Arctic Migrants/Arctic Villagers: The Transformation of Inuit Settlement in the Central Arctic
Journal article by Peter J. Usher; The Canadian Geographer, Vol. 48, 2004
Journal Article Excerpt
Arctic Migrants/Arctic Villagers: The Transformation of Inuit Settlement in the Central Arctic. by Peter J. Usher by David Damas, McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal and Kingston, 2002, xvi+280 pp. cloth $75.00 (ISBN 0-7735-2404-5) In Arctic Migrants/Arctic Villagers, David Damas examines the transformation of Inuit settlement patterns in the Central Arctic (present day Nunavut) from dispersed hunting camps to modern settlements during the middle decades of the twentieth century. Readers might suppose that Damas brings his extensive field experience of the 1960s to bear on the controversy of the 'High Arctic Exiles' (the removal of Quebec Inuit to Grise Fiord and Resolute Bay), which was the focus of several books in the 1990s and also attracted the attention of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP). Not so, however. Distinguishing between relocation (the planned movement of a group of people by an outside agency) and migration (movement undertaken by individuals), Damas finds that the general pattern of Inuit centralisation was mainly a result of voluntary migration, induced by pull factors such as health, education, housing and wage employment that were the instruments of a concerted federal government policy, as well as by push factors of privation in at least some of the dispersed camps. Because of the rapid and comprehensive implementation of that policy (in its late stages at least), the physical and economic circumstances of Inuit improved markedly, and because the snowmobile was widely adopted shortly after, hunting and trapping could be continued in the new setting. As for whether the exceptional instances of relocation were truly involuntary, Damas is somewhat agnostic, relying mainly on an assessment of secondary sources without adding any new research. Damas brings two strands of research to bear on his subject. One is an examination of changing Inuit settlement patterns and conditions, the other is an account of the evolution and implementation of what Damas characterises as the federal government's 'policy of dispersal' from the 1920s through the 1950s, and its eventual replacement by the 'welfare state policy' of the 1960s. He begins with an account of Inuit settlement patterns in precontact and contract-traditional times, then examines the effect of these changing policies on the settlement patterns of the 1950s and then the 1960s. Damas draws primarily on a wide range of secondary and archival sources, including the records of the northern administration, the RCMP, the Hudson's Bay Company and the personal papers of key government officials. Damas' perceptive interplay of both headquarters and field officers' records and the use of his own field notes give the book authority and strength. He does not rely at all on the recollections and perceptions of the Inuit who experienced the process, although this would be asking for another book. Damas provides a comprehensive overview of the process of centralisation, never done before at a Nunavut wide-scale. Unfortunately, the material is so exhaustive and detailed that his heavy reliance on narrative presentation does not do it justice. A better selection of maps and tables, and the use of diagrams, would have greatly enhanced both the clarity of this information and the reader's ability to compare and conclude from it. The few tables included, mainly on community income by source, are much less helpful than they should be because the income categories are insufficiently explained (non-cash income is not included, but Damas does not indicate this), and because income is expressed as community totals rather than per capita, thus inhibiting comparison over time and among communities. His account of the conception, implementation and confusions of the dispersal and welfare state policies is perhaps the best of several published in recent years. Implicit in his view is that both were 'humanitarian' in intent, if stern and paternalistic (and sometimes misinformed and misguided) in application, although the first was guided above all by fiscal austerity.While Damas' account of the changing Inuit settlement pattern and its relation to official policies is authoritative, his concluding chapter is less so. He makes a strong case that Inuit were not simply passive victims of an incomprehensible process, but says little about the social and psychological consequences of centralisation, or of increasing social and political dependency. He also sees the concentration of settlement in the 1960s as a largely unintended consequence of the welfare state policy. This seems to me to underestimate the primacy of economics in determining the geographic character of service provision. Furthermore, in the case of the Keewatin District at least, it fails to recognise the coincidence of interest between the northern administration ... |
End of free preview...
To continue reading this publication, you must have a Questia Subscription.
Try Us Today! Click Here
Questia provides the world's largest online library of scholarly books and journal articles, with integrated footnote and bibliography tools, highlighting, note taking and book marking. With a Questia subscription, you'll have access to the full text of more than 67,000 books and 1.5 million articles.
Already a subscriber? Login:
Sponsored Links
Free Newsletter
Get helpful how-to's, writing tips, search strategies, quizzes & more!
Search the Library
