Lines of racism and cultural segregation

Okay. So let's start off with a bit of honesty.

I'm white. I have blue eyes, brown hair, and a darker complexion. I'm one of those "black irish" don't-you-know.

I speak french. I speak english. And I moved to the north in the past year.

I have made many friends... casual and close... since I've moved here. And just about every one of them is white.

I work in an almost all-inuk office. I'm surrounded by Inuktitut. I have adopted some verbal mannerisms (eee, and ela, and taima). I treat my co-workers with the same respect I would "down south" (and vice versa)... but when the clock strikes five, we go our separate ways... rarely, if ever, to see one another until the next morning (save the odd trip to the grocery store).

I have been to "white" gatherings where other inuk men and women have been. I have been to "inuk" parties where I was one of the only southerners there.

But again. I can say with confidence, I don't actually have any Inuit friends.

So I have to wonder. At what point does a search for shared experiences become cultural segregation and racism? How much of this is intentional, how much is me not having met "the right people"? How much is a language barrier? How much is the education factor?

I don't think of myself as racist. But I'm sure most racists don't. But I sometimes do avoid talking to Inuks in favour of white folks like myself. Now I tell myself that's because I'm scared of offending them because I don't speak their language.

So I ask you, dear readers. Is this a subverted form of racism?

Or, in the words of an Avenue Q song .... is it that "we're all a little bit racist, sometimes"?

- J

Rip-off Artists

Does anyone else see a problem with this picture? Yes, it's been photoshopped, but take a look at the price of the ipod Nano from the Northern, and then compare it the price from the Apple online store. But wait! It's on sale! I'm gonna run down there and buy me one of those fancy MP3 players right now... What a freaking rip-off! I don't really understand how they get away with this. The fact that they would prey upon uneducated, underprivileged people by marking up a product over twice what any other person would pay for it just boggles my mind. How can the managers of the Northern sleep at night knowing that they are ripping off the people of Nunavut like this?

Can Positive Attitudes Change Nunavut?

Reader M. has submitted a bit of prose for our readers.

It’s so telling…(but, I may or may not be reflecting about you. You know who you are.)

You ‘know it all’ when you’ve been in up north for two years. It’s cute, refreshingly adorable when you pat yourself on the back with the proud assumption that you are a full fledged expert on controversial northern issues because your certificate/diploma of ‘authenticity’ is the stub of a First Air or Canadian boarding pass… Wow, let me roll out the red carpet for you to spew out your all encompassing knowledge of Canada’s newest territory and all her problems.
You are like what they call a ‘home wrecker’, well move over because I have stood by too many times while I’ve watched you favor your look alike twins at a lot of services, institutions and the most hurtful is at the hospital, favoring your kin and treating my family and especially my babies lesser to how you would nurture your family pet.
New territory. It isn’t one to be patronized and belittled. A new territory; is a mutli-generational construction site one which requires wisdom, patience and enough where-with-all to shut your mouth when you don’t have an answer (but that would be too for some). Nunavut is a work site where people are willing to pick up the pieces and work with what we’ve got. Sometimes it’s so obvious that it isn’t much, but literally, shut up, deal with it, get over yourself and be constructive.

You are not someone I would call an expert because you read a newspaper clipping, hear local coffee shop gossip or you internalize your spouse’s stories from ‘work’. Really expert; take your narrow minded comments excerpted from a history of haughtiness and put it back on the sealift on which you meticulously planned for a terrible time up in our beautiful, exotic locale and park your butt back in a suburb and strut like you’re ‘all that’ down south, because quite frankly I’m being burdened; quite often to the point of folding and saying, ‘Yeah, you’re right, I’m a f_cking failure. Thanks for pointing that out.’ (Arrogant prick)

Like, the climate of being under a global microscope to wait to see if we will fly or flop isn’t stressful enough, you add the nuts who strut around in their Patagonia’s, MEC’s, and ‘North Face’ getup who annoy and interfere with the monumental task of a group of people who until very recently lived in the now cutsie igloo’s being guided by the once necessary and now inspiring inuksuk, are mustering up any courage to ‘give it their all’ in their pride and joy, their fledgling Nunavut – a dream which you so smartly deflate.
Perhaps you are satisfied with replacing the difficult environmental elements that the Inuit survived and thrived in with your hostile mind frame that try’s to put her down and defame her God given wonderment and beauty. (F_cken Bully)

Some have been publicly humiliated, demoralized, shamefully disgraced and striped (literally and figuratively) at every turn; try as they might you will always set them up to fail, so get yourself another certificate/diploma and disgrace another land with your high-fa-lut'en negativity.

If you let your mouth give you away in public and you see a ‘beneficiary’ or anyone else with some wisdom quietly smiling at you, make a mental note that you do not fool others with your terrible words which you cleverly masquerade as learned, superior with philanthropist rhetoric. (You are as malicious as you are self-destructive.)
Do everyone around you a favor and get a new postal code or, wonder of wonders - you might consider joining the band wagon because although Nunavut is still licking her wounds someday she will fly and some day I hope you may proudly point to your pieces of her success, may Our land (yours and mine) be filled with unity and not dissention. Make up your mind, put your malicious tongue away and do what you can to make our Nunavut fly.

M.

A positive post

Our first positive post about life in Nunavut. Something I'd like to see more of, and something you won't read in a newspaper. Thanks for the contribution Anonymous.


We just saw a screening of "Before Tomorrow", the new film directed by Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Ivalu of Arnait Video Productions (http://www.arnaitvideo.ca/) - a women's video collective that has been putting together film productions since the early 1990's in the unique style of Inuit narrative. The film was written by the directors and Susan Avingaq.The film was co-produced with Isuma (Zach Kunuk and Norman Cohn, www.isuma.ca), and uses Igloolik and Nunavik based actors. I have a feeling the film will open (somewhere down south) to rave reviews.

The film was beautiful. The actors Madeliene Ivalu and her grandson-in-real-life and in the film, Paul Dylan, played the moving lead characters. In the film, Paul Dylan convincingly plays a mature and 'able' and focused young boy - but around town he is any one of the loony kids runnin' around. The film was funny at parts and immensly sad. Scenery and cinematography, spectacular. The screen play was adapted from a Danish novel. This is one aspect that I found so remarkable. Marie-Hélène read the book in some language (French or English?), which was translated from Danish, wrote a screenplay in English/Inuktitut with writers Ivalu and Susan Avingaq. Although the style of the films is somewhat improvisational (not directly reading from scripts) - the writing-collaboration between directors and writers who don't speak the same language is fascinating.

This women's collective and their latest product, and first feature film, is a shining example of collaboration between the Inuit and 'southerners' - through art (as are the products of Isuma). So it is possible for there to be a positive product made from the intercept of two cultures. The middle between black and white need not be mediocre and gray, but a rainbow - more than the sum of the parts. The rich and unique history and art of the Inuit, combined with the art and the technology of the south.

- Anonymous

Non-Inuit beneficiaries: Are they real?

In the comments section (link https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3804229191398393578&postID=5082985712686012220) of a previous article, commenter "kotn" stated:

• "There are long time northern residents who were named beneficiaries when NTI and Nunavut were formed. Each community got to decide how long you had to live there to qualify. Saying "in order to be a "beneficiary" you need to be of a certain race" isn't true."

I've done some research on this since reading that, and I can't dig up anything on this, not even in a theoretical or policy sense. I meet a lot of people, from all walks of life, from many different communities, and would be aware of their beneficiary status. I have never come across a non-Inuit beneficiary, and I've been around a while.

I have to admit, I am very skeptical that this alleged group exists. If any do, these individuals would be very rare indeed.

So I turn it over to the readership, some of whom are reporters: Have you ever heard of a specific non-Inuit beneficiary? Not the concept that they could theoretically exist, I mean, do you actually, really know of any? Or, if you know where the policy or legislation on this matter is, point us towards it to learn more.

Don't give us names, but give us a vague idea of the individual's history in the north, the region they're in, and why they were given beneficiary status.

Fear, loathing, and the right to be here...

The recent xenophobic and personal attacks in the comments of the last post (A call for new posts) illustrate the need for Nunavut Uncensored. A commenter posted a pretty moderate and balanced comment only to be personally attacked. This is why bloggers around Nunavut were looking for an outlet out fear of reprisal and/or job dismissal for freedom of speech. Thank you Arctic Agent for giving us the outlet.

Xenophobia has ultimately not been productive in history, and it is likely similarly not going to be productive here in Nunavut.

But this brings up an important issue that many people that come to Nunavut have to deal with - the ethical right to be working here.

In my work (at the GN), I am often attacked in a similar way in the comments to the last post. I am asked, why am I telling Inuit about what they already know better? Who am I, an outsider, to tell them what to do?

The simple answer is, because it is my job. I've been hired by the Government of Nunavut as a qualified professional. The Government of Nunavut is an Inuit Government born from the NLCA. This land-claim government had decided their policy and sought to hire someone with qualifications to enact that policy. This Inuit land-claim Government wrote the qualifications for the job, and decided, through a job competition process that is skewed towards hiring Inuit, not to hire an Inuk. Likely because no Inuk applied who met the qualifications of this Inuit Government. So they hired me, someone from the south (but I don't have a big belly or bushy eyebrows). And then I get attacked for "telling Inuit - who know better - what to do."

So... this Inuit land-claim government hires southerners to work for them, but there is open hostility from within the communities. It appears that the community either doesn't understand democracy, or their MLA's aren't simply working for them. Or rather, because this Inuit land-claim government has obligations beyond the communities (in addition to the communities), i.e., to other territorial/provincial governments, the federal government, and in some cases to international governments, they need to hire 'professionals' with 'credentials'. I've heard this be called 'credentialism'.

If Inuit don't want southerners telling them what to do ... then simply don't hire us. Go to your newspapers, blogs, MLA (not to HR at GN, who will just give you government lip service) and say : Don't hire southerners to do these jobs. Please hire Inuit, we can do better. And show them that you can do better.

Ask your Inuit landclaim government why it is not hiring Inuit. Don't attack the people who have been hired. These people who are doing their best to serve this government, while it gets on its feet.

I for one will love to see the day when there is an Inuk in my job. Despite the fact that I feel that I do a great job, because of my white face, the people will always interpret my decisions with suspicion and even perhaps hostility.

Any thoughts? What does 'qualified' mean? Can a southerner ever have legitimacy in a race-based government? Can this government be accountable to the Inuit, at the same time by meeting international standards of policy?

- Anonymous

A Call For Posts

Ladies and Gentlemen of Nunavut... The Agent needs your help. In order for this blog to stay alive we need submissions from our readers. This blog was designed as a venue for all of us to post our take on life around Nunavut without the fear of reprisal. There have been some really great debates in the comments, and lets keep it up. The trouble is, I live in one small community, and observe only a fraction of what really goes on. In order for this blog to work, we need your help. So how 'bout sending some sweet type written love this away...
arcticagent@gmail.com

- A.A.