University of Manitoba€¦ · Web viewThere is No Word for Art in Inuktitut. Roslyn Stanwick, University of Winnipeg. For over thirty years, art historians have struggled to remedy

Welcome to the 16th Bi-Annual Inuit Studies Conference. As Inuit become vocal within the academic community and formulate their own understandings of themselves in the world, Inuit are Imagining Inuit. The scholarly community is responding to this changing reality by Imagining Inuit in new and exciting ways. This conference is a convergence of Inuit Imaginings as we will speak to the great variety of ways in which we view and understand each other creatively and intellectually.

Introduction: The Inuit Studies Conferences began in 1978 in Quebec City when members of the Inuksiutiit Katimajiit invited scholars to meet and share their research concerning Inuit. The conference has always framed itself as a "scientific" meeting of researchers and has met every two years since then in different cities worldwide. There are clusters of researchers focusing on Inuit studies all over the world including various communities in the Circumpolar North. At the 2006 meeting of the Fifteenth Inuit Studies Conference, Professors Peter Kulchyski and Chris Trott invited the conference to be hosted in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Winnipeg is an ideal location for a number of reasons. We not only have a large number of people working in the field in this city, but we are also home to some of the finest research collections of Inuit art and history. The Winnipeg Art Gallery holds the largest publicly owned collection of Inuit art in the world, in addition to the extensive Hudson’s Bay Company archives and ethnographic holdings at the Manitoba Museum, Winnipeg provides a rich and vibrant backdrop for Imagining Inuit Imagining.

Theme: The theme of the 16th Bi-Annual Inuit Studies Association conference hosted at the University of Manitoba is Imagining Inuit Imagining. By this we refer simultaneously to investigations of Inuit culture marking the place of Inuit within the western imagination (imagining Inuit); discussion and reflection on Inuit imaginative productions (Inuit imaginings); and examination of the place of Inuit imagination in Qallunaat constructions or the way in which Inuit imagination is imagined (imagining Inuit imagining).

Imagining is to be taken in its broadest sense, not only as a reference to creative works but also how both Qallunaat and Inuit imagine each other through theory. Sessions span academic disciplines, crossing the social sciences and humanities, to arrive at a deeper understanding of Imagining Inuit Imagining.

Keynote Speakers:

Bernard Saladin d’Anglure, Since 1956 Prof. Saladin d'Anglure has worked among Inuit, initially in Nunavik and since the 1970's in Igloolik. His research covered a broad range of subjects from kinship and social organization to cosmology and shamanism. He is best known for his ground breaking work conceptualizing gender among Inuit. For many years he was Professor of Anthropology at Université Laval, and is now retired in Lyons, France.

Zacharias Kunuk, Igloolik Born in Kapuivik, Canada, Zach Kunuk (Inuit) spent his childhood summers traveling and hunting with his family and his winters going to school in Igloolik. In 1983 he started working at the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation, which is a regional public broadcasting organization that produces original programming, often in Inuktitut. In 1985 Kunuk

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began a collaboration with Norman Cohn. In 1991 they founded Igloolik Isuma Productions with Paulossie Qulitalik and Paul Apak. Isuma's first feature film, Atanarjuat/The Fast Runner portrays a traditional Inuit epic myth, in the Inuktitut language. The film won the Camera d'Or for Best First Feature at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, and six Genie awards in Canada, including Best Picture and Best Director for Kunuk. In 2004, Kunuk won the first Sun Hill Award for Excellence in Native American Filmmaking, a new annual honor from the Harvard Film Archive.

Peter Irniq, Peter T. Irniq, 53, is an Inuit cultural teacher and has lived most of his life in the Kivalliq Region, including Naujaat (Repulse Bay), Salliq (Coral Harbour), Qamanit'tuaq (Baker Lake), Igluligaarjuk (Chesterfield Inlet), Kangiqiniq (Rankin Inlet) and Iqaluit. He has also lived in the Western Arctic, Manitoba and Ontario.

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Agenda:

Wednesday October 22

Registration Check In/Evening Gathering: 5-9 p.m.Room 108-Cross Common Room-St. John’s College

Thursday October 23

9:00 – 10:00 a.m Welcome/Opening of Conference Welcome to Anishinabek Territory and Opening Prayer, Garry Robson, Elder-in-Residence Keynote Speaker: Bernard Saladin d’Anglure (The Chapel)

10:00 – 10:30 Pause Santé (108 St. John’s College [Cross Common Room])

10:30 – 12:00 Session 1

1.1 Art 1: Imagining the Future: Inuit Art in the 21st Century Pat Feheley, organizer.Nancy Campbell (Independent Contemporary Curator)Ingo Hessel (Author and Curator of Inuit Art)Leslie Boyd Ryan (Author and Director, Dorset Fine Arts)Dr. Neil Devitt (Collector of Contemporary and Inuit Art)

Room 125 St. John’s College

1.2 Literary ImaginingsRoom 206 -St. John’s College

Thibault Martin (Departement de Sociologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais)“Seeing the World Through the Eyes of an Inuit Soldier.”

Keavy Martin (Centre for Comparative Literature, University of Toronto)“‘Down South Among the Qallunaat’: Minnie Aodla Freeman and the Tale of Kiviuq.”

1.3 Imaging HomeBuilding: 223 Aboriginal House [Boardroom], 45 Curry Place

Frank Tester and Paule McNicoll (School of Social Work, University of British Columbia)TBA

1.4 Media and LanguageRoom 113 - St. John’s College

Birgitte Jacobsen (Department of Language, Literature, and Media,

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Ilisimatusarfik /University of Greenland)“Imagining Through Slang, Pidgin and Other Linguistic Means.”

Per Langgard (Greenland Language Secretariat)“Taking the Tagger to the Next Level.”

Beatrine Heilman (Greenland Language Secretariat) “Morphological Tagging of unedited Kalallisut.”12:00 – 1:30 Lunch Room 108-Cross Common Room, St. John’s College

1:30 – 5:00 Participants may chose to participate in one of three workshops:

1) Winnipeg Art Gallery – a tour of the largest publicly held collection of Inuit art and a discussion of the history of the collections.

2) University of Manitoba Archives – presentation on the Andrew Taylor Arctic Blue Books project and database.

3) Aboriginal House Tour/Film Workshop – Meet in the lobby of Aboriginal House45 Curry Place. (Film workshop to follow at 2:30 in boardroom Rm 223).

Friday October 24

9:00 – 10:00 Keynote Address: Zach Kunuk (The Chapel)


10:30 – 12:00 Session 2

2.1 Imagining RelationshipsRoom: 111 St. John’s College (Quiet Room)

Florence Dupré (Ciéra, Faculté des Sciences Sociales, Université Laval, MoDys, Département d’Anthropologie, Université Lumière Lyon)

“Le nom imaginé: la parenté qikirtamiut contemporaine contée à travers ’image et les réseaux virtuels.”

Anne S. Douglas (Thomas More Institute, Montreal)“It was hard but it was good”: The vulnerability of the “good” in contemporary Inuit life.

Laura Emdal Navne “Imagining Inuit Motherhood.”

2.2 Imagining SpaceBuilding: 223 Aboriginal House [Boardroom] 45 Curry Place

Rob Shields (Henry Marshall Tory Chair and Professor, University of Alberta) and P. Steinberg

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“Imagining Inuit Geopolitics.”Michel Goedart ( l'Université Libre de Bruxelles)

“Mutations des savoirs géographiques, chez les Inuit de Puvirnituq.”Emilie Cameron (Department of Geography, Queen’s University)

“Storying the North: A Critical Narrative Geography of Bloody Falls.”

2.3 Thinking GreenlandRoom: 113 St. John’s College

Inge Seiding (Greenlandic National Museum and Archives) “Inuit Minds in the Narrative of the Early Colonial period in Greenland.”

Birgit Kleist Pedersen (Department of Language, Literature & Media, Ilisimatusarfik/University of Greenland)

“Greenland Images constructed through Photos taken by Kalaallit and Qallunaat respectively – cultural diversity in motion?”

Karen Langgard “A Danes imagining the Greenlanders, Kalaallit, compared to

Greenlanders representing themselves in the Greenlandic literature.”

2.4 History and ShamansRoom: 307 Tier Building

Kennet Pedersen (Department of Cultural and Social History, Ilisimatusarfik/ University of Greenland )

“The double secret of the shaman – The Fifth Thule Expedition (1921-24) and the construction of primordial Inuit shamanism (angakkuersaarneq).”

Peter Evans (Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge University) “Trouble at Okak and Hebron: Insanity, Shamanism, and Authority in Northern Labrador c. 1938-1946.”

Ole Marquardt (Department of Cultural & Social History, Ilisimatusarfik/University of Greenland)

“Finding a Way Out. How did people in South Greenland adjust family sizes during the great socio-economic crisis from 1850-1880?”

David King (University College Of The North) “Francophone Nationalism, Inuit and the Role of the Anglican Church:

A Study of the Transfer of Northern Quebec from Federal to Provincial Jurisdiction and its Resistance by Inuit, 1960-1970.”

2.5 Conflicting ImaginationsRoom: 206 St. John’s College

Fabienne Joliet (Département Paysage, Institut National d'Horticulture et du Paysage, Angers, France) and Thibault Martin (Departement de sociologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais)

“What the Inuit know and what we think they know about the territory.”Karin Johansson ( Natural Resource Institute, University of Manitoba) and

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Micheline Manseau (Western and Northern Service Centre of Parks Canada) “Inuit Perceptions of Safety in and around Auyuittuq National Park, Nunavut.”

Devin Imrie (Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba)“Inuit Knowledge on Sea Ice Change in the Belcher Islands, NU: Adapting

to the New Reality.”

12:00 – 1:30 Lunch – Room 108 Cross Common, St. John’s College Sponsored in part by the University of Manitoba Press

1:30 – 3:00 Session 3

3.1 Panel 1: Archival Photographic Collections Room: 206 St. John’s College

Andrew Rodger, (Library and Archives Canada) “Introduction on the Role of Archives and the Role of the National Archives.”

Beth Greenhorn, (Library and Archives Canada) “Project Naming on the Web.”

Carol Payne (Carleton University)“National Film Board Project.”

3.2 Art 3: Winnipeg Imagining Inuit ArtRoom: The Chapel, St. John’s College

Darlene Coward Wight (Curator of Inuit Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery)“The Winnipeg Art Gallery: A Museum of the Inuit Imagination.”

Abraham Anghik Ruben (Artist)“Three Generations: Changes in Contemporary Inuit Art and Culture.”

Bernadette Driscoll-Engelstad (Independent writer/curator)“George Swinton: A Passionate Spirit.”

Shirlee Ann Smith (Former Keeper, Hudson's Bay Company Archives)“The Hudson's Bay Company Archives and Its Contribution to the Study of Inuit Culture.”

3.3 EducationRoom: 125 St. John’s College

John Kilbourne and Elizabeth Kilbourne (Movement Science, Grand Valley State University)

“Building Bridges Using Education & Performance: The Canadian Arctic.”Ing-Britt Christiansen (University of Greenland)

“What makes students stick?”

3.4 Imagining Cumberland SoundRoom: 111 St. John’s College (Quiet Room)

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Karen Routledge (Department of History, Rutgers University) “Imagining an Inuit Homeland: American Whalers in Cumberland Sound, 1851 1868.”

Carlos Idrobo (Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba) “The Pangnirtung Inuit and the Greenland Shark: Encounters an Interactions

with a Nuisances Species.” Ian Mauro (Post Doctoral Fellow, University of Victoria)

“The Pangnirtung Summer Program: Embodied Learning and Place.”

3:00 – 3:30 Pause Santé Room (108 St. John’s College [Cross Common Room])

3:30 – 5:00 Session 4

4.1 Art 4: Envisioning Nunavut: Inuit Arts and the Politics of Culture Room: 125 St. John’s CollegeBernadette Driscoll-Engelstad, organizer, (Independent writer/curator)

“Imagination vs. Vision: The Cultural Politics of Inuit Art”Judy Hall (Canadian Museum of Civilization) “

“Charles Gimpel and Gimpel Fils Gallery, London: The Promotion of Inuit Art in Europe 1953-1972.”

4.2 Panel 2: Inuit voices in the Making of NunavutRoom: The Cloister

François Trudel, Université Laval TBASusan Sammons, Nunavut Arctic College TBAThierry Rodon, Université Laval and Carleton University TBALouis McComber, Nunavut Arctic College TBA

4.3 Youth and Media Building: 223 Aboriginal House [Boardroom] -45 Curry Place

Jette Rygaard (Department of Language, Literature & Media, Ilisimatusarfik/University of Greenland).

“An open wound. Intercultural discourses as the death agony of colonialism. Young people’s discourses at the internet about the countries and their own place in the global world.”

Sonia Gunderson (Fulbright Fellow)“From the Arctic to Timbuktu and Back Again: Igloolik Circus & Clyde River Hip-Hop Help Bridge Cultural Gap for Inuit Youth.”

Ali Lakhani and Honor Ford-Smith (York University) “How does the Inukjuak community experience Hip Hop? An examination of the experiences of five students from Inukjuak, Quebec,

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partaking in the ‘Hip Hop: Beats, Lyrics & Technology’ workshop.”

4.4 Imagining InstitutionsRoom: 111 St. John’s College (Quiet Room)

Carol Heppenstall (Adventure Canada) “Beyond Binoculars: One Woman’s Perspective on New Ways of Seeing.”

Aldene Meis Mason (Faculty of Business Administration, University of Regina), Leo Paul Dana (Faculty of Business Administration, University of Regina, Faculty of Management, University of Canterbury, New Zealand), Ana Maria Peredo, (Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Victoria), Robert Brent Anderson (Faculty of Business Administration, University of Regina) and Jim Mason (Faculty of Business Administration, University of Regina)

“Innovation and Adaptation in Traditional Inuit Small Business.”

7:00 p.m. Banquet – at the Winnipeg Art Gallery Film: Exiles

Saturday October 25

9:00 – 10:00 Keynote Address: Peter Irniq (The Chapel)


10:30 – 12:00 Session 5

5.1 Art 4: Room: 125 St. John’s College

Pascale Visart de Bocarmé (Université Libre de Bruxelles)“Inuit artistic production: meeting place for cross cultural representations.”

Roslyn Stanwick (University of Winnipeg) “There is no word for art in Inuktitut.”

5.2 Women, Identity, RepresentationRoom: 206 St. John’s College

Michelle Luo (Dartmouth College)“Barbie and Changing Images of the Arctic.”

Sonia Gunderson (Fulbright Fellow)“Women Imaging Women: Igloolik’s Arnait Video Productions.”

Amy Burzynski (Dartmouth College) “Katajjaq: Inuit Throat Singing and Cultural Identity.”

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5.3 Youth, Language, SchoolsRoom: 111 St. John’s College (Quiet Room)

Louis-Jacques Dorais (Université Laval) and Pasha Puttayuq (Isummasaqvik School, Quaqtaq)

“Language, Community, and the Young Inuit.”Paul Berger (Lakehead University)

“Inuit imagine school change in Nunavut while nice Euro-Canadians resist.”Hot, Aurélie “Language and Creative Work: Inuit Youth and Digital Media.”

12:00 – 1:30 Lunch Room 108 St. John’s College – Cross Common Room

1:30 – 3:30 Inuksiutiit Katimajiit Business Meeting

Room: 125 St. John’s College

3:30-5:00 p.m. Film: Annie Pootoogook The Chapel, St. John’s College

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List of Presenters:

Presenter Session Anderson, Robert Brent 4.4 Martin, Thibault 2.5Berger, Paul 5.3 Mason, Jim 4.4Burzynski, Amy 5.2 McComber, Louis 4.2Cameron, Emilie 2.2 McNicoll, Paule 1.3Christiansen, Ing-Britt 3.3 Meis Mason, Aldene 4.4Collins, Catherine 3.2 Navne, Laura Emdal 2.1Collins, Kenlyn 3.2 Payne, Carol 3.1Coward Wight, Darlene 3.2 Pedersen, Birgit Kleist 2.3Dana, Leo Paul 4.4 Pedersen, Kennet 2.4

d'Anglure, Bernard SaladinKeynote Speaker Peredo, Ana Marie 4.4

de Boarme, Pascale Visart 5.1 Rodger, Andrew 3.1Delacretaz, Helen 3.2 Rodon, Thierry 4.2Dorais, Louis-Jacques 5.3 Routledge, Karen 3.4

Douglas, Anne S. 2.1Ruben, Abraham Anghik 3.2

Driscoll Englestad, Bernadette 3.2 Rygaard, Jette 4.3Driscoll Englestad, Bernadette 4.1 Sammons, Susan 4.2Dupre, Florence 2.1 Seiding, Inge 2.3Evans, Peter 2.4 Shields, Rob 2.2Feheley, Pat 1.1 Smith, Shirlee Anne 3.2Ford-Smith, Honor 4.3 Stanwick, Roslyn 5.1Goedart, Michel 2.2 Tester, Frank 1.3Greenhorn, Beth 3.1 Trudel, Francois 4.2

Gunderson, Sonia 4.3

Gunderson, Sonia 5.2

Heilman, Beatrine 1.4

Heppenstall, Carol 4.4

Idrobo, Carlos Julian 3.4

Imrie, Devin 2.5

Irniq, PeterKeynote Speaker

Jacobsen, Birgitte 1.4

Johansson, Karin 2.5

Joliet, Fabienne 2.5

Kilbourne, Elizabeth 3.3

Kilbourne, John 3.3

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King, David 2.4

Kunuk, ZachKeynote Speaker

Lakhani, Ali 4.3

Langgard, Karen 2.3

Langgard, Per 1.4

Luo, Michelle 5.2

Marquardt, Ole 2.4

Martin, Keavy 1.2

Martin, Thibault 1.2

Presenter Session Room

Irniq, Peter Keynote Speaker

d'Anglure, Bernard Saladin Keynote Speaker

Kunuk, Zach Keynote Speaker

Feheley, Pat 1.1 125 St. John's College

Martin, Keavy 1.2 206 St. John's College

Martin, Thibault 1.2 206 St. John's College

Tester, Frank 1.3 Aboriginal House

McNicoll, Paule 1.3 Aboriginal House

Heilman, Beatrine 1.4 113 St. John's College

Jacobsen, Birgitte 1.4 113 St. John's College

Langgard, Per 1.4 113 St. John's College

Douglas, Anne S. 2.1111 St. John's College (Quiet Room)

Dupre, Florence 2.1111 St. John's College (Quiet Room)

Navne, Laura Emdal 2.1111 St. John's College (Quiet Room)

Cameron, Emilie 2.2 Aboriginal House

Goedart, Michel 2.2 Aboriginal House

Shields, Rob 2.2 Aboriginal House

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Langgard, Karen 2.3 113 St. John's College

Pedersen, Birgit Kleist 2.3 113 St. John's College

Seiding, Inge 2.3 113 St. John's College

Evans, Peter 2.4 307 Tier Building

King, David 2.4 307 Tier Building

Marquardt, Ole 2.4 307 Tier Building

Pedersen, Kennet 2.4 307 Tier Building

Imrie, Devin 2.5 206 St. John's College

Johansson, Karin 2.5 206 St. John's College

Joliet, Fabienne 2.5 206 St. John's College

Martin, Thibault 2.5 206 St. John's College

Payne, Carol 3.1 206 St. John's College

Rodger, Andrew 3.1 206 St. John's College

Greenhorn, Beth 3.1 206 St. John's College

Driscoll-Englestad, Bernadette 3.2 The Chapel, St. John's College

Ruben, Abraham Anghik 3.2 The Chapel, St. John's College

Smith, Shirlee Anne 3.2 The Chapel, St. John's College

Coward Wight, Darlene 3.2 The Chapel, St. John's College

Christiansen, Ing-Britt 3.3 125 St. John's College

Kilbourne, John 3.3 125 St. John's College

Kilbourne, Elizabeth 3.3 125 St. John's College

Idrobo, Carlos Julian 3.4111 St. John's College (Quiet Room)

Mauro, Ian 3.4111 St. John's College (Quiet Room)

Routledge, Karen 3.4111 St. John's College (Quiet Room)

Driscoll-Englestad, Bernadette 4.1 125 St. John's College

Hall, Judy 4.1 125 St. John's College

Trudel, Francois 4.2 The Cloister, St. John's College

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Sammons, Susan 4.2 The Cloister, St. John's College

Rodon, Thierry 4.2 The Cloister, St. John's College

McComber, Louis 4.2 The Cloister, St. John's College

Gunderson, Sonia 4.3 Aboriginal House

Lakhani, Ali 4.3 Aboriginal House

Ford-Smith, Honor 4.3 Aboriginal House

Rygaard, Jette 4.3 Aboriginal House

Heppenstall, Carol 4.4111 St. John's College (Quiet Room)

Meis Mason, Aldene 4.4111 St. John's College (Quiet Room)

Dana, Leo Paul 4.4111 St. John's College (Quiet Room)

Peredo, Ana Marie 4.4111 St. John's College (Quiet Room)

Anderson, Robert Brent 4.4111 St. John's College (Quiet Room)

Mason, Jim 4.4111 St. John's College (Quiet Room)

de Boarme, Pascale Visart 5.1 125 St. John's College

Stanwick, Roslyn 5.1 125 St. John's College

Burzynski, Amy 5.2 206 St. John's College

Gunderson, Sonia 5.2 206 St. John's College

Luo, Michelle 5.2 206 St. John's College

Berger, Paul 5.3111 St. John's College (Quiet Room)

Dorais, Louis-Jacques 5.3111 St. John's College (Quiet Room)

Hot, Aurélie 5.3111 St. John's College (Quiet Room)

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ABSTRACTS

Inuit Imagine School Change in Nunavut While Nice Euro-Canadians Resist

Paul Berger, Lakehead University

This doctoral research found that in one Nunavut community Inuit want more Inuit culture in schools, more and better teaching of Inuktitut, the inclusion of Inuit Elders, and higher academic standards. These results resonate with other recent findings across Nunavut and with current government rhetoric. Why, then, is schooling in Nunavut still so Euro-Canadian? I argue that Eurocentrism – the inability of well-intentioned White people to imagine doing schooling differently – impedes change. This was most visible in the prejudicial attitudes of some White teachers and community members, and in hamstrung school improvement ‘consultations’ that could not possibly lead to change. It is deftly hidden in bureaucratic inertia and inadequate funding, something all Euro-Canadians share responsibility for through their Government of Canada. This research reconfirms that Inuit continue to imagine an ‘Inuit schooling,’ and it challenges Euro-Canadians to imagine other ways of doing things, thus removing the major roadblock to school change.

(Session 5.3, Room 111 St. John's College [Quiet Room]))

Katajjaq: Inuit Throat Singing and Cultural Identity

Amy Burzynski, Dartmouth College

Katajjaq (throat singing) has become a distinctive and highly visible aspect of Inuit culture. Traditionally, katajjaq is practiced by women at home, in the form of a friendly competitive game; today, throat singing is also being performed by Inuit people on stage for audiences throughout the world.

Many features of traditional Inuit ways of life are disappearing due to increasing globalization. In contrast, the tradition of katajjaq, after being suppressed by missionaries for many years, is now experiencing a revival in popularity. It is actually perceived to be strengthening Inuit cultural identity. For example, katajjaq connects elders and youth, helps preserve the native language, is fused with contemporary music styles, and is being shared with a global audience. This paper explores the vital role of katajjaq in identity construction through Inuit-generated images of their culture in- and outside of the Arctic.

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(Session 5.2, Room 206 St. John's College))

Storying the North: A Critical Narrative Geography of Bloody Falls

Emilie Cameron, Department of Geography, Queen’s University

In this paper I would like to present preliminary findings from my doctoral research into the ‘narrative geographies’ of the Bloody Falls massacre story, an event allegedly witnessed by explorer Samuel Hearne along the Coppermine River in July, 1771. Drawing on archival and ethnographic research conducted across Canada and particularly in Kugluktuk, Nunavut, my doctoral research aims to understand the ways in which Bloody Falls has been storied by different actors and for different purposes, and to situate these stories within broader political, economic, and imaginative contexts. This presentation will address competing understandings of the massacre story and of the massacre site itself and consider the ways in which Kugluktukmiut have resisted materializations of Samuel Hearne in their community, particularly through disputes with federal and territorial governments over proposed commemorations of Hearne’s journey. It will consider the importance of silence and forgetting in the memorialisation of the past and problematize non-Inuit interest in recuperating a ‘traditional’ Inuit version of the Bloody Falls massacre story.

(Session 2.2, 223 Aboriginal House [Boardroom], 45 Curry Place)

What makes students stick?

Ing-Britt Christiansen, University of Greenland

There is only limited research that address and illuminates, what makes students in Greenland stick to school until graduating, despite obvious apparent obstacles, such as inadequate language skills or family and kin background, without a tradition of formal education, and if, only at a low level.

In my pilot project at the School of Social Work, Nuuk, Greenland I have interviewed 12 students. On this research background I intend to identify and present factors that influence student's ability and motivation for graduating. It was expected initially that support from strong kinship ties would be a main reason for completing education. Yet a main factor is apparently peer group networks, as classroom solidarity among students themselves has been found to be the single most important factor for staying and completing their education.

(Session 3.3, Room 125 St. John's College)

Inuit artistic production: meeting place for cross-cultural representations.

Pascale Visart de Bocarmé, Université Libre de Bruxelles

The contemporary Inuit artistic production going on since almost sixty years in the Canadian

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Arctic appears as one of the earlier successful cross-cultural exchanges between Inuit and Westerners. The nature of this exchange is multiple: cultural, symbolic, political or economic. A component of this exchange is the respective imaginations of the partners which figure as a major dynamic factor of the process. Qallunaat and Inuit imagine one another through the art and also through all the process of the artistic production.

In order to produce creative works, the Inuit dip into their past or present traditions trying in the same time to understand and to imagine the preferences of the western amateurs. Through their contemporary art, the Inuit imagine and represent in new forms their past and present making it visible and alive through the artistic object..

In the other hand, the exoticism, in this instance a particular form of imagination, is a determining factor of the Qallunaat’s taste for the Inuit artistic production. Though the art and the surrounding discourse are bringing some knowledge about the native producers, this one still remains very selective.This paper will analyze the development of the imaginative dialectic process generated by and through the Inuit artistic production between Inuit and Qallunaat.


Language, Community, and the Young Inuit

Louis-Jacques Dorais, Université Laval, and Pasha Puttayuk, Isummasaqvik School, Quaqtaq

Based on data collected in Quaqtaq, a small village in Nunavik, this paper will look at the part played by Inuktitut and by community life in defining the identity of young Inuit adults. It will be shown that young people feel at ease when speaking Inuktitut and are attached to their community, but that they also want to be part of international youth culture and find it important to communicate with the wider world. Preliminary conclusions will be drawn on the necessary balance that must be kept between what is commonly labeled as tradition and as modernity, in order for the young to have a fulfilling identity.

(Session 5.3 Room 111 St. John's College[Quiet Room])

“It was hard but it was good”: The vulnerability of the “good” in contemporary Inuit life.

Anne S. Douglas, Thomas More Institute, Montreal, Quebec.

Mircea Eliade, among others, identified two distinct modes of human experience: that of sacred time as opposed to that of the qualitatively different profane time. Within the boundaries of sacred time, people experience life through re-actualizing the exemplary models that explain and give substance to their understanding of the eternal. In contrast, the experience of profane time can be understood as the day-to-day expenditure of transient existence.In this paper I will illustrate how Inuit in a Nunavut community confront the loss of the sacred as they meet the exigencies of contemporary community life.

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(Session 2.1, Room 111 St. John's College [Quiet Room])

Imagination vs. Vision: The Cultural Politics of Inuit Art

Bernadette Driscoll-Engelstad, Independent writer/curator

By the late 1950s James Houston and the carvers and printmakers of Cape Dorset and northern Quebec had set into motion an artistic phenomenon that would bring the art of hundreds of Inuit sculptors and graphic artists to the attention of fellow Canadians and others around the world. This paper examines the ways in which Inuit art captured the imagination of collectors and citizens alike, solidifying the position of Inuit as a vital and integral feature of Canadian national identity. The production of art during the past 50 years not only provided an economic advantage to artists and communities across the North, but offered valuable political experience in dealing with the local, national, and international infrastructure of the commercial art network. Through this interplay of self-representation and cultural politics, Inuit art laid a solid foundation for the creation and acceptance of Nunavut as a political reality within the nation-state of Canada.

(Session 4.1, Room 125 St. John's College) George Swinton: A Passionate Spirit Bernadette Driscoll Engelstad, Independent writer/curator

George Swinton, artist, philosopher, poet, collector, teacher, and scholar was at the forefront of a fortuitous community of individuals and institutions in Winnipeg in the early 1950s who contributed significantly to the recognition, nurturing and development of Inuit art in Canada. As an artist and scholar, George Swinton provided a philosophical framework for understanding and appreciating Inuit art, not simply as a form of indigenous art or ethnic genre but as the creative work of individual artists with unique styles and, most importantly, personhood. He worked closely with Inuit artists in the field and was instrumental in the development of the Inuit Cultural Institute. As a teacher and writer, he articulated his ideas and experiences through lectures and publications, influencing generations of artists, art advisors, curators, collectors, students, and government officials. His writings, which remain essential reading in the field, laid the groundwork for the institutional recognition of Inuit art in public galleries and universities across Canada.

(Session 3.2, The Chapel, St. John's College)

Le nom imaginé: la parenté qikirtamiut contemporaine contée à travers l’image et les réseaux virtuels

Florence Dupré, Ciéra, Faculté des Sciences Sociales, Université Laval (Québec, Canada)MoDys (UMR 5264, CNRS), Département d’Anthropologie, Université Lumière Lyon 2 (France)

Dans la mouvance des débats conceptuels des années 1960-1970 sur le caractère prétendument

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« fictif » de certaines formes de parentés, l’étude de la parenté inuit a longtemps fait l’objet, en anthropologie, de discussions théoriques au détriment d’une ethnographie minutieuse. Délaissée depuis une vingtaine d’années, la compréhension de la parenté semble aujourd’hui se heurter à l’immobilisme et à l’impossibilité de ces analyses à rendre compte des dynamiques sociales contemporaines.

Dans cette perspective, de nombreux champs de la parenté relatifs au développement des technosciences et éclatant littéralement dans l’étude des sociétés occidentales demeurent presque totalement ignorés dans les études inuit. Cette présentation proposera donc un autre regard, non plus sur la parenté mais sur les parentés inuit: je tenterai de montrer comment ces parentés participent de systèmes relationnels dynamiques faisant cohabiter la transmission éponymique des noms personnels avec de nouveaux espaces liés au développement de trois domaines : internet, les sciences médicales et la technologie numérique de l’image. Je m’appuierai sur un ensemble de données recueillies dans la communauté de Sanikiluaq (Nunavut, Canada) entre mai 2006 et juillet 2008, où l’image et la photographie participent activement de la création identitaire de l’inuk, de la mise en place de la relation sociale et de la pratique quotidienne des relations de parenté. Cette entrée contemporaine par l’intermédiaire de l’image nous permettra en dernière instance de réfléchir à la question de la représentation et de l’imagination de la parenté inuit.


Trouble at Okak and Hebron: Insanity, Shamanism, and Authority in Northern Labrador c. 1938-1946

Peter Evans, Scott Polar Research Institute

This paper focuses on manner in which Northern Labrador’s Hebron-Nutak region was problematized within Inuit-Kablunat relations. I examine several instances of supposed “madness,” Inuit shamanism and spiritual beliefs and practices in the Hebron-Okak region between the late 1930s to late 1940s, how they were perceived by the establishment Moravian church, an incipient state, and Inuit. In one episode occurring in May 1938, an epidemic of madness at Hebron became ground for competition between chapel servants, representing Inuit Christianity, a self-styled angakok, representing a deliberately, provocative traditional Inuit strategy, and the Newfoundland Ranger, representing the Commission of Government’s new civic order. Another case of “insanity” in the spring of 1946 at Okak reveals the difficulties administrators faced in attempting to manage the populace in the territory north of Nain. As an “infectious hysteria” its most enduring effects were achieved among the handful of Euro-Canadian administrators who feared that both events were symptomatic of the decline of Inuit society and an imminent danger of spiritual and cultural regression, if the region were not reorganized and brought under greater control and influence of authorities. It was partly around this conviction that the centralization rhetoric of the mid-1950s gathered.

(Session 2.4, Room 307 Tier Building)

Imagining the Future: Inuit Art in the Twenty-First Century

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Pat Feheley

Over the last half-century, as communication and accessibility challenges have been bridged, contemporary life in Nunavut has evolved to assimilate global concerns and lifestyle into traditional culture. Contemporary Inuit art has paced this transition with the addition of new media, imagery and distribution systems.

The recent success of contemporary Inuit artists on the international stage, such as the inclusion of Annie Pootoogook in Documenta XII, suggests that changes are occurring both in Inuit Art itself and in the marketplace. This session will examine the changing iconography and motivation of Inuit Art today. It will also examine the changing attitudes to Inuit art as it is increasingly considered a vital part of the contemporary Canadian and International art scene rather than an ethnologically based primitive art form which is slowly losing validity.


Mutations des savoirs géographiques, chez les Inuit de Puvirnituq

Michel Goedart, l'Université Libre de Bruxelles

Sans avoir l'ambition de révolutionner l'état des connaissances, la recherche dont il est question ici mettra en évidence, suivant en cela le remarquable travail de Béatrice Collignon ''Les Inuit, ce qu'ils savent du territoire'', l'évolution de la perception de l'espace et des savoirs qui y sont liés dans la communauté inuit de Puvirnituq, sur deux à trois générations.

Dans le courant du XXème siècles, avec l'influence grandissante des Qallunaat dans l'arctique, le riche réseau réticulaire que formait chaque territoire inuit s'est progressivement restructuré, se contractant fortement autours des postes de traite puis des villages tout en se redéployant paradoxalement aussi par delà l'horizon vers une multitude de nouveaux lieux réels et virtuels, du village voisin au cyberespace en passant par les villes du sud et du monde.

Les savoirs mobilisés dans les relations qu'entretiennent les Inuit avec chacun de ces territoires, de même que les médiateurs et les processus d'acquisition et de transmission de ceux-ci, dont il est fait un rapide récapitulatif, se sont eux aussi fondamentalement transformés, tout comme la société inuit dans son ensemble qui est passée d'un mode de vie nomade rythmé par les cycles saisonniers à un mode de vie sédentaire sous tutelle coloniale pour aujourd'hui retrouver une plus grande autonomie et intégrer le village mondial. L'interaction des Inuit avec la société canadienne et le monde nécessite des connaissances qui vont bien au delà de celles mobilisées dans le cadre, par exemple, des activités cynégétiques et communautaires traditionnelles qui bien que de plus en plus mal maîtrisées n'en sont pas moins essentielles tant d'un point de vue identitaire que pratique. Les acteurs et les méthodologies de transmission des savoirs ne sont plus les mêmes. C'est l'école qui en est aujourd'hui le médiateur principal. Or les programmes scolaires actuels, malgré une certaine ouverture, ne semblent pas réussir à répondre pleinement aux défis culturels et sociaux d'un monde arctique en changement accéléré.

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L'enquête sera principalement conduite auprès des aînés, des adultes et des jeunes de plusieurs familles du village de Puvirnituq, prenant en compte le facteur genre, de même qu'auprès des personnes en charge de diverses institutions, comme l'école, l’association des parents, le conseil communautaire et l’association regroupant les chausseurs.


Women Imaging Women: Igloolik’s Arnait Video Productions

Sonia Gunderson, Fulbright Fellow

Following video workshops conducted by Marie-Helene Cousineau in 1991, women in Igloolik formed the Arnait Video Productions collective to document the traditional and modern lives of local women from within the culture. At the same time, they have documented women’s activities and issues that resonate with women throughout the world.

Working in difficult family, social and economic conditions, the collective has shown a level of endurance and commitment over the years that attests to the importance of this project in their lives.

A branch of filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk’s Igloolik Isuma family, the collective has toiled in the shadow if its older sibling, attracting a small but dedicated following. With the 2008 release of Before Tomorrow, Arnait’s first feature film, the group is finally poised to reach an international audience.

This presentation will explore Arnait’s unique mission, perspectives and collaborative approach to filmmaking, as well as the collective’s body of work to date.

(Session 5.2, Room 206 St. John's College))

From the Arctic to Timbuktu and Back Again: Igloolik Circus & Clyde River Hip-Hop Help Bridge Cultural Gap for Inuit Youth

Sonia Gunderson, Fulbright Fellow

Inuit youth have suicide rates 11 times the national average, school dropout rates of 75%, and substance abuse is endemic. There are likely multiple causes for these problems. Some Nunavut communities are reducing their plight by simultaneously engaging youth in new and old traditions. This paper will describe two such programs in detail, discuss individual stories of transformation and the possibilities for such programs to provide another tool to help solve seemingly intractable social problems in northern communities.

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The first case study, Artcirq, began as an effort to stem the tide of suicides in Igloolik. Montreal circus performer Guillaume Saladin founded the troupe in 1998, when he brought six circus artists to Igloolik to train local Inuit youth. Since then, local youth have continued training at home and in Montreal, with support from Igloolik Isuma Productions and Cirque Eloize. Artcirq now tours the world, giving performances in Canada, Ireland, Mexico and Timbuktu (Mali). Future dates include France and Switzerland. In addition to developing acts that represent traditional Inuit culture, Artcirq makes documentaries of its work and is currently producing a film about today’s Arctic youth. As cultural representatives, members’ pride and confidence have grown, along with their interest and engagement in their own traditions. The second case study is the hip-hop phenomenon in Clyde River, started in 2006. Local resident Clark Kalluk launched a group to give youth a focus and inspire them to stay out of trouble. That led to a five-day hip-hop workshop with Stephen Leafloor’s Canadian Floor Masters, which required participants to show up sober. Local elders taught traditional games and throat singing as part of the workshops, spawning newfound interest among youth in traditional knowledge.


The contribution of Charles Gimpel and Gimpel Fils Gallery, London to the promotion of Inuit art in Europe 1953-1972.

Judy Hall, Canadian Museum of Civilization

Charles Gimpel and his gallery in London, England, Gimpel Fils, played a crucial role in introducing contemporary Canadian Inuit art to western European audiences. Between 1953 and 1972, Charles Gimpel organized exhibitions of Inuit art in Paris, Zurich, London and other galleries and museums in England. The success of these international exhibitions fostered the appreciation of Inuit art in Europe and also in Canada. This paper will demonstrate the immense contribution Gimpel made to the promotion, marketing and exhibition of Inuit art in Europe in the early years of its development.

(Session 4.1, 125 St. John’s College)

Morphological Tagging of unedited Kalallisut

Beatrine Heilman, Greenland Language Secretariat

The Kalaallisut finite state automaton first presented to the public at the 15th Inuit Studies Conference is now well past the 90% bench mark in unedited text. It has come to play an important role in Greenlandic language policy and has become an important tool in Greenlandic corpus planning. The presentation will introduce the automaton and its practical applications.


Beyond Binoculars: One Woman’s Perspective on New Ways of Seeing

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Carol Heppenstall, Adventure Canada

Kajjarniq – the Inuit sentiment of “recalling with fond longing” aptly describes my feelings towards the Arctic and its people. Afforded the opportunity to work as an expeditionary guide in the Canadian Arctic for the last fifteen years, I have experienced the view beyond the binoculars – our attempt to look at the “other” through a biased lens. No region so profoundly captures the imagination of those who live there and those who live in the south and look to the North. Yet as Bob McGhee, author of “The Last Imaginary Place” has put it, “Our southern vision of the Arctic is so enticing that it cannot be entirely submerged in reality.”This presentation will examine the ways in which I have constructed “learning travel” in the Arctic and the generous way in which Inuit have responded. I will examine the disconnect that exists between the North and attempts at contextualizing the culture or magnificent works of art that we lecture about or exhibit. Their authentic voice exists in their imaginative use of stone and bone, in their interpretive works on imported paper or fabric and in their insightful use of the camera. A meeting of minds between travelers and community has encouraged new ways of perceiving reality based on an imaginative exchange of ideas.

(Session 4.4,Room 111 St. John's College [Quiet Room] )

Language and creative work: Inuit youth and digital mediaAurélie Hot, Ph.D. candidate, Université Laval

Inuit youth in Iqaluit and Igloolik (Nunavut), like their Qallunaat peers in southern Canada, actively engage in virtual social networking. They exchange music videos, pictures and messages with family and friends in their own communities or in other places of the North and beyond. Although these exchanges are largely destined to an Inuit audience and these young Inuit consider Inuktitut as their mother tongue, written exchanges mostly occur in English.This communication will discuss in details the attitudes of young speakers towards linguistic choices, as well as the context of those choices. Virtual social networking is constructed around certain values and cultural elements that they consider part of their Inuit identity. At the same time, Internet exchanges are constrained by a digital media that has many southern-based features, which constitute the framework of these creative expressions.

(Session 5.3 111 St. John’s College [Quiet Room])

Pangnirtung Inuit and the Greenland Shark: Encounters with a Nuisance Species

Carlos Julián Idrobo, Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba

Inuit are known to be holders of detailed ecological knowledge about their environment and animal “resources”. However, this is not the case for the Greenland shark, an animal not considered a resource by the Inuit community of Pangnirtung (Baffin Island, Canadian Eastern Arctic). What is the perception of the Inuit about this species? Is there any Inuit knowledge about it? A participatory approach was used for the research, employing participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups. This shark is a “thief” that steals and destroys caught

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animals, a nuisance to the Greenland halibut fishery. It is absent from Pangnirtung Inuit oral tradition, rarely seen, and neither hunted nor used. This species does not fit into the Pangnirtung collective mental model of what edible food should look like. Thus, the Greenland shark is an undesired animal for Pangnirtung Inuit. We found that Pangnirtung Inuit do not consider themselves as shark experts. They are not even aware of all the knowledge they possess about this species because it is not a regular subject of discussion. However, their interest in the present research established a platform to involve the Inuit to talk about, and make sense of, their observations of the shark and its habitat. This study is an example about how traditional knowledge is an ever evolving and adaptive entity. By dealing with a topic that Inuit from Pangnirtung are not used to, the research became into a creative process by which scattered pieces of information were gathered, organized, and integrated. The interaction between Inuit and outside scientists allowed both parties to learn from each other, constructing knowledge of a species that does not draw outstanding interest among Pangnirtung Inuit.


Inuit Knowledge on Sea Ice Change in the Belcher Islands, NU: Adapting to the New Reality

Devin Imrie, Natural Resources Institute, University of Manitoba

Reduction in thickness, extent, and duration of sea ice has become reality throughout the Canadian Arctic, with both global and local impacts. Inuit in the community of Sanikiluaq, NU, located on Hudson Bays Belcher Islands, rely heavily on seasonal sea ice cover to conduct the majority of their traditional harvesting activities. Sanikiluaq residents are concerned that the combine effects of climate change and hydroelectric development in the Hudson Bay watershed are altering their sea ice environment, posing new challenges for Inuit who rely heavily on sea ice in order to continue their traditional subsistence livelihood.

Information for this project was gathered through a series of interviews with local experts such as hunters and elders, and extensive participant observation by the researcher during travel with Inuit hunters and harvesters. This thesis documents the observations and insights of hunters and elders from Sanikiluaq on sea ice change in the vicinity of the Belcher Islands. This is followed by a discussion on short term coping mechanisms and long term adaptations that are being made by Inuit hunters as they strive to remain safe and successful in the face of unprecedented changes to the environment they know so intimately. The limitations and barriers to effective adaptation within the community are explored in order to provide recommendations for local and government initiatives that could help the community of Sanikiluaq and other northern communities mitigate some of the negative impacts of drastic sea ice change. In addition, this research complements and provides recommendations to improve the ongoing community based monitoring of sea ice by Arcticnet scientists and the community, to ensure the resulting information is of relevance to local people.


Imagining through slang, pidgin and other linguistic means.

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Birgitte Jacobsen, Department of Language, Literature, and Media, Ilisimatusarfik / University of Greenland

The Danes’ imagining of the Kalaallit (Greenlandic Inuit) has been expressed not only in pictures and literature, but also in language. Linguistic expressions may serve as a covert way of imagining; through history different types of slang and pidginized expressions have been used by Danes to imagine Kalaallit and the everyday (colonial) life in Greenland. Today Danes in both Greenland and Denmark still use slang, pidgin and other linguistic expressions as a productive linguistic means of imagining Kalaallit. Some expressions are pejoratives, others more humorous; but it is still the case, in the postcolonial era, that language reveals stereotypes.


Inuit Perceptions of Safety in and around Auyuittuq National Park, Nunavut

Karin Johansson, Natural Resource Institute, University of Manitoba, and Micheline Manseau, Western and Northern Service Centre of Parks Canada

Perceptions of safety are inherently contextualized within a cultural framework. Therefore, the system of risk assessments and safety regulations conducted through the framework of Parks Canada does not necessarily align with the approach taken by local Inuit communities which continues to facilitate community survival in the face of rapid change. The way in which the Inuit of Qikiqtarjuaq maintain their safety while travelling on the ice and land is linked to the past, emphasizes experience and respectful relationships, is shaped by the Arctic environment, and connected to individual well-being and social-ecological health. When combined, these themes begin to reflect a holistic knowledge system where safety is not only a set of rules or skills applied at certain moments, but a way of being that is expressed in all facets of life.

This research provides an overview of the gap between Parks Canada and local Inuit knowledge by investigating the processes and challenges regarding the management of safe land-use practices in and around Auyuittuq National Park. This focus developed as a result of community concerns expressed by the Auyuittuq Working Group and relies on a participatory, micro-ethnographic approach involving the community of Qikiqtarjuaq, NU. This research may help improve the level of community involvement in park management as well as contribute to the dialogue about cross-cultural resource management and safety issues in relation to ongoing social and environmental changes in the Canadian North.

(Session 2.5, Room 206 St. John's College )

What the Inuit know and what we think they know about the territory.

Fabienne Joliet, Département Paysage, Institut National d'Horticulture et du Paysage, Angers, FranceThibault Martin, Departement de sociologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais

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The current and growing interest in aboriginal knowledge, particularly concerning the territory and the environment, has led to a proliferation of writings that try to present the vision that the aboriginal people have of their own world. This attempt to interpret another « imagination » of the world has greatly changed the analytical perspective of anthropology, contributing to the institutionalisation of an understanding of the other, not only from the point of view of the other, but also with regards to his/her own, particularly subjective, conceptual categories. This shift in the approach has led to change the Aboriginal from the state of object of knowledge to a knowing subject bringing about at the same time a dramatic and crucial epistemological change driving aboriginal people and non-aboriginal people to share their visions, indeed to imagine together.

This willingness to share aboriginal and western knowledge and representations, leads, admittedly, to a coming together, indeed to hybridizations, or even confusions. The purpose of this paper is obviously not to determine who among Aboriginal or the White Man speaks best of the territory, but to put into perspective the discourse of each in this context of coming together. This new perspective leads us, by means of a case study from Nunavik, to ask ourselves whether this meeting of modes of territorial imagination results in a hybridization of visions, or whether it contributes, on the other hand, to institutionalize the cultural necessity of imagining unimaginable worlds for the others.


Building Bridges Using Education & Performance: The Canadian Arctic

John Kilbourne and Elizabeth Kilbourne, Movement Science, Grand Valley State University

The participatory presentation will share valuable information including curriculum materials and grant funding sources about the “Building Bridges Using Education and Performance Project” The project is a partnership between Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids Public Schools, and Grand Rapids Community College (Michigan) which brings together sixth grade teachers and students to learn about Canada and Canada’s Indigenous Inuit. Through interdisciplinary and multicultural learning, technology, and the arts, teachers and students explore the philosophical traditions underpinning Inuit traditional practices, including games, while gaining an appreciation of cultural difference. Approximately 2000 students and fifty teachers have participated in the program.

Supplementing the in-service and classroom experiences is an evening length modern dance performance that explores the enduring spirit of survival embodied by Canada’s Native Inuit. Workshop attendees will experience some of the highlights of the performance, including Inuit Throat Singing and Inuit Drum Dancing.


Francophone Nationalism, Inuit and the Role of the Anglican Church: A Study of the Transfer of Northern Quebec from Federal to Provincial Jurisdiction and its Resistance by Inuit, 1960-1970

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David King, University College Of The North

In 1939, the Supreme Court ruled “that the terms ‘Indians’ in Section 91(24) of the B.N.A. Act includes the Eskimo inhabitants of Quebec; it placed within Dominion jurisdiction Indians and lands reserved for Indians.’” The federal government continued to hold responsibility until the 1960s when Quebec began to focus on the economic resources in northern Quebec. Coinciding with this newfound northern interest, Francophone nationalism was at an historic high. This raised fears among Inuit who feared assimilation and domination from a southern Francophone population. This also raised fears among the officials of the Anglican Church who were nervous of a provincial government known to be filled with practicing Roman Catholics.While much has been debated about the transfer of northern Quebec from federal to provincial jurisdiction, little attention has been paid to the perspective of Inuit during the process of the transfer to its final conclusion on 1 April 1970. Drawing on materials in the Anglican Church of Canada, General Synod Archives (Toronto), this paper focuses on the role of the Anglican church in the debates of the 1960s over the transfer of jurisdiction and the reactions and ideas put forward by Inuit during the political process. I argue that when confronted with Franco-phone nationalism, rather than assimilating, the reaction of northern Quebec Inuit was to identify with their own culture and Indigenous rights to land and resources.(Session 2.4, Room 307, Tier Building)

How does the Inukjuak community experience Hip Hop? An examination of the experiences of five students from Inukjuak, Quebec, partaking in the ‘Hip Hop: Beats, Lyrics & Technology’ workshop.

Ali Lakhani and Honor Ford-Smith, York University

This study examined the experiences of five students from Inukjuak, Quebec in a workshop conducted to introduce participants into the fundamentals of hip hop creation; touching on lyric writing, beat sampling, beat creation, and recording. The experience aimed to answer the primary question: How will the various aspects of hip hop creation and recording influence the participants involved? And secondary questions: What workshop aspects did students respond to most? How did students identify themselves through lyrics? and what musical genres did students choose to sample from for beat creation? The students used lyricism as a medium to express their views on the positives and negatives within their community; examples of positives involved sporting activities made available through school extracurricular programs, and examples of negatives involved references to substance abuse by members of the community. Examining their responsiveness to the various tutorial sections of the workshop displayed their reliance on current popular music of the Americas in formulating Hip Hop music creation. Results from this experience are discussed as well as the implications of my initial assumptions prior to the community visit which illustrated a western depiction of the Inuit culture and life in Nunavik.

(Session 4.3, 223 Aboriginal House, Boardroom, 45 Curry Place, 45 Curry Place)

Taking the tagger to the next level

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Per Langgard, Greenland Language Secretariat

With the automaton robust enough to meet the demands of real life in modern Greenland Oqaasileriffik has recently launched a highly ambitious project, namely the creation of a fully fledged syntactic parser powerful enough to parse all genres of unedited Kalaallisut text. The parser must reach a level of sophistication that will compare to parsers of the major world languages in order to pave the way for the same kind of advanced language technology that are found there. Writing aids, glossing tools, and automatic translation will be among the first such applications but they will only be the start of many to come.

(Session 1.4, Room 113 St. John's College) A Danes imagining the Greenlanders, Kalaallit, compared to Greenlanders representing themselves in the Greenlandic literature.

Karen Langgard

Kim Leine, educated nurse, has written a novel which he himself names memoirs. The main character moves to Greenland and after quite many relationships he ends up a drug addict. He mingles with the Greenlanders – and in this we get some portraits of Greenlanders, not least Greenlandic women that he has relationships with. These representations of Greenlanders how are they compared to the representations that we find in the literature created by Greenlandic authors.


Barbie and Changing Images of the Arctic

Michelle Luo, Dartmouth College

In the United States, perceptions of the Arctic are often limited to exotic images that are ubiquitous throughout American pop culture. A study of these depictions is best undertaken from within Western society and can be guided by an unexpected but thoroughly American icon—Barbie. From embracing multiracialism to divorcing Ken, Barbie has become a surprisingly accurate indicator of what America is concerned with. The Arctic inspired three Barbie models from 1982 to 2005, each highlighting distinct themes associated with Inuit life, including the sealing ban of the 1970s and 80s and Inuit art. This presentation explores the highly successful Eskimo Barbie, Arctic Barbie, and Inuit Legend Barbie as reflections of American views of Inuit culture.


Finding a Way Out. How did people in South Greenland adjust family sizes during the great socio-economic crisis from 1850-1880?

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Ole Marquardt, Department of Cultural & Social History, Ilisimatusarfik/University of Greenland

From about 1855 to 1880, the Southern part of West Greenland, the so called Southern Inspectorate, experienced a comprehensive socio-economic crisis. The crisis, which made itself felt throughout the entire inspectorate, manifested itself most conspicuously among the Inuit who adhered to the mission of the Moravian Brethren in central Southwest Greenland.(Nuuk and Qeqertarsuatsiaat).

The crisis - normally referred to as the “Great Crisis of the mid-19th Century” - was characterized by a growing poverty among the local Inuit and an initial demographic decline followed by a long period of demographic stagnation.

One way in which a family can counteract the impact of growing poverty is to reduce its size by reducing the number of children which the family provider has to feed. My paper investigates the extent to which this strategy for crisis management was used by the Inuit families in South Greenland - and whether families adhering to the Royal Danish Mission acted differently from those adhering to the Moravian Brethren.

(Session 2.4, Room 307, Tier Building)

‘Down South Among the Qallunaat’: Minnie Aodla Freeman and the Tale of Kiviuq

Keavy Martin, Centre for Comparative Literature, University of Toronto

In Life Among the Qallunaat, Minnie Aodla Freeman tells the story of her experiences as a young Inuk working in Ottawa in the 1950s. While many Inuit have left their homeland to travel south, one of Freeman’s earliest literary predecessors is Kiviuq, hero of the classic story-cycle. At the end of this unikkaaqtuaq,1 Kiviuq too travels to the land of the qallunaat, in pursuit of his migrating goose-wife. He is said to be there still, although he is so old that his face has turned to stone.

This paper considers the Kiviuq story as a possible intertext for Freeman’s narrative. In many ways, Life Among the Qallunaat has the qualities of an epic, as the heroine journeys through strange lands and struggles to preserve the memory of home. Both tales are set in times of great challenge for the Inuit; whether the adversaries are malicious spirits or government administrators, both are tales of survival, and of cultural endurance.

Furthermore, by looking to the Kiviuq story, this paper raises the possibility of finding interpretive methodologies for Inuit literature within Inuit intellectual traditions, rather than relying exclusively on the work of qallunaat scholars. Can stories from the oral tradition be read as a theory of themselves, and of other works in the Inuit literary canon?


1At least in the version told by Samson Quinangnaq, Annie Peterloosie, and Henry Evaluardjuk in John Houston’s 2007 film Kiviuq.

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Seeing the world through the eyes of an Inuit soldier

Thibault Martin, Departement de sociologie, Université du Québec en Outaouais

In 1952, Eddy Weetaltuk, an Inuit from Kuujjuarapik, enlists himself in the Canadian Army under a false a name – fearing that they will not accept him on account of his origins. It was his dream to visit the world of the white man, and Eddy Weetaltuk will experience it fully during the fifteen years he served under the Canadian flag. He participated, among others, in the Korean war, making him the first Canadian Inuit to have been engaged in armed conflict. When he left the army he was speaking five languages fluently. While serving in the army, he was respected for his talents for observation, his bravery and his capacity to learn from others. Once demobilized, Eddy experienced discrimination and felt betrayed by the country for which he had risked his life. He chose to return to his community and, once amongst his people, decided to put down in writing what he had experienced. He considered the work on his memoirs to be part of his duty as a soldier, but also wished to have his experiences serve as an example to future Inuit generations. The text he wrote is both an intimate account of his life and a fine example of anthropological work. It’s one of the rare cases where the Aboriginal is the anthropologist.

In 1975, Eddy Weetaltuk submitted his book for publication. Unfortunately, it ended up in oblivion on the shelves of the National Museum of Man. Thanks to the Law on Access to Information the manuscript was retrieved thirty years later.

The purpose of this paper is to expose the vision of Eddy Weetaltuk’s world, and also to explain why the perception formed by his « southern » interlocutors based on his writings – which did not fit the established image of aboriginal accounts – prevented it from ever yet being published in Canada.


Innovation and Adaptation in Traditional Inuit Small Business

Aldene Meis Mason*, Leo Paul Dana*+, Ana Maria Peredo**, Robert Brent Anderson* and Jim Mason** Faculty of Business Administration, University of Regina** Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Victoria+ Faculty of Management, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

Alootook Ipellie and David MacDonald explored the amazing innovations of traditional Inuit – in The Inuit Thought of It. Ipellie also wrote stories and legends such as Nipiki the Old Man Carver.University business researchers have been building a framework for sustainable Aboriginal entrepreneurship and small business. Self-reliance through self-employment and community-based ventures is very important to Inuit, especially is the smaller, remote communities. Since the land claim settlements, Inuit have done this on “their own terms”. Four Inuit communities in Nunavut, Labrador and Quebec were visited during 2007 and 2008. Participation was

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encouraged through radio announcements and follow-up contacts from snow ball sampling. Inuit men and women shared stories about their small businesses and products such as carving, jewellery making, doll making, clothing production, and meat processing. They told and demonstrated how they had used their creativity to innovate and adapt as they participated in the global economy. This paper and session will combine photographs and excerpts from digital interviews conducted in Inuktitut and English to share the Inuit voices and images. They wished others to know how they still used their hands to make their livelihoods using traditional products.(Session 4.4, Room 111 St. John's College [Quiet Room])

Imagining Inuit Motherhood

Laura Emdal Navne

Usually giving birth makes a girl or a woman a mother.During two years of fieldwork in Greenland I was confronted with a somewhat fluid maternity, transgressing my wildest Western imagination.Women who gave birth but did not become a mother, or women who gave birth, became a mother and later ceased being a mother for a while, eventually coming back into motherhood in the future. Young girls who gave birth, remained non-mothers, sometimes entering the status as their child’s mother years later.

Motherhood, I experienced during an anthropological fieldwork in Nuuk and Tasiilaq (2005 – 2007), is not necessarily a permanent and irreversible status. You can move back and forth between the two positions but not without emotional costs.

Imagine you are a woman, 20 years old, living in East Greenland, 2000 km from the capital Nuuk, and 4000 km from Denmark, two main centres of education for the Greenlandic People. You have a 10 months old baby, and you want to continue your education. You leave the child with your parents or aunt. Or you choose not to educate.

Presenting some Inuit perspectives based on 75 stories about pregnancy, childbirth, abortion and in my summary: fluid maternity in Greenland, I wish to contribute to a general transgression of the global imagination of motherhood.


Panel: “Archival Photographic Collections Portraying Inuit: Collaborative Projects in the Preservation of Knowledge through Memory”

Carol Payne, Carleton University, Organizer

This panel addresses the topic of “Imagining Inuit Imagining” by discussing interrelated collaborative projects organized by the Library and Archives Canada, Carleton University and the Ottawa-based Inuit training school, Nunavut Sivuniksavut. The specific projects discussed by this panel all employ images of Inuit peoples (in areas of present day Nunavut) from the

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collection of the Library and Archives of Canada (and the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography [National Gallery of Canada]) dating from the 1920s to the 1970s. These images were “taken home” to Nunavut by Nunavut Sivuniksavut students who spoke with Elders about them.

This work has enhanced intergenerational bonds and community knowledge in Nunavut while allowing federal visual-based histories to include voices which have traditionally been silenced on the official record. All of these projects draw on the concept of visual repatriation, the use of images—particularly photography—to reclaim community memory among Aboriginal groups. Visual repatriation projects are generated by or in close collaboration with the groups represented in these historic and archival images.

Proposed Schedule:

“Introduction on the Role of Archives and the Role of the National Archives”

Andrew Rodger, Library and Archives Canada

“Project Naming on the Web”

Beth Greenhorn, Library and Archives Canada

“National Film Board Project”

Carol Payne, Carleton University (Session 3.1, Room 206 St. John's College)

Greenland Images constructed through Photos taken by Kalaallit and Qallunaat respectively – cultural diversity in motion? Birgit Kleist Pedersen, Department of Language, Literature & Media, Ilisimatusarfik/University of Greenland

With an out spring from selected photo books published within the latest decade, this presentation will focus on the images of Greenland and Greenlanders as depicted in these publications from Denmark and from Greenland respectively, i.e. the focus will be on the distinction being between Qallunaat and Kalaallit2 photographers’ depictions of the idea of contemporary Kalaallit.

The aim is to analyze whether these images differ in form and content and whether a difference in cultural or sub cultural approaches can be identified. If so, what might be the underlying ‘project’?

2 In this context, Qallunaat defined as people raised outside Greenland, Kalaallit being people raised in Greenland – and both groups considering themselves as Qallunaat or Kalaallit respectively according to explicit expressed markers.

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As a starting point, the assumption is that the photograph is placed in the field of tension between the theoretical standpoint that photographs are representing “messages without a code” (Roland Barthes,1961) and that photographs are all way through representing “coded messages” (Umberto Eco, 1970) – this field of tension also called ‘the grey mythology’ (Lars Kiel Berthelsen, 2000). Besides photo theory, the theoretical approach will draw upon representation theory.(Session 2.3, Room 113 St. John's College)

The double secret of the shaman – The Fifth Thule Expedition (1921-24) and the construction of primordial Inuit shamanism (angakkuersaarneq)

Kennet Pedersen, Department of Cultural and Social History, Ilisimatusarfik/University of Greenland,

In the framework of history of science – in this case of “Eskimological ethnology” – we find in the famous reports of The Fifth Thule Expedition (the anthropological volumes by Knud Rasmussen, Kaj Birket Smith and Therkel Mathiassen on spiritual/intellectual culture) an “obsession” with shamanism. Anything is done in the field to watch shamanistic rituals, or at least to procure shamans as informants. Seen in the historical context of this expedition it becomes quite clear that shamanism became the essence of primitive religion, of primordial Inuit culture, and, in an indirect way, of the prehistory of the Christianized Greenlanders. Rather ambivalent, stories (and drawings) about and by angakut became aesthetically much appreciated, too – at least in Danish-Greenlandic literature, and often with a nostalgic fascination of an existentially rich life form, inevitably vanishing.

Dated as these reports remain, they still have significant repercussions as to this day on how one from Inuit culture reflexive and identity political positions try to imagine the “spirituality” of the ancestors – in spite of, but at the same time deeply indebted to, the imagery of the members of the Fifth Thule Expedition.

(Session 2.4, Room 307, Tier Building)

Imagining an Inuit Homeland: American Whalers in Cumberland Sound, 1851-1868

Karen Routledge, Department of History, Rutgers University

This paper will examine the intersection of imaginings and lived experiences of landscape, through a network of stories surrounding American whalers who spent the winter in Cumberland Sound, Baffin Island. Throughout the 1850s and 1860s, dozens of qallunaat whaling crews deliberately froze their ships into the ice in Cumberland Sound and lived there throughout the winter, hoping to get an early and profitable start on spring whaling. These whalers interacted daily with local Inuit, and were thus confronted with visceral year-round evidence that Cumberland Sound was a rich and thriving homeland –not the desolate, empty arctic space of qallunaat imaginings. Yet whalers continued, in varying degrees, to disregard this evidence and to see Cumberland Sound as a barren, inhospitable place that reflected their own homesickness.

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This paper will argue that when whalers were miserable, fell ill, or perished, it had more to do with their inability to adapt to local conditions than with the inherent “hostility” of this arctic environment. The persistence of southern imaginings of the Arctic increased the emotional and physical hardship of overwintering in Cumberland Sound, and impacted the local environment and the lives of its inhabitants. This paper will be based on archival research in the United States and Canada, and on oral history research in Pangnirtuuq, Nunavut.


Three Generations: Changes in Contemporary Inuit Art and Culture

Abraham Anghik Ruben, artist

Contemporary Canadian Inuit art had its humble beginnings in the Central and Eastern Arctic in the early 1940’s–1950’s. This activity was initiated by the individual efforts of the likes of James Houston, Gabriel Gely, Terry Ryan and others.

The Territorial and Federal Government realized the need to create a cash-based economy where resources were scant and jobs scarce. The idea of having the Inuit from outlying camps creating small carvings for a southern market was seen as an answer to a diminished way of life for a people who had depended on the land for thousands of years, only to have the land and its vast herds of caribou, muskoxen, waterfowl and fisheries depleted with the advent of the vast Arctic whaling fleets in the 1800–1900’s. the changes to the Inuit way of life ,also affected their cultural and spiritual beliefs.These Inuit people grew up on the land of their ancestors. They knew with certain intimacy the birds, animals and the changing seasons of the land and the ever-present concern for the weather.

It is these people—hunters, trappers, housewives—who would become the first generation of our modern, contemporary Inuit Artist. It is their story and the story of the children and grandchildren that I will speak of as it is also my story.


An open wound. Intercultural discourses as the death agony of colonialism. Young people’s discourses at the internet about their country’s and their own place in the global world.

Jette Rygaard, Department of Language, Literature & Media, Ilisimatusarfik/University of Greenland

At the Internet, in their homepages, blogs and youth-fora as Face-book, Arto, My tube etc. young people from Greenland are eager to participate in the debates of the global world. Some of the discourses revolve around Greenland’s position as a present-day Home Rule Government - country and a coming Self-rule Government country. This paper will present a discourse – analysis of the some of the debates.

(Session 4.3, 223 Aboriginal House [Boardroom], , 45 Curry Place)

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Inuit Minds in the Narrative of the Early Colonial period in Greenland

Inge Seiding, Greenlandic National Museum & Archives, Nuuk, Greenland

The paper explores the discourses on the colonial meeting between Europeans and Inuit in 20th

Century Danish historiography focusing on the merge of ethnographic writings and archival material in the construction of the historical narrative of the early colonial period in Greenland.

The main focus is on the monumental History of Greenland I-III (written 1967-1976) by Finn Gad, a three volume history of pre-colonial Greenland and the early colonization period from 1721 to 1808. The work remains a monolith within historiography about early colonial Greenland to this day and is an example of the discursive construction of the ’Greenlandic mind’ based on early 20th century ethnography and source material from the colonial archives and how this particular conception of ’Inuit Minds’ becomes a key player in the construction of the colonial project in Greenland in a historical narrative. The image of pre-colonial Inuit mentality presented becomes central in the interpretation of the colonial archives, a method that Gad calls ’reading behind the sources’ in an attempt to include the Greenlanders in the history of the colonization. The backdrop of early 20th century ethnography thus serves as additional layer of ’imagining the Inuit’ through a filter of colonial archival materials.


Imagining Inuit Geopolitics

Rob Shields, Henry Marshall Tory Chair and Professor, University of Alberta, and P. Steinberg

This paper presents Southern understandings of the Arctic as a "Inuit Home". It reports early results taken from interview research with policy makers and government officials in Ottawa and Washington DC concerning the geopolitics of the 'Northwest Passage'(s). It updates earlier research on Southern imaginations of _Places on the Margin_ and the 'True North Strong and Free' and forms the first part of a larger work-in -progress on Inuit geopolitics. Notions of territory, home, space and migrancy will be presented for discussion.


The Hudson's Bay Company Archives and Its Contribution to the Study of Inuit Culture

Shirlee Anne Smith, Former Keeper, Hudson's Bay Company Archives

As early as 1683 the Hudson's Bay Company instructed its employees to keep 'Journals of what hath been done in the respective factories & of all occurrences...'. The Archives contain many and varied documents: daily journals of Arctic and Sub-Arctic trading posts, accounts, land records, retail trade, maps, photographs, including a number of important Arctic collections; a small art collection, and a highly specialized Library. The Archives were transferred from London to Winnipeg in 1974 and opened to researchers in April 1975. They date from 1671 and

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are noted for their continuity. In 1951 the Hudson's Bay Company started to microfilm its Archives and more than four thousand reels are now available on inter-library loan. The Archives form a distinct division of the Archives of Manitoba. In addition to the traditional genealogists, historians, geographers, and anthropologists, researchers today cover a wide spectrum: Native Studies, Law, Meteorology, Forestry, Medicine, Social Studies and Indian Land Claims. The significance of this internationally known Archives was confirmed in 2007 when it was listed on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's Memory of the World Register.


There is No Word for Art in Inuktitut

Roslyn Stanwick, University of Winnipeg

For over thirty years, art historians have struggled to remedy the gaps and misconceptions created by four centuries of elitist, eurocentric, heterosexual, sexist, and racist historical practices. In particular, the writing, collecting, and curating of artwork by non-western cultures has proved to be exceptionally challenging and continually controversial. Much of what is known about traditional indigenous art by communities such as the Canadian Inuit simply reflects western aesthetic values and economic ideologies based in notions of primitivism and authenticity.

(Session 5. 1, Room 125 St. John's College )

Imaging Home

Frank Tester and Paule McNicoll, School of Social Work, University of British Columbia

The change in Inuit dwellings — the move from tents, igloos and qarmaqs — in the period 1955 – 1970 to settlement living and wood frame houses, is fundamental to understanding what happened to Inuit culture as the State moved to totalize Inuit within modern Canadian society. Some authors have referred to the manner in which the new housing was introduced to Inuit as an exercise in “planned culture change”. How did Inuit see what was happening and what are the recollections of those who made the move?

This session presents a short film documenting the recollection of Inuit elders from Naujaat of this transformation. Shot in the summer of 2007, the documentary ‘short’ uses images from the 1950s and 1960s to elicit responses from elders who made the move. Elders talk about the experience: what it was like and what it meant for them, connecting a history of the move from the land to settlement living with contemporary housing and other social issues. They are joined by a young Métis social worker dealing with contemporary social problems in the communities of Nunavut. An Elder recalls his own role in the late 1960s, educating Inuit about how to live in the new houses.

Presentation of the documentary short will be followed by discussion of what the development of

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a full-length documentary might look like, how it might be produced and where such a project might go, using the material from this short as a basis to expand on the topic.


Panel: Inuit voices in the Making of Nunavut

François Trudel, Université LavalSusan Sammons, Nunavut Arctic CollegeThierry Rodon, Université Laval and Carleton UniversityLouis McComber, Nunavut Arctic College

Inuit Voices in the Making of Nunavut, is a collaborative research project aimed at documenting and publishing the life stories of five Inuit leaders (Abe Okpik, John Amagoalik, Paul Quassa, James Arvaluk and Peter Ittinuar), involved to various degrees in the negotiations leading to the creation of the new territory of Nunavut in 1999.

After a brief introduction to the project and a discussion of the importance of documenting Nunavut history from an Inuit perspective, a presentation on the different methodologies used within the project will be made. Cross-cultural issues in collaborative research and training will also be discussed.

This research stems from an oral history project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) through its “Aboriginal Research” pilot program and involving researchers and Inuit students from the Nunavut Arctic College and Nunavut Sivuniksavut and a team of researchers from Laval University in Québec.

(Session 4.2, Room 108 St. John's College [Cross Common Room])

The Winnipeg Art Gallery: A Museum of the Inuit Imagination

Darlene Coward Wight, Curator of Inuit Art, The Winnipeg Art Gallery The Winnipeg Art Gallery has maintained an intimate association with Inuit art as a field of collection and research since the mid-1950s. The acquisition of the George Swinton collection in 1960 was the first of many important collections to come to the Gallery. Later acquisitions include the collections of Jerry Twomey, Bessie Bulman, Ian Lindsay, Faye Settler, Peter Millard, and most recently, Dr. Harry Winrob. The Gallery's collection now numbers about 10,800 artworks, comprising over 6,900 sculptures, 2,500 prints, 1,100 drawings, and 20 textiles.

The WAG has organized regular exhibitions of Inuit art since the early 1960s, and has had a full-time curator since 1972. Internationally known for its exhibition and publication program, the Gallery has organized over 130 exhibitions and published 39 exhibition catalogues. In addition to thematic, community, and group exhibitions, the work of individual artists such as Karoo

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Ashevak, Jessie Oonark, and Abraham Anghik Ruben have been featured in solo exhibitions.


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Documents

University of Manitoba€¦ · Web viewThere is No Word for Art in Inuktitut. Roslyn Stanwick, University of Winnipeg. For over thirty years, art historians have struggled to remedy