Inuit

Left out of the national apology and reconciliation process begun in 2008, survivors of residential schools in Labrador and Newfoundland received a formal apology from the Canadian government in 2017. This recognition finally brought them into the circle of residential school survivors across Canada, and acknowledged their experiences as similarly painful and traumatic.

A Long Journey listens closely to the accounts of former students to examine the history of boarding schools in Labrador and St. Anthony, and, in doing so, contextualizes the ongoing determination of Indigenous communities to regain control over their children’s education.

Réflexion autour de la nouvelle création de la Compagnie Hic&Nunc autour du chant de gorge
Création novembre 2019 - https://www.compagnie-hicetnunc.com/ama

Soutenue par le CRDJ, le Pannonica/Nantes Jazz Action, L'Athénor, CNCM de Saint Nazaire, la Région Pays de la Loire, ainsi que par Jazz en Saison et Superforma. "En ce moment et sous nos yeux, par exemple, tout un mode du vivre achève de disparaître, celui des Inuits. (...) Une société intégrale : un mode d'habitation un ethos, c'est à dire aussi un monde, embrassant des personnes, des langues, des bêtes, des techniques, des objets (un réseau dirait Latour) dont rien ne saura donner l'équivalent; certes il s'en inventera d'autres, mais ce qui se trouve détruit avec la disparition d'un monde, c'est une pensée insubstituable de la vie , à la fois comme et pas comme les autres". Marielle Macé, Styles, critiques de nos formes de vies. Gallimard, 2016. Au coeur d'un projet artistique au long court Comme l'a écrit le philosophe Nelson Goodman « pour construire le monde comme nous savons le faire, on démarre toujours avec des mondes déjà à disposition ; faire, c'est refaire » (GOODMAN, 2006). Il y a aujourd'hui 6 ans, c'est avec nos mondes respectifs que nous avions engagé une résidence entre musiciens d'ici et de là-bas. Le projet Urbi&Orbi se proposait alors d'aller à la rencontre de chanteurs diphoniques. Ce fut l'occasion de découvrir l'étendue des possibilités qu'offraient nos différents instruments et pratiques musicales. Mais la réalité du travail que nous avions alors engagé avec les chanteurs diphoniques mongols nous a confronté à

Nested Federalism and Inuit Governance in the Canadian Arctic traces the political journey toward self-governance taken by three predominantly Inuit regions over the past forty years: Nunavik in northern Québec, the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the western Northwest Territories, and Nunatsiavut in northern Labrador. The Canadian federal system was never designed to recognize Indigenous governance, and it has resisted formal institutional change. But change has come. Indigenous communities have successfully mobilized to negotiate the creation of self-governing regions. Policymakers and politicians have responded by situating almost all these regions politically and institutionally within existing constituent units of the Canadian federation. The varied governance arrangements emerging as a result are forms of nested federalism, a new and largely unexplored model of government that is transforming Canada as it reformulates the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the state. ...

The purpose of this paper is to document some successful features of public schools within Nunavut, according to the personal experiences of a group of 14 principals, vice-principals, and teachers. At the start of this paper, I explained my research positionality, depicting my personal history and background related to this study. From a total of 24 individual interviews, three themes surfaced: culturally vibrant programs, the array of professional development offered to educators, and student self-pride and involvement in school activities. To conceptualize the findings, I applied the 4-D cycle of appreciative inquiry (i.e., Discovery, Dream, Design, and Destiny) and explained how effective change can emerge within a school system. Appreciative inquiry is a change process of identifying what is working well, deciphering why it is working well, and emulating more of those positive attributes. L’objectif de cet article est de documenter quelques-unes des caracteristiques des ecoles p...

Abraham Ulrikab fournit, avec son journal 1 , une précieuse perspective autochtone sur le phénomène des zoos humains du XIXe siècle. Inuit du Labrador converti au protestantisme par les missionnaires moraviens, il est engagé en 1880 par l'explorateur norvégien Johan Adrian Jacobsen pour participer, avec sa famille (sa femme Ulrike, leurs enfants Maria et Sara, son neveu Tobias), ainsi que l'Inuit païen Terrianiak, sa femme Paingo et leur fille Noggasak, aux spectacles anthropozoologiques de l'homme d'affaires allemand Carl Hagenbeck. Son journal, qui inclut une brève correspondance avec le frère moravien Elsner, fut écrit essentiellement entre octobre 1880 et janvier 1881, peu de jours avant sa mort. On y suit le périple des Inuits à travers quelques grandes villes d'Europe, avant qu'ils ne meurent tous de la vérole entre le 15 décembre 1880 et le 16 janvier 1881. Parallèlement, Johan Adrian Jacobsen tient lui aussi un journal personnel de son expédition au Labrador. Dans cette économie du regard organisée autour du spectacle de l'altérité, les écrits d'Ulrikab et de Jacobsen s'échangent des impressions à la fois adverses et complémentaires où se mêlent curiosité, étonnement et incompréhension. Nous ferons tout d'abord une brève histoire de la représentation des Inuits du Labrador (les Labradormiut) chez les explorateurs européens avant d'aborder la généalogie du discours scientifique qui a permis aux exhibitions anthropozoologiques de prendre leur 1 Les citations tirées des journaux d'Abraham Ulrikab et de Johan Adrian Jacobsen seront identifiées directement dans le texte par le nom de famille des écrivains. Les références complètes des deux ouvrages se trouvent dans la section Corpus principal de la bibliographie.

In 1929, the Northwest Territories adopted An Ordinance Respecting Dogs. Considered by civil servants and many non-Aboriginal workers of the North as an effective way to protect local populations against the threat of sick and dangerous dogs roaming in settlements, the dog ordinance made Inuit insecure. Some suffered hunger, others were almost shot at or fell ill because of rotting dog carcasses, many lost dogs they had social ties with, and many dog owners felt they would be the next to be killed. This chapter explores the discrepancy between the goals sought by the northern administration when it adopted and implemented the ordinance and the consequences it had on local Inuit populations of the eastern Canadian Arctic.

Helmcken Falls is a 141 m (463 ft) waterfall on the Murtle River within Wells Gray Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada. The protection of Helmcken Falls was one of the reasons for the creation of Wells Gray Provincial Park in 1939.

-Gray/Grey- ref.note.

Helmcken Falls is the fourth highest waterfall in Canada, measured by total straight drop without a break. Higher Canadian waterfalls are Hunlen Falls in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park, Takakkaw Falls in Yoho National Park, and Della Falls in Strathcona Provincial Park, all in British Columbia.

There are six other waterfalls on the Murtle River, upstream from Helmcken Falls. The others are The Mushbowl, Dawson Falls, Majerus Falls, Horseshoe Falls, Meadow Falls and McDougall Falls.

The Canadian Pacific Railway surveyors in the 1870s passed to the north and made no mention of seeing the falls. Credit for discovering Helmcken Falls goes to Robert Henry Lee (1859–1935), a land surveyor working for the British Columbia government. In 1911, Lee was awarded a four-year contract to survey lands in the North Thompson and Clearwater Valleys. By 1913, he was working south of the Murtle River laying out lots for homesteaders. On July 24, 1913, he walked west along the Murtle River from his remote camp and reached the top of the waterfall.
He was so impressed that he wrote a letter to Sir Richard McBride, Premier of British Columbia, requesting that the falls be named "McBride Falls".
Three weeks later, Lee received a reply from the Premier stating that the waterfall was instead to be called Helmcken Falls.
This name honoured John Sebastian Helmcken, a physician with the Hudson's Bay Company who arrived in Victoria in 1850. He helped bring British Columbia into Canadian Confederation in 1871.

Dr. Helmcken died in 1920 at the age of 95, but never actually saw the falls himself.

The concepts of mental health and illness of the Inuit of Nunavik (Northern Québec) were studied through ethnographic interviews, participant observation and a questionnaire survey. The aim was to document Inuit knowledge and practices in order to inform mental health workers and planners working in Nunavik of the range of different perspectives and identified needs. The research involved the participation of the community in the selection of survey sites and the identification of appropriate problems for study. Three communities differing in their existing resources and average level of acculturation were studied.
Three types of research interview were conducted, corresponding to distinct parts of the project: (1) problem identification interviews with Inuit health care and community workers identified the range of problems in the community and the usual terminology used to describe them, resulting in a list of specific registers of potentially problematic behavior; (2) problem register interviews with key informants from the community identified the perceived prevalence of problems in the community and the typical signs and symptoms associated with each type of behavior or problem; (3) case history interviews with key informants reconstructed detailed accounts of cases with which they were personally familiar.
Major findings of the study include:
• There is no general term for mental health or illness in Inuktitut. When pressed, informants either used an English term (‘mental health problem’) or offered two terms with different connotations: Isumaluttuq and Isumaqanngituq. Isumaluttuq implies thinking too much while Isumaqanngituq means ‘having no mind’ or not thinking at all.
• According to informants, the most prevalent mental health problems were alcohol and drug abuse, family violence and abuse, and suicidal behavior.
• Most people were not very familiar with mental health problems. Although many had heard of demon possession, only a small number of cases were actually described.
• Although some people who completed suicide were described as withdrawn, isolated, depressed, having heavy thoughts, low self-esteem or hating themselves prior to their suicide, in many cases their suicide came as a complete surprise even to close friends and relatives.
• Inuit recognized four broad types of causes of mental health problems: (1) physical and environmental; (2) psychological or emotional; (3) demon or spirit possession; and, (4) culture change and social disadvantage. In many cases, multiple causes were offered for the same problem.
5
• The presence of hallucinations or bizarre behavior prompted people to think of mental illness or demon possession.
• Violence, drug abuse and suicide were all commonly attributed to abuse and neglect in childhood or to ongoing family violence.
• Inuit tended to label behaviors or states of mind rather than individuals. This left open the possibility that someone who had an affliction or troublesome behavior could change and improve.
• People tended to be very tolerant of others’ unusual behavior. This may improve the integration and prognosis for people with psychiatric disorders. It may also, however, delay the recognition of depression, psychosis and suicidality.
• Talking with others was widely recognized as a good way to prevent and/or resolve mental health problems.
• Religious exorcism was viewed as an appropriate treatment in cases of demon possession by people who believed this was a cause of unusual behavior or illness.
From the interviews and survey, a model of indigenous concepts of and attitudes toward mental health and illness was developed. An Inuktitut/English lexicon of mental health related terms was also prepared. The model and lexicon can be used in future research on the prevalence, causes and consequences of specific social and psychiatric problems.
The research also has more immediate implications for the design and delivery of mental health care among the Inuit, including community education programs to improve the recognition, treatment and rehabilitation of people with major psychiatric disorders and community and professional interventions for people facing life crises.

Previous work on Inuit has analyzed the morpheme pi as a ‘dummy root’ or ‘empty stem’; a morphological or phonological filler which satisfies a language-specific requirement that words contain lexical roots. We argue instead that pi is a pro-form similar to English ‘do so’ and ‘one’. As evidence for this analysis we examine the use of pi to avoid repeating constituents, its ability to replace VP-sized constituents, the need for discourse markers in some constructions containing pi, similarities with ‘stem ellipsis’ in Arctic Quebec Inuktitut, and pi’s behaviour in noun-incorporation.

In this chapter, we introduce the concept of ‘placemaking’ to the Canadian Arctic context, a term frequently used in urban planning and architectural settings to describe and characterise how spaces are formed by organic and systematic activities, particularly in contemporary times. Our interpretations of placemaking in relation to the Arctic are made as non-Inuit researchers, who have lived, studied, travelled and worked alongside our Inuit friends and experts for over fifteen years in the Eastern Canadian Arctic region. Working in separate regions of the Arctic as ethnographers (Heyes in Nunavik, Arctic Quebec and Dowsley in Nunavut), we offer here our combined insights and observations on how Inuit generate, connect and derive meaning from the land and the sea. Our reflections provide critical perspectives on Inuit senses of place, and by extension, how tangible and intangible spaces on the tundra, water and sea ice are regarded by Inuit.

Background: Inuit interpreters are key players in end-of-life (EOL) care for Nunavik patients and families. This emotionally intensive work requires expertise in French, English and Inuit dialects to negotiate linguistic and cultural challenges. Cultural differences among medical institutions and Inuit communities can lead to value conflicts and moral dilemmas as interpreters navigate how best to transmit messages of care at EOL. Objectives: Our goal was to understand the experience of Inuit interpreters in the context of EOL care in Nunavik in order to identify training needs. Design: In the context of a larger ethnographic project on EOL care in Nunavik, we met with 24 current and former interpreters from local health centres and Montreal tertiary care contexts. Data included informal and formal interviews focusing on linguistic resources, experiences concerning EOL care, and suggestions for the development of interpretation training. Results: Inuit working as interpreters in Nunavik are hired to provide multiple services of which interpretation plays only a part. Many have no formal training and have few resources (e.g. visual aids, dictionaries) to draw upon during medical consultations. Given the small size of communities , many interpreters personally know their clients and often feel overwhelmed by moral dilemmas when translating EOL information for patients and families. The concept of moral distress is a helpful lens to make sense of their experience, including personal and professional repercussions. Conclusions: Inuit interpreters in Nunavik are working with little training yet in context with multiple linguistic and cultural challenges. Linguistic and cultural resources and focused training on moral dilemmas unique to circumpolar contexts could contribute to improved work conditions and ultimately to patient care.

In June 2019 Canada’s National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls released its final report. This short Reflection focuses on the National Inquiry’s supplementary legal analysis, which concerns the law of genocide. I contend that this analysis is correct in holding that the murder and disappearance of large numbers of Indigenous women, girls, and other persons ought to be understood as an ongoing crime facilitated by specific policy choices, legal decisions, and socio-economic structures. I also contend that the systemic, recurrent, and large-scale nature of this crime is best captured by the term “genocide.” I argue that formal legal definitions of “genocide” such as the one offered in the 1948 Genocide Convention, though conceptually clunky, historically contingent, and politically inadequate, are key to illuminating some of the structural forces underlying and animating a range of events that may otherwise appear unrelated. Genocide, the ultimate collectivist crime, is a concept of preponderantly legal origin, which means that serious consideration must be given to its specifically legal definition when trying to determine whether it is justifiable or appropriate to apply it to a given social phenomenon. Its standard legal definition may be unable to do justice to the specificities of different modes of group violence, but its abstract generality is also what enables those who employ it to highlight the intrinsically systemic character of such destruction. Ultimately, I suggest that Canada’s genocide “debate” turns on the relation between “law” and “society”—the question, that is, of how precisely a legal definition is to be interpreted and applied under different, and often rapidly changing, social conditions.

Booklet on the meaning and use of the North Slope Iñupiaq postbase 'niq'. Popular scientific version of MA thesis on the semantics and pragmatics of the North Slope Iñupiaq postbase 'niq'.

The booklet is based on knowledge shared by:
Lollie Hobson
Tuuqłak Diaz
Dr. Edna Ahgeak MacLean
Janie Snyder
Ronald Aniqsuaq Brower
Lucy Ahvaiyak Brower-Richards
Doris Hugo
Uumiñaq
Beverly Faye Aqaŋŋiq Hugo
Etta P. Fournier
Dick Weyiouanna
Fannie Akpik
and two anonymous.

Inuit approaches to childrearing reflect a particular concept of person- hood that may be termed relational, ecocentric, and cosmocentric (Kirmayer, 2007; Kirmayer, Fletcher, & Watt, 2008). As described in the first part of this commentary, Inuit understand the self as being in constant transaction with larger forces in the environment. This ecocentric and cosmocentric view gives different meaning to the challenges described by Briggs in her portrait of Inuit childrearing. It suggests that teasing has more than one goal. One objective is to impress on the child the importance of adhering to norms of interpersonal behavior (while tacitly acknowledging the com- plexity of our conflicting desires and emotions as human beings). Another objective of teasing is to encourage the child to engage in an active pro- cess of searching for the right way to think and act pro-socially in everyday encounters. A third objective is to reduce anthropocentrism and instil a cos- mocentric view. Within Inuit culture, teasing communicates social norms in a powerful way that the child is unlikely to forget. Rather than setting out clear rules to follow, however, it serves to create anxiety or concern about a whole domain of behavior. This focus encourages an active engagement with questions of the child’s place in the social world and the cosmos.

Still largely based on EuroCanadian knowledge and Western teachings, Education in Nunavut remains a negative experience for many Nunavut youth as the result of culturally inappropriate schooling and worldview mismatch.  Mismatch occurs as the schooling experiences of Nunavut youth, both Inuit and non-Inuit, do not align with the character, values, and traditions of Nunavut.  Divergence is especially pronounced within science education.  This paper explores Nunavut students’ perceptions of the nature of science and school science education in order to explore the possibilities and problematics involved in shifting towards a cross-cultural science curriculum that is reflective of Nunavut.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries most explorers, whalers, and ethnographers perceived Inuit traditions, especially shamanism, to be in a state of decline. The assumption that Inuit culture was on the brink of disappearance constituted a classic topos in anthropology obscuring the dynamics of Inuit culture and society. This perspective was enhanced by focusing too much on the person of the shaman and underestimated the importance and strength of the ideological system and values involved. Qallunaat (white people) perspectives of decline contrast with Inuit perspectives valorizing the integration and incorporation of qallunaat culture. We compare classic descriptions of shamanism with recent testimonies of elders and demonstrate that, even today, shamanism is for many Inuit part of a wider cosmology that is dynamic, open to innovation, and marked by strong continuity.

En el ideario colectivo de Kalaallit Nunaat navega el 21 de junio de 2021 como fecha clave para su futuro, pero ¿por qué esa fecha?, ¿qué es Kalaallit Nunaat y por qué es tan importante su ejemplo para los pueblos inuit? Francesc Bailón responde en esta obra a estas y a muchas otras preguntas, al tiempo que profundiza en la identidad inuit.

"My Father Was Told to Talk to the Environment First Before Anything Else" Arctic Environmental Education in the Language of the Land, Chapter 16 (pp 285-298)
in
Fields of Green: Restorying Culture, Environment, and Education”
by Marcia McKenzie, Paul Hart, Heesoon Bai, and Bob Jickling (Eds.).
Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, Inc.

Background: Increasing longevity for Inuit living in Nunavik, northern Quebec, has resulted in heightened rates of cancers and chronic diseases necessitating complex treatments. Consequently, end-of-life (EOL) care, once the domain of Inuit families and communities, has come to include professionalized healthcare providers with varying degrees of awareness of factors to consider in providing care to Inuit populations. Objective: To better understand the factors shaping EOL care in Nunavik to support the development of a sustainable model of care. Methods: Using focused ethnography, we conducted participant observations and informal and semistructured interviews with 103 participants (community members, healthcare practitioners, and administrators) across Nunavik and in Montreal, the affiliated tertiary care center. Data domains included the following: care tra-jectories; patient and family experiences receiving and providing EOL care; local and urban resources and challenges; and ways forward. Results: Sociocultural, historical, and geographic factors shape EOL care in Nunavik, presenting a complex set of challenges for Inuit patients, families, and healthcare providers. A sustainable model of EOL care requires building on shared initiatives, capitalizing on the existing strengths in communities, and attending to the multiple bereavement needs in the region. Discussion: Building a sustainable model of EOL care requires respectful collaboration among governing structures, healthcare institutions, and community members. It must centrally value local knowledge and initiatives. To ensure Inuit families and patients are supported throughout the dying process, future initiatives must centrally include local stakeholders in both the design and evaluation of any changes to the current healthcare system.

In public discourse in Nunavut on the painful subject of elevated rates of suicide in the territory, one hears a wide range of opinions on the question of ‘what was the suicide rate in our society before settlement in communities?’ Opinions range from ‘Inuit never killed themselves before the Qallunaat came’ to ‘Suicide is part of our culture’ (the suggestion being that historical Inuit society had a high rate of suicide).
Greater clarity about suicide behaviour in the past may be helpful because perceptions about the frequency and nature of suicide in historical Inuit society can impact on how people understand suicide behaviour today (i.e. whether suicide behavior today reflects traditional cultural norms). This report presents data from a variety of sources that may help clarify understanding about what we know and don’t know about the development of elevated rates of suicide in Nunavut in the last 100 years.

Cet article propose de considérer les cérémonies de remise de diplômes au Nunavik comme une scène où se jouent et s’exposent les significations attribuées à l’école et à la réussite scolaire. Les Inuit et les Qallunaat y participent à travers une succession de discours et d’actes symboliques. Ces rituels contemporains organisent le passage de l’univers scolaire, marqué par la passivité dans l’apprentissage et l’abondance des règlements, à un destin fait d’autonomie personnelle et de responsabilité envers ses proches et sa communauté. Les institutions nées de la Convention de la Baie James et du Nord québécois et leurs représentants soulignent notamment la continuité qui existe entre les diplômés et eux-mêmes, et participent à l’enracinement de l’école au sein de dynamiques sociales et culturelles locales, en travaillant la figure d’appropriation que constitue le diplômé inuit. En ce sens, le diplômé condense un ensemble de significations concernant la place et le rôle de l’école dans les communautés contemporaines, en fonction de modèles d’autonomie inuit.

The scars left by the death of Siasi Tullaugak and Sharon Barron, two Inuuk women, are still deep. They were part of the homeless Montreal Inuit community who gathered for a vigil in September 2017 to remember the young women . Their cases are not isolated, as the death of Indigenous women happens unfortunately too often. They are 12 times more likely to be murdered than any other women in Canada . Thus, it is important to recognize the origins of the issue by listening to Inuit voices. In this paper, it is argued that the prevalence of Inuit homelessness is rooted in historical and ongoing colonialism and must be addressed with the community members by honoring the stolen lives and following Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit . The research will begin by drawing a portrait of the situation with a focus on Montreal and Nunavik realities in reference to academic research and institutions’ reports. The diversity of social realities lived by people impacted by homelessness will be considered and contextualized. The Nunavik history of colonialism will be related to the question: Why is an Inuk more likely to experience homelessness? Both risk factors and ongoing colonialism will be addressed in association with community organizations’ actions in Nunavik and Montreal.

This book is an investigation of how neurodiverse people are like hunter-gatherers. A few years ago I started out with the idea that neurodiverse (ASD, ADHD, gifted, etc.) are like hunter-gatherers in being more egalitarian and less status conscious. Again and again I found hints in the literature that neurodiverse and gifted children have a high sense of justice. Of course, most people would claim that they are egalitarian. However, having an egalitarian sense of justice baked into one's operating system may be the very reasons for many of the child's struggles. Authoritarian education may lead to oppositional defiant behaviour and in extreme cases even to antisocial behaviour and sociopathy. During the course of my research I have tried to find parallels between living foragers populations and neurodiverse people. The struggles are often exactly the same: mental health problems, physical health problems, unemployment, homelessness and high suicide rates. I have written many books about neurodiverse people. This one is a homage to our forager cousins who struggle to live in our "civilised world". I want people to know why foragers struggle and why they have been important in human history in developing egalitarian, fair societies. The content of this book (and much more) is available for free on my blog The Bigger Picture. In fact, I have put the post of my blog together to create this themed ebook. A lot of the core ideas therefore get repeated over and over again. I apologize to the reader. School It isn't a big secret that neurodiverse children (ASD, ADHD) struggle in school, academically, socially (bullying) and mentally (depression and anxiety). Native American students aren't faring much better. [...] no group of students in America fails to graduate or achieve proficiency at such disproportionate rates [as Native Americans]. (source) Only 67% of Native American students graduate from high school compared to the national average of 80%. Not only is the dropout rate higher, as it is typically for children with undiagnosed ADHD, but also suspension rates are extremely high, just like for their ADHD counterparts. How much intelligence does it take to understand that egalitarian minds don't take well to hierarchical structures and coercion? Sometimes Native American students get suspended for overreacting to what we consider "harmless teasing". However, there may be no such thing as harmless teasing for hunter-gatherers. As a teacher, I have first-hand experience of how neurodiverse children can literally explode when being teased. In almost all such cases the neurodiverse children are being punished for overreacting. They are being punished for how evolution has programmed them. They are being punished for being themselves. This makes the situation twice as bad for the neurodiverse child. Next are learning difficulties due to different cognitive prerequisites: Statistics from the National Indian Child Welfare Association and the CDC show at least 170,000, nearly 11 percent, of the 1.6 million American Indian and Alaska Native children under age 18 are labeled with ADHD, including an estimated 115,000 Native boys. The rate of ADHD diagnosis for Native children has consistently tracked as the highest of any ethnic category, climbing steadily since 1997, and only in the last few years have rates for children from other backgrounds caught up. (source) Mental health problems Neurodiverse people typically suffer from a wide range of comorbidities. Anxiety disorders and depression are two of the most common ones. Native Americans represent less than two percent of the US population but they make up eight percent of those who are homeless and according to mental health statistics in Native Americans, it is estimated that up to 70 percent of this population will suffer some sort of mental health disorder during their lifetimes. (source) Native American adolescents have higher rates of general anxiety as well as substance abuse and suicide. PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) is also very common among Native Americans. This doesn't correspond to the image of fearless warriors we get from old Hollywood movies. However, it's an image that is all too familiar from our experience with neurodiverse people. Alcoholism and substance use Alcoholism and substance use can be regarded as self-medication for both neurodiverse people and foragers living at the edge of society. Generally speaking, people with ASD are at a lower risk for developing alcoholism, especially when compared to other psychological conditions. However, if a person with ASD drinks, they are at an increased risk of becoming alcohol-dependent. The situation gets far worse for people with ADHD. Several studies have shown a strong connection between ADHD, drug abuse, and alcoholism. ADHD is five to 10 times more common among adult alcoholics than it is in people without the condition. Among adults being treated for alcohol and substance abuse, the rate of ADHD is about 25%. Among ethnic groups in the US: Native Americans have the highest prevalence (12.1 percent) of heavy drinking (i.e., five or more drinks on the same occasion for 5 or more of the past 30 days; followed by Whites (8.3 percent) and Hispanics (6.1 percent) (source) Homelessness Native Americans face the highest poverty rates and the lowest employment rates of any ethnic group in the United States. Needless to say that employability prospects for many neurodiverse people aren't exactly rosy either (unless it's for one of the Silicon tech companies). Many people may think that homeless people are just lazy people who don't want to work. In reality, it is much more likely that the majority of homeless people are neurodiverse people, many of whom are undiagnosed. Twelve percent of Welsh Autistic adults reported experiencing homelessness and 65% of homeless people sleeping in the streets in Devon, England, had been diagnosed with autism. (source) When it comes to Native Americans, the picture is very similar again: American Indians are overrepresented among persons who are homeless: though they represent less than 1.5 percent of the population in the United States, it is estimated that they make up eight percent of those who are homeless. Suicide Suicide rates are generally the highest among foragers who are bereft of their traditional way of life all over the world. The US and Native Americans are sadly no exception: The U.S. suicide rate is up 33 percent since 1999, but for American Indian and Alaska Native women and men, the increase is even greater: 139 percent and 71 percent, respectively [...] Native communities experience higher rates of suicide compared to all other racial and ethnic groups in the U.S., with suicide being the eighth leading cause of death for American Indians and Alaska Natives across all ages. For Native youth ages 10 to 24, suicide is the second leading cause of death; and the Native youth suicide rate is 2.5 times higher than the overall national average, making these rates the highest across all ethnic and racial groups. (source) Being born with an egalitarian mind not programmed by evolution for 9-5 routine "farmer

Where is the line between fair use and exploitation? Between inspiration and appropriation? Between honouring and commodifying? These are important questions today as consumers, artists and musicians, product developers, retailers, and regulators try to make decisions about what is and is not appropriate use of other peoples’ intellectual property. ....

Głoszenie Ewangelii na rozległych kanadyjskich „Terytoriach Północno-Zachodnich”, wpisało się mocno w historię Zgromadzenia Misjonarzy Oblatów Maryi Niepokalanej. Na początku XIX w. ten ogromny teren był zaludniony jedynie przez nielicznych Indian, Metysów, białych traperów, urzędników z rywalizujących ze sobą handlowych Kompanii Zatoki Hudsońskiej i Kompanii Północno-Zachodniej oraz przez Inuitów (Eskimosów).

Książka podsumowuje i dokumentuje pracę polskich oblatów, osadzając ją w szerokim kontekście misji zgromadzenia wśród kanadyjskich Indian i Inuitów. Do tego celu wykorzystano dane z archiwów zakonnych i kościelnych w Edmontonie, Ottawie, Rzymie i Poznaniu. Odwoływano się także do publikowanych i niepublikowanych listów misjonarzy, osobistej korespondencji autora publikacji z wieloma z nich oraz licznych wywiadów, przeprowadzonych przez autora i innych badaczy. Z rozmysłem wiele miejsca dano obszernym wypowiedziom misjonarzy, które mają wprowadzać w klimat ich pracy, ale także naświetlać suche dane i fakty z ich życia. Dotyczy to zwłaszcza bogatej pracy o. Leona Mokwy.

The internet provides numerous helpful resources for understanding mental health issues affecting the lives of many people. Companion to "Effective Counseling Skills" by the same author, this volume has been prepared for counselors and the general public to address common life challenges.

Part 1 gives the text of practical articles for issues and problems commonly experienced in life including grief, depression, marital difficulties, conflict and communication problems, sexual abuse, suicide, death and dying, anger, loss of caring parents, homosexuality, and addiction.

Part 2 is a short lesson book for teachers and school counselors on teaching empathy in the classroom with applications transferrable to the workplace, family life, and personal relationships.

Part 3 is a personal Life Story Questionnaire to help increase self-awareness of factors affecting your life and relationships. Simply completing the questionnaire will move you forward in your healing.

The articles can also be used freely as handouts in workshops or seminars delivered to schools, church or religious groups, hospital staff.

This dissertation conducts a critical analysis and discussion of the dynamics between power configurations and epistemological power relations in Greenland. The dissertation has a special focus on how resource use and resource consumption practices are problematized in the fisheries sector as well as in the local markets known as “kalaaliaraq” or “bræt”. By analyzing the Fisheries Commission's discussion paper “Vores Fisk – Vores velfærd. Debatoplæg” and the debates surrounding Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq’s establishment of the new modernized “kalaaliaraq”, the thesis sheds light on how Indigenous peoples' epistemologies can be interpreted as important and how power relations between Western epistemologies and Inuit epistemologies are reflected in Greenlandic society.
Through more than 300 years of colonial history, asymmetric power relations between Greenland and Denmark have been established, through which Danish dominance in Greenlandic society in various ways has suppressed and influenced Greenlandic Inuit knowledge systems, worldviews and culture. The dissertation argues that Danish epistemologies continue to greatly influence problematization practices through policy development in the public administration, and that Danish epistemological hegemony continues to be expressed in Greenlandic society through the imposition of Danish values, knowledge systems as well as Danish worldviews and culture. The dissertation sheds light on how Greenlandic society as a result of colonialism has been formed into a society characterized by hybridity. Departing from a decolonial approach, theories and methods that recognize the necessity of epistemological openness are utilized. This is done to challenge and attempt to change existing colonial structures, to listen to marginalized voices and to contribute to creating social and cognitive transformation.

In the language of the Inuit, the concept "beauty" translates roughly as "goodness," emphasizing morality and truth rather than visual aesthetics. Using from our own and others' ethnographic research, we discuss beauty as a semantic field, and as applied to people, things and practices. Semantically, the beautiful is what is most appropriate in looks, action and relationships--the man as successful hunter and husband, the woman as wife and mother, the land as plentiful. Beauty refers to ideals within the reach of everyone.  Men and women are ideally attracted to marry by their skills, but they also recognized superficial physical attractions. In recent generations, Canadian Inuit began to produce stone carvings and lithographic prints for export and sale. Thus, the discourse on aesthetic beauty has expanded, but still reflects Inuit division of labor by sex.

Critical anthropology is currently awash with research aimed at disabling human exceptionalism, alignment with indigenous knowledge, decolonisation of thought, and the taking of the posthuman turn. Meanwhile states with settler colonial histories, such as Canada, also seek to align policies with indigenous knowledge and seek reconciliation with indigenous peoples. This article examines this trend by analyzing the conflict occurring in Nunavut between the Canadian state and Inuit communities living there, over the migration of polar bears. In this context, indigenous knowledge clashes with the rationalities and policies of the state. Claiming support from biological science, the state argues that the migration of the bears indicates their threatened status, while the Inuit argues it to be an expression of polar bear resilience. What does this clash of rationalities tell us about the integrity of the posthuman turn, given that its legitimacy depends on claims of alignment with indigenous knowledge and interests as well as opposition to western science and colonial state power? States with colonial histories, including Canada, as well as international organisations including the United Nations, are at pains these days to stress the extent to which their policy responses to the climate crisis are informed by indigenous knowledge. However, the construction of indigenous knowledge in the policies of colonial states, as much as in critical anthropology, is rendered problematic by the analysis offered in this article. Were Inuit knowledge and perspectives on the climate migration of polar bears to be taken seriously, different policies and different approaches, based on the privileging of the human over and against the interests of the animal would have to prevail.

This article examines the contemporary mining industry in Nunavut, Canada to determine whether land claims and other negotiated agreements have enabled Inuit to capture wealth produced by extraction. It examines the geographic distribution of wealth produced by Nunavut’s extractive economy and considers several structural limits to economic development through private-sector extraction in Northern Canada. Although the 1993 Nunavut Agreement has allowed Inuit to increase their share of extraction based wealth, most wealth still accrues to other jurisdictions. The extractive economy therefore remains a colonial economy, because it continues to benefit external interests disproportionately.

This thesis explores the properties of adjectives and adverbs in Inuit (Eskimo-Aleut), with focus on the Inuktitut dialect group. While the literature on Eskimoan languages has claimed that they lack these categories, I present syntactic evidence for two classes of adjectives, one verb-like and another strictly attributive, as well as a class of adverbs. These categories are then employed to diagnose more general properties of the language including headedness, word-formation, adjunct licensing, and semantic composition.

In the first half of Chapter 2 I demonstrate that verb-like adjectives can be differentiated from verbs insofar as only the former are compatible with a particular copular construction involving modals. Similarly, verb-like adjectives can combine with a negative marker that is incompatible with genuine verbs. This contrast is further corroborated by an inflectional distinction between verb-like adjectives and verbs in the Siglitun dialect. A second class of strictly-attributive adjectives is argued for on the basis of stacking, variable order, optionality, and compositionality. The second half of the chapter examines semantic restrictions on membership in the strictly-attributive class whereby only adjectives with subsective and privative denotations are attested. These restrictions are explained by the proposal that Inuit lacks a rule of Predicate Modification, with the result that only adjectives with semantic types capable of composing with nouns via Functional Application can compose directly with nominals. Furthermore, to explain why this restriction does not extend to verb-like adjectives it is proposed that when these modify nominals, they are adjoined DP appositives and compose via Potts’s (2005) rule of Conventional Implicature Application.

In Chapter 3 I argue for a class of adverbs, presenting evidence including degree modification, variable ordering, speaker-oriented meanings, and the ability to modify additional categories. Finally, data from adverb ordering is used to compare syntactically oriented and semantically oriented approaches to adjunct licensing and verbal-complex formation. I present arguments in favour of a right-headed analysis of Inuit in which the relative position of adverbs inside polysynthetic verbal-complexes is primarily determined by semantics, supporting Ernst (2002), contra cartographic approaches such as Cinque (1999).