Cultural Critique, no. 87, Spring, 2014, pp. 84-143
Description
Discusses motives behind experimental relocation project where Inuit families were re-established in settlements in the remote High Arctic in the 1950's.
IWGIA [International Working Group for Indigenous Affairs] ; document 71
Documents & Presentations
Author/Creator
Alan R. Marcus
Description
Examines the government's decision to move families to the High Arctic where they found conditions very different from their traditional territory, as well as its refusal to move them back at the of end two years as promised. Government claims it was done for humanitarian reasons, while others assert that it was carried out to establish sovereignty over the area.
File contains an individual presentation by Harry Maksagak focusing on the life of the Inuit pre-contact and the negative impact of losing their nomadic way of life. He foresees the future government of Nunavut as being able to negotiate with the federal government for much-needed schools, employment and housing for the Cambridge Bay area. A question-and-answer session with the Commissioners follows the presentation.
File contains a presentation by Charlie Evalik that first describes the life of the Inuit in the Cambridge Bay area beginning in the 1950s, where the Inuit were forced to adapt to a more permanent home life in settlements, rather than continue with their nomadic way of life. He discusses some issues that are affecting Cambridge Bay residents, such as lack of post-secondary opportunities, employment, lack of proper housing, and a high rate of residents on welfare. A lengthy question-and-answer session with the Commissioners follows the presentation.
File contains a presentation by James Kavana and Moses Koihok that first provides a brief history of Cambridge Bay. The presenters state that "we would have been better off out in our own hunting grounds away from the settlement" of Cambridge Bay but with the forced 1950s relocation of Inuit into the settlement created a culture and lifestyle crisis for those Inuit who were relocated. John Maksagak, Commissioner for the Day, adds some remarks about the history of Cambridge Bay and his experiences growing up in an alcohol-free environment.
File contains a presentation by Simonie Alainga, resident of Iqaluit, Northwest Territories [Nunavut], via translator. He relates his memories of Iqaluit beginning in 1938. He recalls the relocation of Inuit people to Iqaluit by 1945 and the unwillingness of his people to move.
Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples - Transcriptions of Public Hearings and Round Table Discussions
Documents & Presentations
Author/Creator
Peter Katuk
Description
File contains opening remarks by Peter Katuk(via a translator) regarding the situation for Inuit people in the Northwest Territories: the struggle for survival, his own birth in an igloo in 1921, how life is a learning experience, how the Inuit people have been left out of Canada, how the Cree and the Hudson Bay Company were condescending and bossy to the Inuit, an incident between his father and the RCMP who made his father relocate his home from Repulse Bay, the need to amend what Katuk describes as the defeat of Aboriginal people in Canada, how his people assisted southerners who came to th