Inuit Research Articles

Canada

Abstract With the question of sovereignty over Hans Island settled between Canada and Denmark, all territorial claims among Arctic states have been resolved. The 2022 agreement between the two states is discussed in the context of their cooperation in oceans matters, including a contemporaneous minor adjustment of a 1972 seabed boundary and coordinated extended continental shelf claims. The provision for the access of indigenous Inuit people to Hans Island is considered. The 2022 agreement as an exemplar of acting in mutual interest toward resolving a maritime territorial dispute is reviewed.

Effects of knowledge about tuberculosis on its prevalence in Inuit communities in Nunavut, Northern Canada

Rising tuberculosis cases are a global health issue that the United Nations Member States have committed to eradicating by 2030. In developed countries such as Canada, TB affects Indigenous populations disproportionately. Inuit people have 300 times greater risk of TB infections compared to non-Indigenous people. Due to Canada's colonial history, Indigenous people remain underrepresented in healthcare. Therefore, this research proposal aims to understand the link between the lack of access to resources, such as knowledge about tuberculosis and the rising TB cases, among Inuit people in Northern Canada. It is hypothesized that due to marginalization and cultural ignorance, preventative measures are not accessible to Inuit people and can influence the high transmission of the disease. Based on the results of the inclusive design of this research, future studies can aim to help voice the concerns of Indigenous people and advocate for their right to access equitable healthcare.

Нарушения усвоения сахарозы подтверждают своеобразие генетической истории эскимосов

Introduction. A dinucleotide deletion of AG at the rs781470490 locus of the SI gene (SI delAG variant) causes dysfunction of the sucrase-isomaltase enzyme and the inability to digest sugar. The deletion frequency in the world is 0.0021%, while among the Inuit (Eskimo) it reaches 17–20%. Research hypothesis: the SI delAG variant is common in all the populations of indigenous northerners. The study aimed to ascertain the prevalence of the SI delAG variant in the Cis-Ural, Siberian, and Far East populations of the Russian Federation and compare it to that of the Inuit people. Materials and methods. DNA genotyping and the SI delAG variant frequency analysis were carried out in the samples from study groups of Russians, Komi, Mansi, Khanty, Nenets, Shors, Evenks, Evens, Koryaks, Chukchi (n =613). Corresponding data for the Canadian and Greenlandic Inuit (n =391) were used for comparison. Results and discussion. The deletion in samples from the Chukchi, Koryak, and Even study groups occurred in 14, 7, and 4%, respectively; there was no the deletion found in the samples of the other Siberian and Cis-Ural groups. The carriage of the SI delAG variant decreases with the distance from the area of the Greenlandic Inuit. The Inuit, Chukchi, and Koryak groups form a distinct cluster. The Paleo-Eskimo do not carry the deletion. Minimal amounts of sugar-containing products appeared in the diet of the Greenlandic and Canadian Inuit at the end of the 19th century, 200 years later than in the diet of aboriginal northerners of Eurasia. Conclusions. There was no SI delAG variant found in the samples of the indigenous people of West Eurasia high latitude regions. The deletion emerged in Neo-Eskimo population 1.2–2 thousand years ago and has been retained in the small numbered isolate due to their way of existence and diet. In the populations of the northwest coast of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Chukchi Peninsula, the SI delAG variant was brought by the gene flow from the Inuit people. @ 2023. This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license.

Advancing Sustainability and Social Justice in the Global South

Harmful anthropogenic activities adversely affect Indigenous populations, such as the Inuit people and Nigeria’s Ogoni people. Environmental degradation disparately burdens such communities, thus making them to seek for environmental justice. Tribunals at all levels have affirmed that failing to safeguard the environment violates human rights, especially for Indigenous people who need a healthy environment, food, and access to resources to survive. The Global South continues to grapple with a plethora of issues, including ecological unsustainability, poverty, and inequality, but issues of justice are often disregarded in sustainability-oriented projects. Therefore, there is a need for countries in this region to integrate social justice into environmental sustainability. The concept of environmental justice traces its origins to the US during the 1980s when scholars used it to describe the unequal effect of industrial pollution on the country’s racial minorities. The idea has significantly blossomed during the last five decades, expanding historically and geographically to cover various global environmental struggles. This article explores why the concept of social justice has resonance and usefulness for advancing sustainability and why it is timely for the concept to be considered for the Global South. It delves into these issues with a specific focus on the Global South, examining case studies from various countries in the region and exploring key insights from the Global North.

Review: I Will Live for Both of Us: A History of Colonialism, Uranium Mining, and Inuit Resistance, by Joan Scottie, Warren Bernauer, and Jack Hicks

Book Review| May 01 2023 Review: I Will Live for Both of Us: A History of Colonialism, Uranium Mining, and Inuit Resistance, by Joan Scottie, Warren Bernauer, and Jack Hicks I Will Live for Both of Us: A History of Colonialism, Uranium Mining, and Inuit Resistance. By Joan Scottie, Warren Bernauer, and Jack Hicks. (Winnipeg, University of Manitoba Press, 2022. 264 pp.) Kelly Tzoumis Kelly Tzoumis DePaul University Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Pacific Historical Review (2023) 92 (2): 318–319. https://doi.org/10.1525/phr.2023.92.2.318 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Kelly Tzoumis; Review: I Will Live for Both of Us: A History of Colonialism, Uranium Mining, and Inuit Resistance, by Joan Scottie, Warren Bernauer, and Jack Hicks. Pacific Historical Review 1 May 2023; 92 (2): 318–319. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/phr.2023.92.2.318 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentPacific Historical Review Search I Will Live for Both of Us, by Joan Scottie, Warren Bernauer, and Jack Hicks, is a first-person perspective on the experience of the Inuit people to colonialism and extraction of resources, particularly minerals and uranium mining. Scottie, senior co-author, provides a narrative history of her experience as an Inuit member, particularly in the voice of Inuit women, to the resistance of colonialism and what is now recognized as environmental injustices against her community. This book succeeds in achieving the seamless blend of solid historical documentation contributed by co-authors Bernauer and Hicks with the authentic voice of the community. Like many other environmental injustices against indigenous people, this is a detailed account of the resource extractions and legacy of mining that threaten a community. This book is part of a larger body of history and literature that illustrate how environmental justice communities are exploited not just of their natural resources... You do not currently have access to this content.

An Inuit Perspective on Health and Healthcare in Canada.

This article presents a portrait of some of the challenges that Inuit encounter in contemporary healthcare systems. It explores the distinctive constitutional and legal framework that encompasses Inuit in Canada and the important work being done by Inuit entities to describe Inuit social determinants of health.

Climate change and pulse migration: intermittent Chugach Inuit occupation of glacial fiords on the Kenai Coast, Alaska

For millennia, Inuit peoples of the Arctic and Subarctic have been challenged by the impacts of climate change on the abundance of key subsistence species. Responses to climate-induced declines in animal populations included switching to alternative food sources and/or migrating to regions of greater availability. We examine these dynamics for the Chugach Inuit (Sugpiat) people of southern coastal Alaska by synthesizing a large body of evidence from archeological sites, including radiocarbon dates and archaeofaunal assemblages, and by applying contemporary knowledge of glaciomarine ecosystems, spatial patterns of resource richness, and ocean-climate induced regime shifts in the Gulf of Alaska. We hypothesize that Chugach groups migrated from Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound to the Kenai Peninsula during periods of low sea surface temperatures (SSTs) to harvest harbor seals, which were seasonally aggregated near tidewater glaciers during pupping season, as well as piscivorous seabirds, Pacific cod, and other species that thrive under cool ocean conditions. During warming phases, the Chugach returned to Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound to fish for salmon and other species that abound during higher SSTs. Drivers of this coupled human-natural system of repeated (pulse) migration include the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), the dominant pattern of sea surface temperatures in the North Pacific that has been shown to generate step-like regime shifts in the marine food web; and coastal glaciers that structure the functioning of fiord ecosystems and support high levels of biological productivity. The culturally-constructed Chugach niche in the glaciomarine habitat of the Gulf of Alaska was based on intergenerationally transmitted ecological knowledge that enabled a resilient, mobile response to climate and resource variation.

First reports of primary ciliary dyskinesia caused by a shared DNAH11 allele in Canadian Inuit.

Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is typically an autosomal recessive disease characterized by recurrent infections of the lower respiratory tract, frequent and severe otitis media, chronic rhinosinusitis, neonatal respiratory distress, and organ laterality defects. While severe lower respiratory tract infections and bronchiectasis are common in Inuit, PCD has not been recognized in this population. We report a case series of seven Inuit patients with PCD identified by genetic testing in three Canadian PCD centers. Patients ranged from 4 to 59 years of age (at time of last evaluation) and originated in the Qikiqtaaluk region (Baffin Island, n = 5), Nunavut, or Nunavik (northern Quebec, n = 2), Canada. They had typical features of PCD, including neonatal respiratory distress (five patients), situs inversus totalis (four patients), bronchiectasis (four patients), chronic atelectasis (six patients), and chronic otitis media (six patients). Most had chronic rhinitis. Genetic evaluation demonstrated that all had homozygous pathogenic variants in DNAH11 at NM_001277115.1:c.4095+2C>A. The discovery of this homozygous DNAH11 variant in widely disparate parts of the Nunangat (Inuit homelands) suggests this is a founder mutation that may be widespread in Inuit. Thus, PCD may be an important cause of chronic lung, sinus, and middle ear disease in this population. Inuit with chronic lung disease, including bronchiectasis or laterality defects, should undergo genetic testing for PCD. Consideration of including PCD genetic analysis in routine newborn screening should be considered in Inuit regions.

Local and Universal: The Canadian Inuit and the Irish Aran Islanders in the Films of Robert J. Flaherty

The article considers the question of locality and universality regarding two locations and populations: the Inuit of the Canadian North, and the Aran Islanders living off the western coast of Ireland. These locations provide the setting for Robert J. Flaherty’s documentary films Nanook of the North (1922) and Man of Aran (1934). The two films attempt to reveal the essence of human nature through illustrations of human beings living under elemental conditions. Comparing the two films, this article explores tendencies toward locality and universality. It addresses the cinematic medium in relation to Walter Benjamin’s ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ (1935) and the effects of the culture industry as described in Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno’s critical essay, ‘The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception’ (1944). The article considers whether Flaherty’s films prove wrong Benjamin’s argument that modern technology erases the aura surrounding works of art in pre-technological times. This article argues that the aura of Flaherty’s films may instead be considered an artistic effect that is specific to modern times, expressing the poetic vision of their maker.

Case as an Anaphor Agreement Effect: Evidence from Inuktitut

The anaphor agreement effect (AAE) is the crosslinguistic inability for anaphors to covary with φ-agreement (Rizzi 1990, Woolford 1999); languages use various strategies that conspire to circumvent this effect. In this squib, I identify and confirm a prediction arising from two previous observations by Woolford (1999) concerning the scope of the AAE, based on new evidence from Inuktitut (Eastern Canadian Inuit). I propose that anaphors in Inuktitut are lexically specified as projecting additional syntactic structure, spelled out as oblique case morphology; because φ-Agree in Inuktitut may only target ERG and ABS arguments, encountering an anaphor inevitably leads to failed Agree in the sense of Preminger 2011, 2014. I moreover argue that this exact AAE pattern is previously unattested, yet is predicted to arise given the range of existing strategies. Finally, this squib provides evidence against previous detransitivization-based approaches to reflexivity in Inuktitut (e.g., Bok-Bennema 1991).

An Ethnographic Model of Stress and Stress Management in Two Canadian Inuit Communities

As part of the first stage of a community-based participatory research project with two communities in the Canadian Arctic—Kangiqsujuaq, Nunavik, and Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories—we conducted 57 interviews eliciting residents’ perceptions of pressing issues facing their communities, problems affecting health and wellbeing, and how researchers or other organized groups could help alleviate those problems. A recurrent theme that emerged during these interviews was having “no one to talk to.” Here, we focus on understanding why communication was a central theme using a grounded-theory approach to develop a model of Inuit stress management. Inuit in both Kangiqsujuaq and Ulukhaktok codify stress as isumaaluttuq, or excess worry, which often manifests physically and leads to social withdrawal. Because stress is believed to accumulate in the body, managing it involves decisions about whether to “Get It Out” or “Keep It In.” Keep It In is a potentially dangerous strategy because, if the problem does not resolve itself, accumulated stress may have harmful consequences. Inuit viewed talking to others as the most effective means to Get It Out, but respondents also identified numerous barriers to doing so. One important reason for this is that stress is transferable: Talking to others about a problem potentially increases the burden of stress on them. Consequently, Inuit may choose to Keep It In to avoid the potential negative consequences (for others or for oneself) of sharing bad thoughts. Based on this preliminary model, we consider questions for further inquiry and implications for community-based mental health programming in Inuit communities.

Kinauvit? What's Your Name? The Eskimo Disc System and a Daughter's Search for Her Grandmother by Norma Dunning

Reviewed by: Kinauvit? What's Your Name? The Eskimo Disc System and a Daughter's Search for Her Grandmother by Norma Dunning Marcie McCauley NORMA DUNNING Kinauvit? What's Your Name? The Eskimo Disc System and a Daughter's Search for Her Grandmother Madeira Park, British Columbia. Douglas & McIntyre. 2022. 184 pages. COMBINING PERSONAL MEMOIR with cultural history, Kinauvit? reflects Norma Dunning's experience constructing short stories about Inuit people's everyday lives outside their northern homeland. Her collection Tainna: The Unseen Ones—deftly constructed and interwoven—won the 2021's Governor General's [End Page 78] Award for English-Language Fiction in Canada. There, she introduces an auntie "who laughed easy" and said that "residential school was in the past and what mattered was now." When a child, Dunning's real-life Auntie Francis "let the word 'Inuit' loose into the air" and referred to "the convent" attended with Norma's mother. Dunning's MA thesis—reworked into Kinauvit?—filled the "hole of unease" that followed her for the first forty years of her life and awakened her "sense of kinship." Her initial "physical rendering" of her ancestry, her application for the Nunavut beneficiary program, consisted of two lines. She didn't know her mother had a disc/disk number/e-number—didn't even know the classification system existed for thirty years. Inconsistent naming conventions could explain such unfamiliarity; a more nuanced understanding of how the "Eskimo Identification Canada system slid into existence" emerges with Dunning's exploration of family history alongside Inuit/non-Inuit relations. Distinct from First Nations and Métis communities, the Inuit were ruled a federal responsibility by Canada's Supreme Court in 1939. Ongoing global tensions following World War II (1939–45) culminated in the Cold War with a global view of northern territory in Canada being vulnerable to Soviet expansion, and non-Inuit influence—missionaries, whalers, traders, RCMP—expanded further "under the guise of offering social benefits, commerce, and education." The outlawing of drum dancing, the disappearance of women's facial tattooing and the Inuktitut language, and several forced relocations (causing many deaths, acknowledged decades later via the Qikiqtani Truth Commission), all fueled colonization. Dunning's formalizing of her Inuit kinship counters colonization: "When language, ceremony and spiritual connections are being sliced, outlawed, and categorized as sin, the invasiveness of the colonizer cutting into Inuit daily lives is like watching a slow and painful death." She explores the need for tukitaaqtuq (Inuktitut, meaning "they explain to one another, reach understanding, receive an explanation from the past") and reconnects with her ancestry. Her fiction, too, emphasizes connection; in Tainna, for instance, readers meet the titular protagonist of Annie Muktuk and Other Stories (2017) again. Dunning's readers expand their understanding of how the historical experience of the Inuit persists in their present-day lives, how history reverberates in the present. Marcie McCauley Toronto Copyright © 2023 World Literature Today and the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma

Colonial tuberculosis legacies and the Dynevor Indian Hospital (1908-1934).

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a legacy of colonialism in Canada; far higher rates persist among First Nations and Inuit people than non-Indigenous, Canadianborn individuals.[1][1] The roots of this disparity lie in historical governmental policies, which extend to the institutionalization of Indigenous

Solving the housing crisis in Nunavut, Canada.

In Canada, there are vast differences between the state of accommodation/housing, health, social inequalities, education and economic conditions for people in the northern and southern regions of the country. Overcrowding in Inuit Nunangat is a direct result of the promises made by past government policy that led to Inuit people settling in sedentary communities in the North on the understanding that they would be provided with social welfare. However, these welfare programmes proved to be either insufficient or non-existent for Inuit people. Therefore, Inuit are living in overcrowded homes in Canada, resulting in a severe housing shortage, poor-quality housing and homelessness. This has led to the spread of contagious diseases, mould, mental-health issues, gaps in education for children, sexual and physical violence, food insecurity and adverse challenges for the youth of Inuit Nunangat. This paper proposes several actions to ease the crisis. First, funding should be stable and predictable. Next, there should be ample construction of transitional homes which could be used to accommodate people before moving them into proper public housing. Policies regarding staff housing should be amended, and if possible, these vacant staff houses could provide shelter to eligible Inuit people, which could help lessen the housing crisis. The advent of COVID-19 has made the issue of affordable and safe housing more serious because without safe housing, the health, education and well-being of the Inuit people in Inuit Nunangat are in peril. This study focuses on how the governments of Canada and Nunavut are dealing with this issue.

Structure and function of the western Baffin Bay coastal and shelf ecosystem

Arctic marine species, from benthos to fish and mammals, are essential for food security and sovereignty of Inuit people. Inuit food security is dependent on the availability, accessibility, quality, and sustainability of country food resources. However, climate change effects are threatening Inuit food systems through changes in abundance and nutritional quality of locally harvested species, while foundational knowledge of Arctic food webs remains elusive. Here, we summarized scientific knowledge available for the western Baffin Bay coastal and shelf ecosystem by building a food web model using the Ecopath with Ecosim modeling framework. Based on this model, we calculated ecological network analysis indices to describe structure and function of the system. We used Linear Inverse Modeling and Monte Carlo analysis to assess parameter uncertainty, generating plausible parameterizations of this ecosystem from which a probability density distribution for each index was generated. Our findings suggest that the system is controlled by intermediate trophic levels, highlighting the key role of Arctic cod (Boreogadus saida) as prey fish, as well as the importance of other less studied groups like cephalopods in controlling energy flows. Most of the ecosystem biomass is retained in the system, with very little lost to subsistence harvest and commercial fisheries, indicating that these activities were within a sustainable range during the modeling period. Our model also highlights the scientific knowledge gaps that still exist (e.g., species abundances), including valued harvest species like Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus), walrus (Odobenus rosmarus), and seals, and importantly our poor understanding of the system in winter. Moving forward, we will collaborate with Inuit partners in Qikiqtarjuaq, NU, Canada, to improve this modeling tool by including Inuit knowledge. This tool thus serves as a starting point for collaborative discussions with Inuit partners and how its use can better inform local and regional decision-making regarding food security.

The Prevalence Of Anaphylaxis Among The Inuit People

There is no information about the prevalence of anaphylaxis in Nunavut (an arctic Northern territory in Canada), nor among the Inuit people of Canada. Our study is the first of its kind to determine that.

Ethical leadership in a complex environment: A case study on Nunavik health organizations

AbstractDespite being the primary homeland of Quebec's Inuit people, Nunavik's health care is typically planned and provided by non‐Inuit newcomers. This retrospective case study investigates the effects of ethical leadership on the Westernized local Nunavik health care system's cultural sensitivity to its disproportionately Inuit populations. An integrative framework is developed that considers the dimensions of ethical leadership and the omnibus and discrete dimensions of context. This study shows that some Nunavik health care managers seek to improve and adapt the system to the needs of their Inuit populations, while others do not. Unfortunately, the context restricts the former managers' ability to act consistently with their moral responsibilities and beliefs. Specifically, the findings show various institutional barriers to providing respectful and sensitive health care to Inuit. This study contributes to the scientific literature on ethical leadership by proposing an integrative conceptual framework. This framework illustrates how ethical leadership is inseparable from organizational context, identifying 16 contextual factors influencing managers' ethical behavior. Finally, three practical recommendations are proposed to highlight the omnibus and discrete context elements.

Participatory action research with Inuit societies: A scoping review

Abstract Participatory methods have become essential for research with Indigenous Arctic peoples. To understand how researchers use such methods, we conducted a scoping review of participatory action research (PAR)—a classic qualitative methodology—with Inuit communities. Although other systematic reviews exist on participatory methodologies in the Arctic, our scoping review is the only one focusing only on the Inuit. We reviewed 11 empirical studies published between 2000 and 2019 in peer-reviewed journals. Most of them had been conducted with Canadian Inuit. Although the authors came from a variety of disciplines, the studies were mostly about the health and well-being of Inuit communities. The authors did not use the same definition of PAR, but their definitions did share some key components: Inuit participation, Inuit engagement and a goal of social change. There were also a variety of methodologies of research and forms of Inuit participation, although the photovoice method was frequent. Scoping reviews are most often used in the natural sciences. This one was a challenge because we were using it in the social sciences and because it concerned PAR, an approach with different definitions and uses. A remaining question is how to assess such a method, either by peers or by other stakeholders.

Decolonizing and Indigenizing Engineering: The Design & Implementation of a New Course

This practice paper introduces a new course designed by one Indigenous and one non-Indigenous engineering educator at the University of Manitoba to decolonize and Indigenize engineering. Working with an Indigenous teaching assistant, and supported by a doctoral student auditing the course, we facilitated a small group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous engineering students to think critically about making place and space for Indigenous Peoples and worldviews in engineering. Here, we share the course design, our reflections on the course, and our plans going forward. Our initiative is one answer the Calls to Action by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada to learn the truth about Canada as colonizer and use education as a tool for reconciliation. In doing so, we aim to provide engineering students with knowledges and perspectives for working successfully with First Nations, Métis and Inuit Peoples and communities in engineering practice in Manitoba, and in Canada.

Indigenous Hitmakerz in the Arctic: negotiating local needs with global ambitions within commercial music industries

ABSTRACT Although music by Inuit peoples is systematically relegated to the margins, recent artists from Nunavut have garnered limited commercial attention. Using a case study approach with critical political economy theoretical grounding, we focus on Hitmakerz, an independent record label based in the Arctic region of Nunavut. We analyze the ways independent music producers negotiate the commercial music system, specifically the symbolic and economic tensions, to promote Indigenous languages and counterhegemonic discourse. We argue that Hitmakerz has successfully negotiated local needs while pursuing global ambitions, strategically blending Inuktitut, colonial languages, pop, electronic, and rap for subversive purposes, and critiquing colonialism in digital forms produced in local environments and exported globally. Under limited conditions, Indigenous artists can exploit the marketplace to their advantage, as demonstrated by Hitmakerz.