After a 2006 residency at the Explorers Club in New York, artist and writer Ellie Ga (born 1976) became the sole artist-in-residence aboard The Tara--a research vessel lodged in the ice of the Arctic Ocean, and the second boat in history built to drift indefinitely in pack ice, where it collected scientific data on Arctic ice conditions. From this extraordinary adventure arose Ga's acclaimed performance lecture The Fortunetellers, which she has delivered at the Kitchen, the Guggenheim Museum and the New Museum, among other venues.

North Was Here is the first publication based on Ga's polar residency. It includes three arctic booklets made during the continuous polar night as the boat was drifting, as well as a new piece that juxtaposes Polaroids and documentary footage stills that the artist used for a related video piece, At the Beginning North Was Here.