Author Nicolas Rasiulis

Nicolas Rasiulis

University of Ottawa, MA Candidate, Anthropology

I have been breathing, eating, sensing, and enacting many other basic but endearing physiological processes since I was born in the Spring of 1991. In the Summer of 2003 I was introduced to canoe-camping by my brother in the Goutte d’Eau region of the Outaouais Valley in Québec, Canada. Years of teenage adventures in this diversely forested, lake-filled, rocky land afforded me with a direct engagement with nature through which I developed passion for nomadic life deeply enmeshed within local ecosystems. At the age of 18, I became a camp counsellor specialized in canoe expeditions. During the last two of my five years guiding canoe adventures, I began teaching and practicing anthropology to and with teenage clients. These experiences helped me dip my paddle in the stream of anthropology, preparing myself for the challenging rapids and falls of a master’s thesis fieldwork expedition among Dukha reindeer herders in their Taiga homeland of northernmost Mongolia. Participating in the life of endearing, resilient Dukha people I was drawn into the roots of what it is and means to be alive. I now live the wild and character-forming experience of writing a thesis about a people who changed my life for the better. Every day I thank the World for Everything, and smile.

On Being Alive and the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

Nicolas Rasiulis

Society & Culture

Being Alive by Tim Ingold As summer is reawakening many of us from our winter slumber, we are drawn to the outdoors for a well-earned breath of fresh air. Reading Being Alive is a perfect complement to an...

To Err is the Errand of Our Canoe-Trip Quest

Nicolas Rasiulis

Society & Culture

Dipping The Paddle Canadian cities, like most cities, are noisy with cognitive distractions like advertisements, cacaphonies of competing sound, smells that make many of us dislike breathing. But...