Abstract
A series of relocation events in the Canadian Arctic in the mid-twentieth century contributed to widespread disruption of Inuit families. The objectives of this article are to: 1) provide a synthesis of the literature and oral histories about Inuit and Western academic perspectives on family attachments; 2) share findings from a recent study on perspectives of family relationships, which interviewed Inuit parents—many of whom were children at the time the relocation events in the 1950s and 1960s; and 3) discuss the role of severed family attachments on health inequality in Nunavut. The research was conducted within an Indigenous knowledge framework, specifically, the Piliriqatigiinniq Partnership Community Health Research Model (Healey & Tagak Sr., 2014). Data were collected in face-to-face interviews with twenty Inuit parents in three Nunavut communities. An analytical approach building on the concept of Iqqaumaqatigiinniq (all knowing coming into one), “immersion and crystallization,” was used to identify story elements in the data. Parents in the study identified the experience of forced relocation and/or attendance at residential school as traumatic events for families. These events broke the chain of Inuit knowledge transmission, which participants blamed for health inequalities observed in northern communities today. Participants who did not experience relocation attributed their confidence and ability to communicate health knowledge to the bonds they had with their children. Reclaiming and revitalizing Inuit attachment perspectives is part of the path to overcoming the trauma that Canadian Inuit families have experienced, and which is a contributor to health inequality in the region. Focusing on wellness-promoting pathways in our communities can, in turn, help reduce the health inequality gap in the North.
Highlights
Inuit society is relational, founded on a system of kinship relations (NCCAH, 2011; NCI & QIA, 2011; Pudlat, 2011; QIA, 2012; Tagalik, 2011)
A series of relocation events in the Canadian Arctic in the mid-twentieth century led to widespread disruption of Inuit families
Inuit are the Indigenous inhabitants of the North American Arctic, and the Inuit homeland stretches from the Bering Strait to East Greenland, a distance of over 6,000 kilometres
Summary
Inuit society is relational, founded on a system of kinship relations (NCCAH, 2011; NCI & QIA, 2011; Pudlat, 2011; QIA, 2012; Tagalik, 2011). The process of relocation to communities, which originally began as a response by Inuit to the presence of traders, explorers, and missionaries, took new form with the systematic efforts of the Canadian government in the 1950s to resettle Canada’s North. The response was to implement resettlement programs in the Eastern Arctic in an effort to: 1) protect Canada’s sovereignty after the Second World War; 2) facilitate the opening of trading posts by the Hudson’s Bay Company; and 3) police, educate, and provide health care for remote populations (INAC, 1996a; Kirmayer, Brass, & Tait, 2000). Inuit were relocated to southern Canada to cut relief costs and to provide medical treatment for the tuberculosis epidemics; to remote High Arctic regions to maintain sovereignty and support the economic initiatives of the Hudson’s Bay Company; and into settlements to facilitate the provision of supplies, education, and medical care. Increased attention was directed to reports of Inuit starvation as the number of caribou across the North declined and/or migration patterns changed, in the Kivalliq region of central Nunavut (Tester & Kulchyski, 1994)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
