The Canadian Weather Network on Pinterest