Author and poet born on Baillie-Hamilton Island (Nunavut) in 1930 – died in Souris (Manitoba) in 2013.
Alice French, known as Masak (literally: “wet snow falling”) in Inuvialuktun, an Inuit language spoken in the Western Canadian Arctic, was born in 1930 on Baillie-Hamilton Island, in present-day Nunavut. Her father, Anisalouk, was a trapper. When Alice Masak French was six years old, her mother Sanggiak contracted tuberculosis, which was widespread in Inuit communities at the time. Alice Masak French and her brother Ayounik were then sent to an Anglican residential school in Aklavik, a hamlet located in the far northwest of the Northwest Territories, on the delta of the Mackenzie River. Their mother succumbed to her illness shortly afterwards. Alice Masak French’s childhood was profoundly disrupted when she was uprooted from her family and culture. She spent seven years at residential school, during which she had few opportunities to visit her family. When she left school, she returned to live with her father, stepmother, and other family members, who practiced the traditional, nomadic lifestyle of the Inuvialuit (“Inuit of the Western Canadian Arctic”), travelling across Nunavut, guided by the seasons and the availability of resources. Alice Masak French had to relearn this lifestyle. Her grandmother, whom she discusses in her autobiography My Name is Masak (1976), played an important role in passing on traditional skills and knowledge. Alice Masak French reconnected with her family and her cultural roots, despite initial difficulties mastering the language. As an adult, she married twice and had five children. She married Dominick French, her second husband, in 1960, and the couple spent seven years in Ireland, where she wrote most of her second book, The Restless Nomad (1992).
Alice Masak French decided to write her autobiography after her children, curious about a time they had not known, began to ask questions about her past. Aware of the differences between her descendants’ lives and her own, Alice Masak French decided to bequeath to her children, her descendants, and her community part of her personal history, which is part of the larger history of the Inuit people. Alice Masak French’s first book, My Name is Masak, was published in 1976 and reprinted in 1977 and in 1992. Two audiobook versions were produced, in 1984 and in 1990. The book was translated into French under the title Je m’appelle Masak (1979). In this book, Alice Masak French describes the first fourteen years of her life, including her time at residential school. The book ends with her departure from the school. Alice Masak French did not plan to have this book published or distributed widely. Her goal was to pass on her story to her children, and for this reason she chose to write in English rather than in Inuvialuktun. Alice Masak French’s second book, The Restless Nomad, published in 1992, tackles her life after residential school as she reintegrated her family, relearned a way of life she had lost, married, gave birth to her children, and met her second husband. The Resteless Nomad ends just prior to the couple’s departure for Ireland, where Dominick French was from. In an interview with Christina Watson, published in the journal Canadian Literature in 2000, Alice Masak French describes the healing process sparked by her experience writing her second book. Several excerpts from both My Name is Masak and The Restless Nomad were published in periodicals, literary anthologies, and short story collections. Alice Masak French’s experience at residential school is chronicled in the second volume of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Canada's Residential Schools: The Inuit and Northern Experience (2015).
Alice Masak French’s autobiographies are important to her family, to which they are addressed. In My Name is Masak, she names many family members, ensuring their existence is remembered by their descendants. In this way, her books create a link between generations, despite the rifts caused by colonialism. Alice Masak French’s books also have substantial social, historical, anthropological, cultural, and literary significance. Her story, alongside those of her family and her community, present concrete examples of the many changes experienced by Inuit in Canada from the 1940s to the 1980s.
When she returned to Canada from Ireland, Alice Masak French settled in Medicine Hat, Alberta, where she lived in the 1990s and in the early 2000s. She spent the last six years of her life in Souris, Manitoba. She died in 2013, surrounded by her husband, her children, and her many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.