The Reconstruction of Inuit Collective Identity: From Cultural to Civic: The Case of Nunavut

BackgroundEarly History Scholars (Damas 1984;Smith-Siska 1990;McGhee 2004) have divided the early history of Inuit in the Canadian Arctic into three distinct phases: the Pre-Dorset, Dorset, and Thule periods.Research into the pre-contact period is largely based on oral history and also on archeological research (Bennett and Rowley 2004).The first inhabitants of the Canadian central and eastern Arctic were the Pre-Dorset, whose ancestors crossed the Bering Strait into North America around 10,000 years ago.According to scholars (Burch 1986; Damas 1984), the Pre-Dorset arrived in the eastern Arctic from Alaska at around 4,000 BCE The Dorset succeeded them in 1,000 BCE.However, with the arrival of the Thule, the ancestors of today's Inuit, around the year 1,000 CE, the Dorset people vanished.There is still much debate among academics as to the reasons behind the disappearance of the Pre-Dorset and Dorset societies.Aside from a brief Viking contact interlude with the Dorset people, around 1,000 CE, early contact between Inuit and Europeans started with Martin Frobisher's visit to Baffin Island in 1576.The story of his arrival, as well as those of subsequent British explorers also in search of the Northwest Passage, has been recounted by a number of scholars (Berton 2001;Fossett 2001;McGhee 2004).Yet, contact between Europeans (later Euro-Canadians) and the Inuit remain limited until the early twentieth century.The establishment of Hudson's Bay Company's trading posts and the arrival of the Catholic and Anglican churches in the region increased European contact with Inuit people.Damas (1993) depicted those early contacts as "harmonious" (Damas 1993, 5).In fact, until well into the early twentieth century, the Inuit continued to live a nomadic life in small groups.3 Canadian Government Intervention in the NorthRegular contact between Euro-Canadian society and Inuit culture started only after the Second World War (Brody 1991).Canadian government intervention in the North was largely based on concern for the living conditions of the Inuit (Weissling 1991).Damas (2002) and Clancy (1987) illustrated how, in order to facilitate the delivery of government services (health, education, social services) and to improve the Inuit living condition, Ottawa established villages along the Arctic coast.4 Inuit were settled into those villages where the government could provide health, social services, and education for them.A number of authors (Creery 1993; Damas 2002;Brody 1991;Fossett 2001) describe this form of interventionism by Ottawa as "internal colonialism."Indeed, This is an excerpt from "Volume 4: Moving Forward, Making a Difference," in the Aboriginal Policy Research Series,

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