Inuit
Sexual Harassment by Inuit Leaders
Madeleine Redfern, the outspoken mayor of Iqaluit, complained last month about sexual harassment by powerful male Inuit leaders and she has been excoriated, as well as praised, for her comments ever since. She was addressing a Standing Committee on the Status of Women in the Canadian House of Commons when she said, according to a […]
Old Photos of the Inuit
Between 1903 and 1909, Douglas Moodie was stationed in Fullerton Harbour, Nunavut, and in Churchill, Manitoba, with the Northwest Mounted Police. Along with his wife Geraldine, the couple also traveled to Quebec and Labrador taking over 1,000 photographs of the Arctic scenery and the Inuit people along the way. Many of them are sharp and […]
Warming Sea Distresses Inuit
The sea around the coast of Labrador is warming rapidly and the loss of winter ice threatens the culture and way of life of the Inuit in Rigolet. According to a report in The Guardian last week, Rigolet, located on the north shore of the Hamilton Inlet, is the southernmost Inuit village in Canada. The […]
Smartphones in an Inuit Community
An app is being developed that will allow the Inuit in a remote town to share information about local climate issues on their phones, despite the lack of good internet connections. The inhabitants of Rigolet, a small town of 300 people on the Hamilton Inlet near the coast of Labrador, are working with a team […]
Training Inuit for Tourism Jobs
The government of Nunavut recently organized a pilot program to train Inuit in a variety of skills that will qualify them as guides for adventurous tourists. The course, which lasted for two weeks and ended November 4, taught 5 men and 5 women such skills as piloting zodiacs from cruise ships, making landings in indigenous […]
Inuit Protect the Terror
Parks Canada hired 17 Inuit to help guard a couple Canadian treasures—the underwater wrecks of two Franklin Expedition ships discovered over the past three years. Jimmy Pauloosie, Jr., an 18-year old from Gjoa Haven, told the CBC last week that the responsibility of being employed in the Guardians program made him feel “pretty impressive.” He […]
Climate Change and Peacefulness [journal article review]
Over the past ten years, policies related to climate change in the Arctic have increasingly focused on approaches that might help the Inuit adapt to the inevitability of change. Instead, some scholars have recently argued, everyone might be better off if the traditional Inuit concepts that foster peacefulness—their firm beliefs in restoring harmony and promoting […]
Sealskin Clothing Designers
Inuit views of themselves as hunters have been severely hurt by the anti-sealing campaigns of animal rights groups, but clothing designers in Nunavut are helping them reclaim their heritage. An article in The Guardian last week examined the ramifications of the controversial anti-sealing bans. Victoria Kakuktinniq, for instance, was trained in fashion design in Canada’s […]
Inuit Students in Ottawa and their Community
A student club in Ottawa allows Inuit teenagers to get together and share foods from the North as they try to keep their culture alive in the city. The activities of the Inuit Culture Club at the Rideau High School reaffirm the Inuit heritage of the young people as they hang out together one afternoon […]
Tanya Tagaq Urges Inuit Cooperation
Tanya Tagaq, the well-known Canadian throat singer, emphasized to an audience in St. John’s, Newfoundland, last week the importance of Inuit unity and reconciliation. In contrast to her normally guttural style of singing, Tagaq spoke softly. Nonetheless, as the keynote speaker at an Inuit Studies Conference, which was held on the campus of the Memorial […]
