| Nunavut at a Glance | The People | The Language | Abrupt Changes | Tasks for Students |
Located at the northernmost point of Canada, Nunavut
is the newest territory in the nation.
On April 1, 1999, the territory of Nunavut was
created from a portion of the Northwest Territories.
The new territory consists of 769,887 square miles(1,994,000sq
km), an area more than four times
the size of the state of Texas in the United States
with a population of 27,500 (85 percent Inuit).
The capital is Iqualuit (population 4,500).There
are 28 communities of which Iqualuit is the largest.
Nunavut, which means “the people’s land” in the
Inuit Language, Inuktitut, is made up of two regions,
the eastern Arctic Mainland and the Artic Archipelago.
Maps:
http://atlas.gc.ca/site/english/maps/historical/territorialevolution/1999
http://www.nunavut.com/nunavut99/english/map.html
Its major economic activities are mining,
tourism, shrimp and scallop fishing, hunting, arts and craft
production.
Its government is a Legislative Assembly
of 19 elected members, who choose a government leader and
ministers by consensus, highly decentralized government
structure, with 10 departments in 11 different
communities.
The idea of dividing the Northwest Territories (NWT)
has been a matter of discussion for many years.
The Inuit Tairisat of Canada(ITC) is an organisation
that represents the Inuit across Canada.
As early as 1976, the ICT requested that the federal
government map out a boundary between
the eastern and western sections of NWT, allowing
the Inuit clear claim to the eastern region.
An election held in the NWT in 1982 gave residents
the opportunity to decide for themselves.
The majority voted in favour of the division. The
new territory would be called Nunavut; the remaining
land would still be called Northwest Territory.
Another vote in 1992 determined the new boundaries.
The Nunavut Land Claims Agreement was settled
in 1992, the largest land claim ever settled in Canadian
history and the most comprehensive settlement
ever reached between a state and an aboriginal group
anywhere in the world.
While the history of the North Arctic lands is
ancient, the history of the new territory of Nunavut is
just beginning.
Its creation has revived interest in the far north,
one of the world’s last unspoiled wilderness areas.
The tourism industry is expected to grow as pleasure
and business travellers from around the world
plan trips to the eastern arctic.. Three national
parks will be created under the terms of the
Nunavut Land Claim Agreement.
The Inuit are often referred to as Eskimos. “Eskimo”
is a Cree word meaning “eaters of raw meat.”
While the Inuit have eaten raw meat for centuries,
they much prefer to be called Inuit, which means
“ the people,” or “ the people who are alive at
this time.”
Following the Seasons
The nomadic Inuit based their entire lives on the
migration of animals and the changing of seasons.
In the summer and fall they moved inland to hunt
the large caribou herds. They caught fish through
ice holes in fresh-water lakes in spring and early
summer. During the winter the Inuit moved to the
seacoast to hunt seal through breathing holes in
the ice. All members of the Inuit family worked to
ensure the family’s survival.
Societal Structure
Because the Inuit were few in a number, their society
was not highly organized. They lived in small
bands of five to ten families. Sharing the workload
and cooperating during a hunt guaranteed that
all would survive the harsh elements. Families
cared for another
Inuit Temperament
The Inuit are known as a friendly, happy, patient,
and independent people. They tend to accept what
life brings them and improvise whenever necessary.
The Inuit held a high respect for their fellow man,
for their environment, and for all living creatures.
The Inuit language has no word for “war”. Even
during long winter months when they spent much
time inside close quarters, times were peaceful.
The long hours were spent playing games and telling
stories which passed the history of their people
from one generation to the next.
The Inuit’s spoken language is called Inuktitut.
Until missionaries lived among them during the
nineteenth century, the language had never been
written. In their language, words and word roots
form complete thoughts with ideas linked together.
The word igdlo, for instance means a house.
The word igdlorssuaq, means a large house.
http://www.nunavut.com/nunavut99/english/our.html
Listen to some spoken Inuktitut,
http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ks/english/language/inuktitut/wav/09-u-learn.wav
http://www.arctictravel.com/audio/index.html
Life skills
The Arctic Inuit created simple utensils for eating
and tools for sewing and hunting. A heating
lamp was merely a hollowed out peace of soapstone
filled with oil
Each Inuit woman learned to sew as a young child.
Their sewing kits became their most prized
possessions.
Their homes in winter were well-constructed dome-shaped
ice houses commonly referred to as
igloos. In summer they lived in tents of skins.
Both types of dwellings were perfectly suited to
this nomadic life.
This peaceful existence lasted until the arrival
of Europeans. Within a span of about forty to fifty
years , the Inuit were moved from their nomadic
way of life into more permanent settings. With the
European came diseases for which the Inuit had
no immunity. One study in the 19209s showed that
30 percent of the Inuit population died from influenca
over a 14-year period.
The Inuit were eventually brought into government
housing and given government assistance, with
schools and hospitals available.
As long as the Inuit were nomadic, their hunting,
trapping, and fishing followed seasonal patterns.
However, when they settled into communities, they
could not longer hunt as they had before.
In a span of a few decades, the Inuits found themselves
thrust into a wage-earning, money-driven
economic system totally foreign to them.
Self-respect as it related to their traditional
way of life drained away, and in its place came a rash
of social problems such as depression, suicide,
domestic violence, and substance abuse.
Politically and economically, the Inuit were, for
the most part, overlooked and forgotten by the
Canadian government for many years.
The new Nunavut government plans to support the
traditional Inuit lifestyle through job sharing
and flexible work hours to accommodate subsistence
hunting and fishing in season.
http://www.nunavut.com/nunavut99/english/change.html#top
http://www.nunavut.com/nunavut99/english/index.html
http://atlas.gc.ca/site/english/index.html facts about Canada
http://www.usak.ca/education/ideas/tplan/ssp/au/yukon/inuit.html
http://www.atlas.gc.ca/site/english/index.html
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