Apex (Apr 11/05) - Kanie Atagoyuk clambers across the rocky hillside overlooking Apex, just outside Iqaluit, building his family.

Look up and you'll see them: 10 or so stone figures that stand against the overcast sky, their arms outstretched.

This month Atagoyuk turns 37, and his inuksuit will celebrate their first birthday.

Strong gusts of wind that sweep the hillside always blow the works apart - or maybe it's those mischievous ravens, who seem fond of perching on the stone figures.

"When the ravens stand on them, it looks cool," he says. "It looks like art."

Right now Atagoyuk is searching for the right stone to replace a fallen inuksuk's head. He says the brown rocks are the best to build with while a long, thin slab suitable for outstretched arms is the hardest to find. Sometimes he uses a three-by-eight plank.

Not many people climb this steep hillside, but Atagoyuk says he's done it for years, well before he began building inuksuit.

Ask him why he spends countless hours balancing rocks that are bound to fall over, sooner or later, and he just shrugs his shoulders. "I don't know," he says. "I just do."

When the weather is calm, he likes going out twice a week to check on the stone figures. He usually brings a rifle when he's building because of wolves he's seen in the area.

During the summer months, Atagoyuk slathers himself with bug repellent before heading out. That's when most visitors come to see the figures.

He's mostly rewarded by the sight that greets him on dark evenings when he stares at the hills and sees the silhouette of a tall inuksuk he's built standing against a full moon.