As I track Speechless statistics I noticed a growing interest in content collected as background to my graduate studies on the role of memory work and the historical and ethical components of stories told about Inuit, that I had uploaded to Web 2.0 sites through the Creative Commons License 3.0. I will slowly update and maintain if interest continues. This was developed as complementary material to my teaching, learning and research and is not intended as a comprehensive timeline. Speechless has been visited c. 250 times a day over the last week with a total of 75,000 visits (2008-06).
9000 BC Ice Age came to an end. Arctic climate warmed.
7000 BC Dogsleds used by Palaeo-Eskimo in northern Siberia?
3000 BC The Denbigh culture of western and northern Alaska dates as far back as this.
2500 BC Migration Theory: Paleao-Eskimos migrating across Arctic North America. (in McGhee, Robert)
2200 – 1500 BC Stable northern climate.
2000 BC Umingmak Palaeo-Eskimo site on Banks Island.
c.1700 BC Oldest known Early Palaeo-Eskimo portrait of a human, an ivory maskette found on Devon Island.
1800 BC Palaeo-Eskimos occupied most Arctic regions. Independence culture musk-ox hunters of the extreme Arctic regions.
2000 BC – 1 AD Worldwide environmental change. In the north: the first chill. Cooler summers.
2000 BC Cooler conditions set in North.
500 – 1 BC Early Dorset Tyara maskette found at Hudson Strait.
1 – 1500 Dorset culture.
1 – 600 AD Middle Dorset culture: Igloolik flying bear carving.
500s AD Legend: Irish monks in currachs sailed west and north?
800s AD Eric the Red and 1500 Icelanders travelled to Greenland’s southwest coast? The Norse landed in Labrador before
1000 AD and attempted to colonize along the coasts of Ungava, Baffin Island and Labrador. They were the first Europeans to reach the Canadian Arctic. (Hessell 1998:7) )
650 – 1250 AD Mediaeval Warm Period in Arctic North America.(McGhee 1997).
600 – 1300 AD Late Dorset culture, wand found on Bathurst Island.
1100 – 1700 AD Thule culture: bow-drill handle found near Arctic Bay, Baffin Island; swimming bird and birdwoman figurines found in the Eastern Arctic. (Illustration Hessel 1998:17)
c.1650 – 1840 AD Little Ice Age forced the Thule to break up into small, nomadic groups.
1576 ?Martin Frobisher, an uneducated pirate-mariner attempted to find the Northwest Passage. He encountered Inuit on Resolution Island. Five sailors jumped ship and became part of Inuit mythology. The homesick sailors tired of their adventure attempted to leave in a small vessel and vanished. Frobisher brought an unwilling Inuk to England. On his next trip to Baffin Island an Inuit hunter shot Frobisher in the buttocks with an arrow after Frobisher had lost a wrestling match?
1585 John Davis voyaged up Davis Strait.
1602 Henry Hudson travelled to the whaling grounds of Spitsbergen which became a source of great wealth to the British.
1616 Robert Bylot and William Baffin sailed to Hudson Bay. 1670 Hudson’s Bay Company newly formed is granted trade rights over all territory draining into Hudson Bay. The fur trade develops.
1749 The first trading was established at Richmond Gulf.
c. 1749 Trade of small stone carvings. The HBC began trading glass beads to the Caribou Inuit in the 18th century. Women used them to decorate parkas. Ivory cribbage boards with skrimshaw engravings (like the whalers) ere the most popular. (Hessel 1998:24)
1750s Moravian missionaries arrived in Labrador. (Hessell 1998:8)
1771 Moravian missionaries settled in Nain in northern Labrador heralding the beginning of the Historic Period. Well-crafted miniature carvings were traded with missionaries, whalers, explorers…
1770s – 1940s. The missionaries are said to have introduced the art of basketry to the Inuit (Watt 1980:13).
1771 Samuel Hearne of the HBC reached the Arctic coast at Coppermine.
1789 Alexander Mackenzie follows Mackenzie River to Beaufort Sea.
1880 British Crown transferred many of the Arctic Islands to Canada. These islands became part of the Territories. (Parker 1996:23)
1820. The “Hudson’s Bay Company opened a trading post called Great Whale River in 1820 on the site of today’s Kuujjuarapik. The main activities at the post were processing whale products of the commercial whale hunt and trading furs.” www
1821-3. D’Anglure (2002:205) stated that the British Naval Expedition (1821-3) led by Admiral Parry, which twice over-wintered in Foxe Basin, provided the first informed, sympathetic and well-documented account of the economic, social and religious life of the Inuit. Parry stayed in Igloolik over the second winter. Parry’s writings with pen and ink illustrations of Inuit everyday life (1824) and those of Lyon (1824) were widely read.
1822 William Parry’s expedition to Igloolik.
183? Captain George Back made the first descent of the Back River.
1830s – 1860s. A man named (Jimmy?) Fleming (b. 1830s?1860s?) remained behind when the whaling ship left the north. He was given an Inuktitut name and he married an Inuk. Jimmy Fleming was a traveler; Jimmy Fleming was Scottish or English more likely Scottish perhaps with prominent eyebrows like Jimmie Ekomiak Fleming. His son was Jimmy Ekoomiak Fleming (c.1865-1950s), Sarah Ekoomiak’s grandfather. Annie Weetaltuk, Johnny Weetaltuk’s cousin knew the story about the man called Fleming and she told William Ekomiak the story.
1850s – 1950s Christian missionaries spread throughout Arctic. 1860 – 1915 Second wave of contact. Whaling in Hudson Bay with foreign whalers: Scottish, American particularly in the Roes Welcome Sound.
1856 Two Anglican Church Missionary Society members working in the Hudsons’ Bay region, John Horden, at Moose Factory, and E. A. Watkins at Fort George, were producing material in syllabics for Inuit. Watkins noted in his diary of June 19, 1856, that an Inuit youth from Little Whale River wanted to learn syllabics very much so he worked with Watkins. Horden in Moose Factory and Watkins collaborated on producing some Bible selections in Inuktitut. Re: Sarah Ekoomiak’s story.
1861 Edward Belcher wrote an paper entitled ‘On the manufacture of works of art by the Esquimaux’ which is archived in the Department of Ethnography in the British Museum in London. See J. King Franks and Ethnography. This may be the first paper written on Inuit art., London, Department of Ethnography in the British Museum.http://pittweb.prm.ox.ac.uk/Kent/musantob/histmus5.html
1865 Pangnirtung has a long history associated with Scottish and American whaling. Whale oil made from animal fat was used as fuel. In 1865? petroleum was developed as fuel, replacing whale oil. Whaling had become became the largest industry in North America, with 20,000 American seamen out in a single whale-hunting from “… New England. P.(Houston, James. 1996:151).
1865 John Horden and Watkins met in London worked together to modify the Cree syllabic system to the Inuktitut language. The syllabic orthography was very easy to learn that and this enabled the Anglican Church to proselytize successfully over such a wide area of the Arctic. Inuit taught each other. With the assistance of well-travelled native assistants who worked with Peck, Bilby and Greenshield at Blacklead Island, and with Bilby and Fleming at Lake Harbour, a large number of Inuit who had never met a missionary nonetheless had access to the Bible and were able to read it in syllabics. Two of the best-known native assistants were Luke Kidlapik and Joseph Pudloo. As a boy Joseph Pudloo had learned syllabics in Reverend Fleming’ s senior class in Lake Harbour. Later he became Fleming’s sled driver, taking the missionary thousands of miles on visits to Inuit camps. After that he spent two years working with the Reverend B.P. Smith at Baker Lake, the first native assistant to work in a dialect markedly different from his own.
1865 Rawlings, Thomas The Confederation of the British North American Provinces; Their Past History and Future Prospects; Including Also British Columbia & Hudson’s Bay Territory; With a Map, and Suggestions in Reference to the True and Only Practicable Route from the Atlantic London Sampson Low, Son, and Marston 1865, first edition, octavo, xii,  -244 pp., 4 plates, large folding map, original flexible cloth covered boards, covers detached but present, scattered light foxing to text, else a good, clean copy. Early efforts of the explorer, geographer and navigator, Hudson’s Bay Co., the fur trade, Red River Settlement, Rocky Mountains, discovery of gold, railroads, etc. The plates include two early views of Victoria, British Columbia, one of St. Paul, Minnesota and a farm scene. Eberstadt 133:851; Decker-Soliday IV:483; Lande 1408; TPL 4442; Peel 206; Sabin 68006
1873 North-West Mounted Police.
1876 Reverend Peck established the first permanent Christian mission in Inuit territory at Little Whale River near Richmond Gulf.
1880 British Crown transferred many of the Arctic Islands to Canada. These islands became part of the Territories. (Parker 1996:23)
1880 The Indian Affairs Department was established. “Since Confederation, the responsibility for Indian Affairs and Northern Development rested with various government departments between 1873 and 1966. The minister of the Interior also held the position of Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs after the Indian Affairs Department was established in 1880.”
1880s – Whalers from San Francisco and Seattle whaled in the Beauford Sea. They wintered at Herschel Island. (Parker 1996:22) American whalers hunted in eastern Arctic. Greelandic Inuit hunted on Ellesmere Island (Tester 1993:14).
1882 An Anglican mission was established in Kujjuarapik in 1882 and a Catholic mission in 1890.
1883 Regina was named as capital of the Northwest Territories. The railway reached Regina. (Parker 1996:23)
1883-4 Anthropologist Franz Boas, studies Inuit culture, Cumberland Sound, Baffin Island.
1884 Reverend Peck established a mission at Fort Chimo, Kuujuak, to help Reverend Sam Stewart who established the second mission in Inuit territory.
1885? Jimmie Ekomiak Fleming (c.1885-1950s) was born? He died when he was 65? He became a Christian. He was not tall. Jimmie Ekoomiak loved children. He played with Sarah like a child would play. Jimmie Ekomiak Fleming was a fiddler and he taught his sons Charlie and Thomas. Thomas bought the fiddle from Eaton’s catalogue for $15. His father, a traveller, Jimmy Fleming (b. 1830s?1860s?) was Scottish or English more likely Scottish perhaps with prominent eyebrows like Jimmie Ekomiak Fleming.
1887-1905 Frederick Haultain, a Conservative, was premier of the Northwest Territories. Sir Wilfred Laurier was Prime Minister. Haultain was born in England and came to Canada when he was three. He discouraged party politics and believed in consensus (Parker 1996:25).
1888 The first Legislative Aseembly was held with 22 elected members. Arguments started over the control of the public purse. The Federal Government held the Advisory Council responsible for governmental expenditures without giving them full control over taxation and financial transfers. (Parker 1996:24),
1890s, early 1900s. The catechist Reverend Fleming traveled thousands of miles with Joseph Pudloo visiting Inuit camps, teaching syllabics along with their missionary work for the Anglican Church Missionary Society.
1893 Franz Boas’ went to Baffin Island and Northern British Columbia to gather ethnographic material for the 1893 Smithsonian’s World’s Columbian Exposition. There was an ethnographic exhibit including “Esquimaux snapping whips and in their kayaks…”
1896? Reverend Edmund Peck introduced syllabics as a written form of Inuktitut. His system was adapted from Reverend Evan’s syllabic system adopted by the Cree.
1898 Yukon was created as separate territory. Gold was discovered. (Parker 1996:25).
1900 Scottish mine owners open a mica and graphite mine near Lake Harbour and employed Inuit miners.
1901 Film clip of Inuit games and dogsleds performing at the Buffalo Exposition.
1902 A whaling ship captain, Comer purchased Igloolik Qingailisaq’s shaman’s coat. A photo of a replica of the coat illustrates the publication accompanying the film Atanarjuat. D’Anglure described Qingailisaq’s coat as the “most superbly decorated shaman’s coat.” “It is a woman’s coat, a replica of the one worn by an ijiraq female spirit that he encountered while hunting caribou in the back country. She became one of his helping spirits and he wore the coat to honour her. Its appearance calls to mind certain aspects of his encounter with the female spirit.” This coat is now in the American Museum of Natural History, New York (2002:217).
1903 Northwest Mounted Police (RCMP) detachments set up in Canadian Arctic.
1903-6 Roald Amundsen completes Northwest Passage?
1904? The artist remembered the names of many of the people involved. Joe Talirunili (1899-1976) from Povungnituk made numerous carvings and drawings referring to this migration. One of the drawings (c.1960-70) illustrated and described in Blodgett’s exhibition catalogue 1983:208) entitled “The People Takatak, Kinuajuak and Kanavalik includes a text which reads, “The people Takatak, Kinuajuak and Kanavalik on land were wondering if the canoe was carrying white people or Indians. They were scared because they never expected a boat in July. They thought they were near death when they heard someone shouting to them from the boat. This is what they heard: ‘We’re Eskimo, we’re not Indians or white people. We were caught in the ice but this is the first time we have seen land in a long time.’ Woman shouting is Aula (Myers, Joe Talirunili: 50). “Blodgett 1983) described the incident third hand, “According to Johnny Pov in the memories of Joe (Myers p.6), several travelling Inuit families became stranded on an ice pan after it broke away from the coast. Blown out to sea as the ice pan began to break into smaller and smaller pieces, the travellers, using the wood from their sleds and skins they had with them, made a makeshift umiak to carry them over the water back to the mainland. Crowded into their boat, the people, the young Joe in his mother’s parka among them, finally reached safety. In later life, when carving teh episode from his childhood, Talirunili could remember the names of all the people on the boat.
1905 Atagutaaluk survived starvation in 1905 near Pond Inlet. The shaman Palluq and his wife Tagurnaaq and Atuat from Igloolik and Repulse Bay found her near Tariuju, closer to Mittimatalik. (See Rose Iqallijuq 1998) who also described another case of survival cannibalism by Kaagat who was found near Igluligaaijuk.) Later Atagutaaluk married the shaman chief Ittuksarjuat. They lived in a qarmaq, a sod or stone house (D’Anglure 2002:222). Ittuksarjuat died in. See also 1950 Rousseliere, Guy Mary. 1950. “Monica Ataguttaaluk, Queen of Iglulik.” Eskimo 16:13. “Ujarak: My sister Atuat knows this person. She knows the story very well. My sister [Atuat] was the adopted daughter of Palluq and [his wife] Tagurnaaq. Tagurnaaq and her husband could not have a baby of their own, so they adopted Atuat. My sister Atuat, who is also called IttukuSuk, was very young at that time, but she was aware of everything that happened. The family, Palluq, Tagurnaaq and Atuat were on their way to Mittimatalik when they found Ataguttaaluk. The family brought Ataguttaaluk to where there were other people and stayed there for some time. Then they set out to the Kivalliq area and stayed there for quite a while (Iqallijuq, Rose and Johanasi Ujarak 1998).” The Igloolik shaman Atuat died in Arctic Bay in 1976. She was the daughter of Ava and Urulu. According to d’Anglure (2002) Atuat was the last Inuit to have extensive tatoos (2002:220). Atuat did a drawing in Arctic Bay in 1964 “depicting the last major winter-solstice celebration (Tivaajut) which she attended circa 1910 at Igloolik. At the end of the festivities, shamans paired everyone up into new couples for one night (d’Anglure 2002:219).” See illustration in the 2002 publication which accompanies the film Atanarjuat. According to d’Anglure in the early 1920s there were eighty shamans in the greater Igloolik area which included North Baffin to Repulse Bay region. This included fourteen women. By the 1940s all had converted to Christianity. Thirty were still alive in the 1970s. Today their names are alive through their children (d’Anglure 2002:209). [I taught one of the descendents Tabitha Palluq through CITP. Her reaction to the showing of the film starvation was very moving.] Knud Rasmussen photographed shamans in 1921-2 expedition including Urulu, Atuat’s mother, a woman shaman from the area of Igloolik/Repulse Bayand three shaman brothers from Igloolik/Repulse Bay Ivaluarjuak, Ava and Pilaskapsi. See d’Anglure (2002:211).
1905 Invention of plastic marks the end of the exploitation of the baleen whale by American and European whalers. The declining market for whale oil and baleen led to the aggressive development of the white fox fur trade by the HBC.
1905 D’Anglure (2002) described a photo of a flight of the shaman séance in 1905 among the Avilik people. The Avilik lived next to the Igloolik Inuit. “The shaman is tied from head to feet (as at the beginning of the legend of Atanarjuat) and gets ready to send his soul travelling (2002:212).” See also (Iqallijuq NAC 1998) “Iqallijuq: The first time he performed ilimmaqtuqtuq I did not hear why this was being done. The following year, I saw him ilimmaqtuqtuq again. We were living in Salliq. Aullannaaq and some other men had gone to Igluligaarjuk. They were overdue and we were starting to wonder if they were on their way back or if they had gotten lost. Makkik performed ilimmaqtuqtuq to find out how they were. He saw them from above. He told us the whole story after his retum. The group was ready to cross through at Aivilik to return to the island. No one was sick in the group and they were all alive and well, he said. The first time I saw this I was really too young to understand what was going on. I don’t recall where he had gone or what news the angakkuq had brought back.”
1905 Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick White of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was named Commissioner of the Northwest Territories. He made decisions unilaterally. He never once called together the Territorial Council. (Parker 1996:26),
1906 According to Rose Iqallijuq an Inuk and his wife survived starvation through cannibalism but only confessed when confronted by a shaman. Kaagat, who is buried at Iglulik Point, lived for a long time. (Iqallijuq 1998).
1906 The Canadian Handicrafts Guild was founded. This national organisation had its headquarters in Montreal.
1909 Admiral Robert Peary and Matthew … reach North Pole.
1909 Reveillon Freres, Paris established a fur trading post at Inukjuak. The HBC arrived in 1920. The HBC purchased the Reveillon Freres in 1930s.
1909 Anglican mission established at Lake Harbour.
1911 First permanent trading post in south Baffin was at Lake Harbour, in Keewatin it was at Chesterfield Inlet.
1912 Burland (1973:92) referred to a famous event which took place in 1912 about an overcrowded whale boat. Burland makes constant errors so she is unreliable as a source.
1912 The boundaries of the Northwest Territories were set at the boundaries in existence in 1992. (Parker 1996:26),
1912 The northern boundary of Manitoba was extended to the 60th parallel. (Parker 1996:26),
1912 Quebec was expanded to include Arctic Quebec. (Parker 1996:26),
1913 Cape Dorset’s trading post was established.
1913 -1918 Canadian Arctic Expedition: Vilhjalmur Stefansson and Diamond Jenness.
1913 Edward Beauclerk Maurice (1913-2003) was born September 10th or 16th? In Claredon, Somerset
1914 Charlie Ekomiak 1914-1960s?) was born. He was the father of Sarah Ekoomiak (b.1933), Annie (b.1935), Maggie (b.1937), Sam (b.1939), Emily (b.1941), William Ekomiak (b.1943) Charlie Ekomiak married Lucie Menarik when he was 18 years old c. 1932. After Lucie Menarik died in 1944 Charlie remarried. Jimmie Ekomiak Fleming was a fiddler and he taught his sons Charlie and Thomas. Thomas bought the fiddle from Eaton’s catalogue for $15.,
1916 – 1926 HBC operated a trading post at Okpiktooyuk near present day Baker Lake.
1918 Oil discovered at Norman Wells (Parker 1996:26).
1919 W.W. Cory became Commissioner of the Northwest Territories (Parker 1996:26),
1920s early According to d’Anglure in the early 1920s there were eighty shamans in the greater Igloolik area which included North Baffin to Repulse Bay region. This included fourteen women. By the 1940s all had converted to Christianity. Thirty were still alive in the 1970s. Today their names are alive through their children (d’Anglure 2002:209).
1921 Federal government appointed a Territorial Council of six members. (Parker 1996:26),
1921 – 1924. Danish explorer, Rasmussen’s Fifth Thule Expedition was undertaken crossing the Canadian Arctic much of it in dogsled. For some remote groups of Inuit, like the Utkuhikhalingmiut, he represented the first white contact. Listen to CBC radio interview with Mame Jackson to hear the voice of Jessie Oonark describing this encounter when she was in her teens. Along the way Rasmussen photographed Urulu, a woman shaman from the area of Igloolik/Repulse Bay. He also photographed and worked with three shaman brothers from Igloolik/Repulse Bay Ivaluarjuak, Ava and Pilaskapsi. See d’Anglure (2002:211).
1921-4 Knud Rasmussen photographed Urulu, a woman shaman from the area of Igloolik/Repulse Bay. He also photographed and worked with three shaman brothers from Igloolik/Repulse Bay Ivaluarjuak, Ava and Pilaskapsi. See d’Anglure (2002:211).
1922 Robert Flaherty’s Nanook of the North (1922) was the first documentary film ever made. In it Nanook a respected Inuk hunter demonstrated techniques of the seal (nasiq) hunt while joking with the camera crew.
1923. Mariano Aupilardjuk was born. He grew up near Nattiligaarjuk, Committee Bay where there was lots of ‘old ice’ and therefore Qallupilluq (Ernerk 1996)] Nunavut’s commissioner, Peter Irniq, has a special respect for Aupilarduk, because their families lived together in an outpost camp near Repulse Bay when Irniq was a child (Rideout 2001a). Mariano Aupiliardjuk was honoured with an Aboriginal Achievement Award in 2001 for his contributions as a bridge between generations, Inuit governance, local residents, on how to use IQ in modern society. In local Rankin Inlet elementary and secondary schools, at NAC, across Canada, advises RCMP, facilitates community and pan-territorial healing, works with youth to help them acquire land skills.
1924 Anthropologist Diamond Jenness received tiny ivory artifacts from Cape Dorset area. With this archaeological evidence the existence of the Dorset culture (800 BC – ) was established. c.
1924. Amendment to Indian Act (14-15 Geo. V Chap. 47) bringing Eskimos under the responsibility of the Superintendent General of Indian Affairs.
1924. Government interested in buying totems. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (of England) requested the preservation of totem poles in British Columbia. In a response letter to Doyle, Chas Stewart of the Dept. of Indian Affairs wrote that “.the Government has been commissioned to take up the matter, perhaps to buy out the totem poles in the Skeena River.” File number: Public Archives Indian Affairs. (RG10, Volume 4086 file 507,787-2). http://www.haislatotem.org/chronology/chron_main.html
1926 – 1927 Anglican and Catholic Missions open in Baker Lake.
1926. Thirteen Inuit starved to death at an outpost camp in Admiralty Inlet (Tester 1993:21).
1929. Pitchblende was discovered at Port Radium on the Great Bear Lake. Gilbert Labine began working his mine in 1930. This was the first major mining activity in the Northwest Territories. It produced radium and then uranium. (Parker 1996:26).
1930s. Americans were self-consciously constructing their identity as separate from Europe (Leclerc 1992:36-8).
1930s. Reverend Nelson was the minister in the area before the minister came who taught Jimmie Fleming.
1930s-1960s. “The use of the term ‘colony’ may sound odd, but it originated with civil servants who entered public service in the 1930s and felt they were doing work similar to the pioneering on the prairies of the nineteenth century. The term disappeared when they retired in the 1960s. See Tester and Kulchyski, Tammarniit (cited in note 134), p. 186. RCAP” ” Tester and Kulchyski, Tammarniit (cited in note 134), p. 111. The authors also caution that the term experiment must be seen in the context of the administrative culture of the day. The civil servants involved in northern administration considered that they were opening up the North in a manner parallel to what had happened on the Prairies following Confederation— (p. 119). Experiment, at least in this context, had noble rather than sinister connotations.” RCAP.
1930s Poor hunting years in the North led to deprivation among the Inuit. (Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec 1980:11). Period of transition between the whaling period and the advent of trading posts.
1930 Bears teeth used as counters.
1930? Maurice was inspired to join the Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson’s Bay Company when the Archbishop of the Arctic visited his school.
1930 On April 7 Edward Beauclerk Maurice, a sixteen and a half year old teenager went to Pulteney House, on Pulteney Road, a large, elegant Victorian house set in its own picturesque south facing gardens, overlooking Bath Abbey, Bath in Somerset county. He was there to sign a contract with the Governor and Company of the Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson’s Bay Company. George Binney was the representative of the Company. The signing of the contract was witnessed by Laura Clifford and Mr. Belmont.
1930 Edward Beauclerk Maurice arrived in Montreal on his way to the Arctic. England Pangnirtung.
1930 Canadian Handicrafts Guild organized an exhibition of Eskimo Arts and Crafts at the McCord Museum in Montreal. The exhibition attracted the attention of the New York Times. (Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec 1980:11)
1931. The “first Catholic mission was established by Father E. Bazin at Avvajja, three kilometres north of Igloolik, in a qarmaq. The great shaman Ituksarjuat and his wife Ataguttaaluk, the last great isumataq (traditional leaders) of Igloolik (Atanarjuat 2002:7).”
1931. Hugh Rowatt was appointed as Commissioner of the Northwest Territories. There were budget cuts due to the Depression. (Parker 1996:28).
1931. Ittuksarjuat converted to Catholicism. He asked to be buried alone on a small island near Igloolik. Ittuksarjuat requested that Inuit “abandon the winter camp of Avvajjaq where bad spirits caused his illness (D’Anglure Atanarjuat 2002:226).”
1932. Ste Therese hospital was built in Chesterfield Inlet in 1932. Source Alexina Kublu Inuit Studies, Nunavut Arctic College.
1933. Sarah Ekoomiak was born in Richmond Gulf on the coast, not far from Kuujjuarapik, Hudson’s Bay. She was the oldest of six children who were born of Charlie Ekomiak and Lucy Menark in the camp of paternal grandfather Jimmie Ekomiak (Fleming) and his wife Annie (name?). Annie was small. The name was supposed to be umiak. Jimmie Ekoomiak Fleming was calling out Umiak! Umiak! So they gave him the name Umiak. Jimmie Ekoomiak died and was buried in Moose Factory cemetery. He was there in 1950s. William Menarick (Willie’s grandfather from his mother’s side). Menarick means smooth. William Menarick is the father of Simon, Caroline (b. strong woman, hunter who walked with a limp, liked Sarah, didn’t want her to get married).
1933-44. In Sarah Ekoomiak’s early childhood years before her mother’s premature death in 1944, her family lived on the land. Her grandfather Jimmie Ekomiak Fleming was camp leader. Grandfather Ekomiak was very skilled. He used to make cord from seal skin with a special knife with a curved blade. He made this cord for the dogsleds. Her father Charlie Ekomiak knew how to do this too. Her grandfather knew how to make fish nets. They fished using nets from canoes in rivers, lakes and James Bay all year round. It was a long net with buoys, a piece of a floating wood. They caught white fish and trout and cod, small fish called Kanayuk (sculpin); [need picture of different kinds of fish] used to fish in spring when ice cracks would open. They fished with a jig with a little handle, stick. Caught cod by jigging. Sarah (b.1933), Annie (b.1935), Maggie (b.1937), Sam (b.1939), Emily (b.1941), William (b.1943) were there when Sarah’s mother was alive until 1944. They moved to Kuujjuarapik. In 1941 or 1942 when Sarah was 8 or 9 they left Kuujjuarapik. They moved outside Kuujjuarapik. They lived in semi-tents with trees branches with moss between and a canvas on top. Spruce branches on the floor. Her mother would change the branches six children and mom and dad; Jimmie Ekoomiak Fleming and with his wife had their own tent. Grandmother Fleming was very strict. We lived in camps a lot. Grandmother Fleming kept all her sewing tools wrapped in a loon skin. Eight-year old Sarah and her grand Aunt Dinah wanted to look at the sewing tools but they knew they weren’t supposed to. Her father Charlie Ekoomiak was a good carver and he carved a doll for Sarah. He used to go away for two weeks at a time. All the men would go. The six children would stay behind with her mother. The children didn’t eat as well when the men were gone. Sometimes her mother would catch a rabbit. Sometimes she would fish. Once when Sarah’s mother was going fishing, she told Sarah to take care of Sammie who was only an infant c. 1940. Sarah was only seven or eight years old. Thsi was before Willie was born. They only had a ptarmigan a little meat. Sarah was told to chew the food before giving it to Sammie. Instead she swallowed it. Sarah felt so bad about this incident that she remembered it in 2004. She told me this story several times. Most of the time she would laugh about it but once their were tears in her eyes. Grandmother Rosie still had a seal oil kudlik to warm her teapot. She used cloth as a wick. She hung her kettle above the kudlik. In the morning it would be so cold and her father would make a fire in the morning. Charlie Ekomiak did carvings and he made harnesses for dogs. He decorated the harnesses with wool. Sarah would make little boots for dogs using a square with a hole and sew them for the dogs’ feet to protect the dogs’ feet in the rough ice. I had experienced that vicarious museum-effect while Sarah Ekomiak told stories of her childhood on the land near Chisasibi, Nunavik in the 1930s. Sarah’s family was semi-nomadic. As they moved from hunting camp to fishing camp, they would sometimes come upon ancient abandoned sites where ancient objects spoke of the people who had passed through here before. They found bones, weapons, the tops of tobacco tin cans recycled for oil lamps and even a narwhal tusk& This was the archives, the museum. When Peter Outridge came to present slides at our home one evening on his Arctic travels, he brought items that were collected from abandoned camps. This sparked Sarah’s memories. Sarah’s mother, Lucie Menarik could speak Cree. The Cree and Charlie Ekomiak camp got along well like a big family. The first time she went to Chisasibi Indians still lived in tents. She remembers them. Some are still living. Claude x 50-year-old lived in Chisasibi and he remembered the Ekomiaks. They shared flour and food with each other. Indians used to have toboggan with all their hunting things. Her father had komatik. They shared whatever they knew. Her aunt married an Indian. She died. They were happy together. They had seven children who are part Inuk and part Cree but now they don’t speak Inuktitut. They were the only Inuit family in Chisasibi. They brought us there to go to school. They got along well with the Cree. They spoke Inuktitut at home and Cree outside. Now in her old community they speak three languages, English too. Sarah’s grandmother taught her how to make good boots because she told her she would need to know how to sew them.
1934. Gold was discovered in Yellowknife. In 1938 the Con mine began production. Two local community supporters were Ingraham, a bootlegger and Giegerich, manager of Consolidated Mining and Smetling Company, now called Cominco. (Parker 1996:28) The Alaska Highway was pushed through BC and the Yukon. The Canol Pipeline was constructed from Norman Wells to Whitehorse through the Mackenzie mountains to carry oil. It was later abandoned. (Parker 1996:29).
1935. In the mid-1930s Atagutaaluk and her husband the shaman chief Ittuksarjuat lived in a qarmaq, a sod or stone house (D’Anglure 2002:222) in Igloolik which was illustrated by her daughter Suzanne Niviarsiat for the publication accompanying the film Atanarjuat (2002:213). Atagutaaluk survived the famine of 1905. A shaman Palluq from Igloolik and Repulse Bay found her. Ittuksarjuat died in. See also 1950 Rousseliere, Guy Mary. 1950. “Monica Ataguttaaluk, Queen of Iglulik.” Eskimo 16:13.
1935-6. Inuit lands and peoples were under the authority of the Department of the Interior, Annual Report 1935-36, p. 36.
1936. The “Department of Indian Affairs was made a branch of the Department of Mines and Resources (1 Ed. VIII Chap. 33). The Indian Affairs Branch was placed under Dr. H.W. McGill as director. The branch included the following components: Field Administration (four inspectors, one Indian Commissioner and one hundred and fifteen agents); Medical Welfare and Training Service (responsible for schools, employment and agricultural projects); Reserves and Trust Service (responsible for land matters and timber disposal); Records Service (responsible for current files and historical material).” http://collections.ic.gc.ca/treaties/text/rec_e_tx.htm
1936. Dr. Charles Camsell was appointed Commissioner of the Northwest Territories. His father was a factor of the Hudson’s Bay Company (Parker 1996:28).
1936. The Hudson’s Bay Company post was established at Igloolik.
1936. Responsibility for Indian Affairs passed to the Minister of Mines and Resources. The position of Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs which was part of the Canadian cabinet from 1867 until 1936, was abolished.
1936. “There was a Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs in the Canadian cabinet from 1867 until 1936 when the Minister of Mines and Resources became responsible for native affairs. In 1950 the Indian Affairs branch was transferred to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, who had responsibility for “registered Indians” until the creation of the position of Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development in 1966. Before 1966 the Northern Development portions of the portfolio were the responsibility of the Minister of Northern Affairs and National Resources.”
1937. The Catholic mission was built on Igloolik Island at Ikpiarjuk near the town of Igloolik.
1938. These were good years of living on the land for Sarah Ekoomiak and her family. She was only five years old. She can remember being tucked into the nose of her father’s kayak and she could see jellyfish, rocks, and fish. She cherishes this memory.
1938 Roman Catholic mission established at Cape Dorset.
1939 The Indian committee of the Canadian Handicrafts Guild was changed to Indian and Eskimo Committee to include the encouragement of Inuit work. Committee members included Alice Whitehall, Dr. Diamond Jenness. The Inuit collection at that time included miniature baskets, a kerosene lamp, fine fur work, walrus tusk ivories including an altar frontal made by the women of Pangnirtung.(Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec 1980:11)
1939 The Supreme Court of Canada ruled the Inuit were entitled to the same health, education and social services as the Indians were granted in the 1876 Indian Act. (Hessel 1998:190)
1939 The Canadian Handicrafts Guild exhibited Bishop Fleming’s Inuit art collection.(Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec 1980:11)
1939. Inuit relocations in the Arctic began in 1939 (Tester and Kulchyski 1994).
1939? Just before she died Sarah Ekoomiak’s paternal grandmother, Rosie (1860s- c.1937) lacked the strength and could no longer work as hard as she wanted. She couldn’t help others so she made a promise that her grandchildren would help others. Greatgrandmother Rosie Fleming was very spiritual. She became agitated because she could not tell her people about God so when she died a cigar-shaped form appeared in the sky writing letters of smoke in the heavens. The Hudson Bay company man could read it but none of the Inuit could. Sarah claims that she saw this so it must have been in the 1930s? when she died? The HBC man changed his religion because it was the only improvement he could think of. He changed from Catholic to Anglican. This happened in Kuujuarapik (Great Whale River).
1939 The Canadian Handicrafts Guild exhibited Bishop Fleming’s Inuit art collection (Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec 1980:11).
1940. Lascaux caves were discovered. Carbon dating provided proof that the human ancestry could be traced much farther back in time than previously understood (Leclerc 1992:36-9).
1940 It was noted in the minutes of the meeting of the Canadian Handicrafts Guild that the art of basketry was practiced in a section of the Ungava region. Basket making had been introduced there c. 1740 by the Moravian missionaries. (Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec 1980:12)
1940s RCMP conducted census of Inuit populations. They assigned the infamous identification numbering system using discs. These disc numbers were dropped during the “Operation Surname” in the 1960s. Canadian government assumed responsibility for Inuit welfare in the late 1940s. (Hessel 1998:8) 1940s. According to Bernard Saladin d’Anglure (2002 Atanarjuat: 225) shamanism was eradicated in the Arctic. An era of intense rivalry between Anglicans and Catholics began ending only in 1962-5 with the Second Vatican Council. Catholic missionaries encouraged Mark Tungilik in Repulse Bay to carve miniature ivories. There was widespread awareness of the threat of atomic bomb in the south. Certitudes in the West were shattered and philosophy was shaken (Leclerc 1992:36-8).
1940s According to Bernard Saladin d’Anglure (2002 Atanarjuat: 225) shamanism was eradicated in the Arctic. An era of intense rivalry between Anglicans and Catholics began ending only in 1962-5 with the Second Vatican Council.,
1940s Catholic missionaries encouraged Mark Tungilik in Repulse Bay to carve miniature ivories.,
1940s There was widespread awareness of the threat of atomic bomb. Certitudes were shattered. Philosophy was shaken (Leclerc 1992:36-8).
1940 -2 RCMP schooner St. Roch completed Northwest Passage from west to east?
1940 -2 Peter Pitseolak (1902 – 1973) experimented with watercolours and collage dressing a magazine image of Clark Gable with Inuit fur clothing. He would go on to become a skilled photographer. (Hessel 1998:25)
1940 – 45 Guild activities were cut back during WWII. (Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec 1980:12)
1941.S. Arneil, Investigation Report on Indian Reserves and Indian Administration, Province of Nova Scotia (Ottawa: Department of Mines and Resources, Indian Affairs Branch, August 1941). RCAP.
1942 Americans constructed the runway at Frobisher Bay (Iqaluit) leading to the employment of a number of Inuit on the US base until the Americans left in 1964. TY Colin for drawing my attention to this omission.
1943. E9-630 Willie Ekomiak was born in Cape Jones on the coast across from Long Island. His mother dropped Willie when he was a baby and he was hurt. His wrist was bleeding very badly and she cried very hard. His mother Lucie Menarik Ekomiak died shortly after that. They were living in camp somewhere out in Kuujjuarapik. Before her mother died Sarah carried Willie on her back. Their mother died when Sarah was still in school. Sarah was the oldest girl. William was born when the family was moving south from Great Whale River to Fort George because Jimmy Ekomiak Fleming wanted his children to go to school. There were no schools farther north. William, his brother Samuel, Sarah, Maggie, Jeannie all went to school in Fort George. Other Inuit families included the Menarick’s, Isaac Fleming’s children. Jimmie Ekomiak Fleming was the camp leader. They lived by the river.
1944. Lucie Menarik Ekomiak, Sarah Ekoomiak and Willie Ekomiak’s mother died. She had bad migraines perhaps from high blood pressure. When she died he was adopted by his Aunt Martha and Uncle Thomas Ekoomiak. There were three or four camps together. Aunt Martha wore a shawl like many women of the time. Their sister Emilie (b.1941) was also adopted out but she was not well cared for so Charlie Ekomiak got her back from Great Whale River Kuujjuarapik. She became William’s favourite playmate. Great Whale River, Kuujjuarapik (by the Inuit) or Whapmagoostui (by the Cree).
1945. “Indian Health Services was transferred from the Department of Mines and Resources to the Department of National Health and Welfare (P.C. 1945-6495). At this time Eskimo Health Services was also transferred from the responsibility of the Northwest Territories Division of Lands, Parks, and Forests Branch. R.A. Hoey was appointed director of Indian Affairs Branch.” http://collections.ic.gc.ca/treaties/text/rec_e_tx.htm
1945-7. Jimmy Ekomiak Fleming moved south so that the children could attend school in Fort George. Sarah Ekoomiak lived in Chisasibi. Sarah Ekoomiak attended school in Fort George. Her grandfather decided that some of the children would attend Anglican school while the others attended the Catholic school. She tried to play with her uncle Elijah Menarik, her mother Lucie’s youngest brother, but it was hard to communicate because he spoke only Cree. They had made up a game using pebbles. Ask her about this. Elijah Menarik (1931-1991) was the youngest of ten children. The others were Lucie (Sarah Ekoomiak’s mother), Moses, Neeala, Johnny, Maggie, Marianne and Elijah. Marianne is still alive but she has developed alzheimers disease. His sister Lucie was Sarah Ekoomiak’s mother. Elijah was brought up with a Cree family with ten children and he could not speak Inuktitut until he was in his late teens. A white teacher Mrs. Heinz, had him sent to Inukjuak when he was 18 or 19 years old so he could learn Inuktitut! Elijah was active in the Co-ops in Iqaluit. He also worked in Inuvik for awhile. Sarah has his story and photo. Elijah’s success led to his alcoholism as every success was celebrated with alcohol. When he was young he worked as an orderly in Moose Factory hospital. His daughter Jeannie, Sarah’s first cousin lives in Africa with her millionaire French husband, originally from Montreal, who made a fortune in aircraft.
1945-61. Oblate missionary Father Franz van de Velde was the only white person in the remote community of Pelly Bay. He encouraged the production and marketing of ivory miniatures and scenes. He sold them through the mail (Hessel 1998:109).
1945 Maurice, at 32 years of age moved to New Zealand, became a bookseller in an English village and never traveled again.
1946 The International Whaling Commission (IWC) began regulating whaling.
1946 Canadian Army’s Arctic military exercise “Operation Muskox” at Baker Lake. Major Cleghorn noted the high quality of carvings in the Keewatin area and suggested this potential developed.
1946. American capitalists began to invest in Canadian companies. Prior to WWII British investors were the principal investors in Canadian companies (Leclerc 1992:36-8).
1946. Barnett Newman (1946) wrote the opening paragraph ‘Northwest Coast Indian Painting’ in an exhibition catalogue for the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York, in which he argued that, “It is becoming more and more apparent that to understand modern art, one must have an appreciation of primitive arts, for just as modern art stands as an island of revolt in the stream of Western European aesthetics, the many primitive art traditions stand apart as authentic accomplishments that flourished without benefit of European history (Cited in Houle 1982:3).” 1946. La philosophie francaise souffrait d’une mise en question. La guerre et l’occupation avait mis fin a l’anti-intellectualisme bergsonien (compromis par une obscrue parante avec l’irrationalisme allemand). En 1946 des hegelians et les existentialists commence a monter.1946 La philosophie francaise professionelle commence a naitre, souverain, temoin et juge exterieur a la vie, distingue par leur distance (la vie spirituelle). (Lefebvre 1958:12).
1946 La philosophie francaise souffrait d’une mise en question. La guerre et l’occupation avait mis fin a l’anti-intellectualisme bergsonien (compromis par une obscrue parante avec l’irrationalisme allemand). En 1946 des hegelians et les existentialists commence a monter.1946 La philosophie francaise professionelle commence a naitre, souverain, temoin et juge exterieur a la vie, distingue par leur distance (la vie spirituelle). (Lefebvre 1958:12),
1947 Dr. Hugh Keenleyside was appointed Commissioner of the Northwest Territories. Under his leadership education, social service and health programs were implemented. (Parker 1996:30),
1947 In connection with Operation Muskox, a weather station was established in Baker Lake.
1947 M.V. Nascopie sinks off Cape Dorset.
1947 The Guild was asked to encourage Inuit in the Ungava region to continue carving as a much needed source of additional income. Hunting was poor, the price of fur was down and the Inuit had proven their gift for carving. The Guild emphasized the need to maintain the artist’s individuality and independence. A one-page letter was sent to northern communities asking them to carve ivory models, brooches, pendants… (Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec 1980:12)
1947 James Houston from Grandmère visited Port Harrison.(Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec 1980:12)
1947. Dr. Hugh Keenleyside was appointed Commissioner of the Northwest Territories. Under his leadership education, social service and health programs were implemented. (Parker 1996:30).
1947. Jock McNiven, manager of Negus mine in Yellowknife, was appointed to the Council of the Northwest Territories. (Parker 1996:30).
1947. Three years after the death of his first wife Lucie, Charlie Ekomiak married Maggie Tootoo (tuktu). William was in the hospital when he was three. He was a chubby baby.
1947. “The Welfare and Training Division was split into a Welfare Division (responsible for welfare, family allowances, Veterans’ Land Act administration, and handicrafts) and an Education Division.” http://collections.ic.gc.ca/treaties/text/rec_e_tx.htm
1947. Henri-Georges Clouzot’s classical film Quai des Orfevres was shown portraying the dance halls and historic crime corridors of 1940s Paris. Various furs — fox furs, sunburst, coats, collars, trim, hats — worn by Jenny Lamour, the ambitious singer with stars in her eyes, in the chilly interiors of poorly heated Parisian buildings, were important ‘actors’ in this classical film.
1947. The western part of the Mackenzie delta area was added to the Yukon Territories. (Parker 1996:30).
1948. Communists took over Czecheslovakia. There was a threat of an iron curtain dividing Europe along a north-south axis. The Cold War began with democratic and communist countries in tension each holding the other in atomic terror (Leclerc 1992:36).
1948. Polio struck the Keewatin region. By 1949 there was a serious epidemic in Chesterfield Inlet. Quarantine was put into affect which included the surrounding regions. Mark Kalluak, wrote about his childhood experience with polio in a 1997 article for Inuktitut magazine.
1948-52. These were the years William Ekomiak (b.1943) remembers as the hungry years. Sarah was between 15 to 19 years old. Willie was between 5 to nine years old.
1949 – 1953 Early years of contemporary period of Inuit art.
1949 The Guild sponsored James Houston’s trip to Povungnitok region in order for him to purchase Inuit arts and crafts.(Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec 1980:12)
1949 Canadian Handicraft Guild of Montreal sale of Inuit art on Peel Street. Guild members C. J. G. Molson (Quebec branch)and Alice Whitehall encouraged James Houston to return north to buy more carvings. This marked the beginning of what art historians call the “contemporary period of Inuit art” (Wenzel 1985:81) The Canadian Handicraft Guild sponsored the James Houston project promoting Inuit carvings in the south. From this time onwards public galleries began small collections of Inuit art (Jessup 1992:xiv)? Confirm?
1949. “Indian Affairs Branch transferred to the Department of Citizenship and Immigration (13 Geo. VI Chap. 16). The administrative structure of the Branch remained virtually unchanged. A Construction and Engineering Service, however, was created. 1948 – Maj. D.M. MacKay appointed director of Indian Affairs Branch.” http://collections.ic.gc.ca/treaties/text/rec_e_tx.htm
1949. Striking of the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences popularly known as the Massey Commission after its Chair, Vincent Massey.
1949-50. The NWT Ennadai Lake Signal Detachment of Operation Muskox? arranged an airlift of the Kazan River Inuit community. The group was in danger of starvation after migrant caribou herds by-passed the area. The Inuit returned the next year and were frequent recipients of the detachment’s medical aid until the detachment closed three years later. In that year there was widespread starvation. Comment: Was there a relationship between the disappearing caribou herds and Operation Muskox?
1949 Molson, C. J. G., Alice Whitehall, et al. 1949. The Guild sponsored James Houston’s trip to Povungnitok region in order for him to purchase Inuit arts and crafts (Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec 1980:12). Canadian Handicraft Guild of Montreal sale of Inuit art on Peel Street. Guild members C. J. G. Molson (Quebec branch) and Alice Whitehall encouraged James Houston to return north to buy more carvings. The Guild held a sale of Inuit art on Peel Street, Montreal marking the beginning of the contemporary period of Inuit art. (Wenzel 1985:81) (1949-53). Montreal, Canadian Handicraft Guild. The Guild sponsored James Houston’s trip to Povungnitok region in order for him to purchase Inuit arts and crafts.(Canadian Guild of Crafts Quebec 1980:12) Canadian Handicraft Guild of Montreal sale of Inuit art on Peel Street. Guild members C. J. G. Molson (Quebec branch) and Alice Whitehall encouraged James Houston to return north to buy more carvings. The Guild held a sale of Inuit art on Peel Street, Montreal marking the beginning of the contemporary period of Inuit art. (Wenzel 1985:81) (1949-53)
1940s – 50s Polio in the North.
1950. Cape Dorset gets a one-room school.
1950. Federal day school opened in Igloolik. Anglican mission established in Igloolik.
1950. From 1850 to 1950 concepts such as Wilderness and North informed Canadian visual and literary arts. See Heath (1983:46).
1950. Heinrich’s (1950) article entitled “Some Present-Day Acculturative Innovations in a Nonliterate Society” published in the American Anthropologist focused on his study of the emergence of the ivory carving as a Diomede Eskimo of Alaska cultural industry. The Inuit innovated and expanded on cultural products for the tourist market.
1950. Hugh Young, a strong army man, was named Commissioner of the Northwest Territories. In 1925 he had established Aklavik as an army signals station (Parker 1996:30).
1950. “In 1950 the Indian Affairs branch was transferred to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, who had responsibility for “registered Indians” until the creation of the position of Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development in 1966. Before 1966 the Northern Development portions of the portfolio were the responsibility of the Minister of Northern Affairs and National Resources.” wikipedia.org.
1950. Inuit first vote in a Canadian election (Alia).
1950. A nursing station was built at Baker Lake.
1950. The “offices of Minister of Mines and Resources and Minister of Reconstruction and Supply were abolished by Statute and the offices of the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Minister of Mines and Technical Surveys and Minister of Resources and Development created and proclaimed in force on 18 Jan. 1950.” wikipedia.
1950. Rousseliere, Guy Mary. 1950. “Monica Ataguttaaluk, Queen of Iglulik.” Eskimo. 16:13.
1950. There were only five galleries advertised in the Montreal Star. By 1972 there were already forty-five. Harold Town graduated from the Ontario College of Art in 1944 was not able to see a single non-figurative painting until 1953. See Withrow (1972:8). Town noted that at that time their were few art teachers because of the war. Town grew up in a rough working-class WASP neighbourhood in Toronto. He worked as commercial illustrator to support his own studio work in the 1940s. His reputation grew when he exhibited with the Painters Eleven in 1952. His work was highly cotés which allowed him to have a comfortable home in Toronto with his family.
1950 A nursing station was built at Baker Lake.
1950s Puvirnituq developed around a HBC post.
1951 Anglican church is built in Cape Dorset.
1951 James Houston visited Pangnirtung and showed crafts and carvings. He noted that the area did not have really good carving stone. But the women could create art with a needle by sewing on their clothing.
1952 Doug Wilkinson produced Land of the Long Day about Joseph Idlout from Pond Inlet, a respected hunter and camp leader.The 1967 two dollar bill depicted a still from the film with Idlout.
1950s Slump in fox fur trade.
1950s In Rankin Inlet some Inuit employed by nickel mine.
1952 Canadian government promotes Inuit art. Akeeaktashuk carvings of Hunter, Bear…
1952 Salluit began its art project and by 1955 70% of the adult population were carving (1998 Hessel).
1953 Pangnirtung used to be largest settlement in the eastern or central Arctic. Famous old center for Scottish whalers. Small hospital. C. D. Howe anchored there. Pannirtung Fjord is particularly beautiful. Mountains are blue, snow capped.
1953 Houston visited Pangnirtung again and saw some enormous Arctic bowheads (Houston, James. 1996:151).
1955 Alma and James Houston settle in Cape Dorset and are active in encouraging carving and handicrafts.
1955 DEW Line was built.
1955. Turquetil Hall residence was opened in 1955(?) in Chesterfield Inlet. Source Alexina Kublu Inuit Studies, Nunavut Arctic College.
1957 – 58 Widespread starvation in the Keewatin area. Back River camps move into Baker Lake.
1957 A federal dayschool opened at Baker Lake. Pre-fabricated subsidized government housing constructed from the mid-1950s. Northern Services Officer Doug Wilkinson encouraged the development of the arts and crafts industry in Baker Lake.
1958 James Houston studies printmaking in Japan.
1958 The Povungnitok Sculptors’ Society formed in 1958 and became the Povungnituk’s Co-operative in 1960 (Myers, M. ).
1959 West Baffin Cooperative first print collection printed in 1959 was shown at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 1960.
1960s Jorgen Meldgaard excavated Palaeo-Eskimo occupations at Igloolik. 1961 Bernard Saladin d’Anglure was shown petroglyphs Dorset sites of the coast of Nunavik.
1961 West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative is incorporated.
1963 Rankin Inlet ceramics project introduced.
1960s The Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Canadian Museum of Civilization (the National Museum of Man) started to collect, research and exhibit Inuit art.
1964 The first ‘matchbox” houses are brought to Cape Dorset. Cape Dorset gets its first telephones.
1969 The S.S.Manhattan, an American icebreaker-tanker made the $40 million northwest passage through Canadian Arctic waters .
1970 Inuit Tapirisat of Canada (ITC) a national political association, formed by Inuit students living in the south. Inuit politics was born. Before the 1970s the co-op was the only organized voice Inuit had. (Myers 1980:139)
1970 Baker Lake’s first print collection published. This was the year after the arrival of southern artists Sheila and Jack Butler. Sanavik Co-operative is incorporated in 1971.
1971 “Arctic Quebec cooperatives combined with the community councils to begin negotiating a form of regional government within the province of Quebec (Myers 1980:143).”
1971 Inuit sculpture showcased in international exhibition, Sculpture/Inuit: Masterworks of the Canadian Arctic(Canadian Eskimo Arts Council). 1970s Igloolik artists begin to produce art in quantities in 1970s.
1973 – 1988 Pangnirtung printmaking co-op is established as a territorial government sponsored project.
1976 The annual Cape Dorset print collection included Pudlo Pudlat’s controversial print entitled Airplane.
1976 “Before 1976 the anti-sealing campaign centered on the need for sound conservation and humane killing practices. After 1976, because of a strong regulatory regime enacted by the Canadian government on species conservation, the issues shifted to a ‘morality of any use of seals’ (Wenzel 1991:47).”
1977 Inuit prints showcased in international exhibition, The Inuit Print/L’estampe Inuit(National Museum of Man, National Museums of Canada).
1977 Inuit Circumpolar Conference adopted Inuit as the designation for all Eskimos, regardless of local usages. (1996) Arctic Perspectives.
1977 Baker Lake print shop, its drawing archives and 1977 print collection are destroyed by fire.
1980 “Inuit arts and crafts generated five million dollars in personal income for Inuit (Myers 1980:141).”
1980 The Macdonald Stewart Art Centre acquired over 400 drawings dating from the 1960s to the 1990s by Canadian Inuit artists.
1980s The National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario begin to collect, research and exhibit Inuit art.
1980s In the 1980s, postcards were distributed to 12 million United States and United Kingdom households depicting the infamous Canadian Atlantic fisher swinging a bat at a baby seal and eliciting an overwhelming emotional response. Major legislative bodies relented to public pressure with a staggering impact on wildlife management. The collapse of the sealskin market marked a victory for protesters who had waged the most effective, international mass media campaign ever undertaken (Ejesiak, Flynn-Burhoe 2005).”
1981 In 1981 ringed seal natisiq provided nearly 2/3 of the edible biomass in Clyde River. In 1982-3 seal was barely half this total (Wenzel 1991:125)
1982 The members of the European Economic Community agreed to a voluntary ban on the importation of seal products and have recently agreed to indefinitely extend this embargo (Wenzel 1985).”
1983 Economy of the North: Until 1983 cash came from seal skins.
1985 “Inuk lawyer Paul Okalik’s arguments for recognition of the seal as mainstay of the Inuit fell on deaf ears in 1985. Today, he speaks as the premier of Nunavut, Canada’s newest territory, a vast region of the central and eastern Arctic covering over a million square miles. Nunavut, which means ”our land,” is the result of decades of deliberations, one of four Canadian Arctic regions involved in self-government negotiations (Ejesiak, Flynn-Burhoe 2005).”
1985 George W. Wenzel wrote an article entitled “Marooned in a Blizzard of Contradictions: Inuit and the Anti-Sealing Movement” in the journal Etudes Inuit Studies in which he argued that “For the past thirty years opponents of commercial sealing, as practiced in Canada have attempted through public, media, and governmental pressures to bring an end to the hunt.” “The 1985 Council of the European Economic Community extended the 1983 ban on imports of all products of the commercial sealhunt. This closed the most important fur fashion market to sealskins and devastated the Canadian sealskin market. It was an impressive victory for animal rights activists. “To Inuit, however, who had gone virtually unnoticed in the general furor of lobbying in the preceding days, it represented not simply the loss of a market but the real problem of maintaining the fabric of their culture in the face of southern domination.” At this time, in 1985, the Royal Commission on Seals and the Sealing Industry was in the midst of hearings on the sealhunt. Canadians hoped that this ‘hard scientific data’ would convince the EEC of the environmental integrity and socioeconomic importance of at least some aspects of sealing.” This was a naive point of view. When the ban was extended no thought was given to the consequences in the lives of 25,000 Inuit. The Inuit had just presented their testimonies to the Royal Commission. These were not heard before the EEC made their decision. In the US and Europe “…anti-sealing waged a ‘public relations battle’ to ‘capture southern hearts and minds’. “The milestones of this war were recorded by the contributions that reached the campaign coffers and the bags of pre-printed IFAW and Greenpeace postcards that inundated the desks of politicians.’ ‘Canada’s Inuit did not choose to be involved in the sealing controversy. To Inuit it was an issue between Qallunat – those Whites who took sealskins for money alone and those to whom this was wrong (Wenzel 1991:3).”
1987 The Macdonald Stewart Art Centre presented its touring exhibition Contemporary Inuit Drawings, the first survey exhibition of drawings by Inuit artists.
1989 First Inuit art exhibition in the National Gallery of Canada’s new building: Pudlo: Thirty Years of Drawing. Pudlo Pudlat attends opening.
1991 George W. Wenzel published Animal Rights, Human Rights: Ecology, Economy and Ideology in the Canadian Arctic. This research which began as a short journal article developed into a book over a ten year period. Much of the data gathered on the Inuit sealhunt was gathered in Clyde River, Baffin Island in the late 1980’s. The US Congress, antifur groups were other ‘sites’ of research. This is the most thorough, the most credible of all the research materials available on the sealhunt.
1992 Pangnirtung’s Uqqurmiut Inuit Artists Association opens its weave shop, built a new print shop and began releasing collections.
1994 Baker Lake Art Symposium, Baker Lake which included the opening of the exhibition Qamanittuaq: Where the River Widens.
1998 First Inuit art history survey textbook published Hessel, Ingo. Inuit Art. He described how more than 4,000 Inuit have made over one million works since the 1940s. (Hessel ix) 35,000 Inuit live in about 50 small communities in the North. (Hessel 1998:9)
1999 April 1, the First Government of Nunavut was formed under Paul Okalik. Over the next five years the Nunavut Government stablished a Unified Court system; Human Rights Act for Nunavut was passed by the Legislative Assembly; Created Inuit Impact Benefit Agreement on Territorial Parks in partnership with NTI; Established major crown corporations: Nunavut Housing Corporation and Qulliq Energy Corporation; Signed a Northern Co-operation Accord with the Northwest Territories and Yukon; Updated and created legislation and policies to reflect the specific needs of Nunavut; Negotiated a protocol with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. on bilateral co-operation. A review of the protocol was conducted and, in light of experience, resulted in the government and NTI agreeing to conduct their working relations in accordance with Iqqanaijaqatigiit (Working Together.) (GN 2004).
2000 Edward Beauclerk Maurice was 87-years-old completing his book on his youthful experience in Canada’s North in the 1930s. He worried about the use of the word Eskimo instead of Inuit. His manuscript was already complete and when he was in the North Eskimo was the term used.
2001. In September 2001, “the Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples commenced hearings to develop An Action Plan for Change: Urban Aboriginal Youth . Upon examination of issues affecting urban Aboriginal youth in Canada, in particular, access, provision and delivery of services, policy and jurisdictional issues, employment and education, access to economic opportunities, youth participation and empowerment and other related matters, the Committee is expected to table its report no later than June 28, 2002. So far, the Committee has held seven meetings and heard evidence from witnesses of the Department of Human Resources Development Canada, the Privy Council Office, Statistics Canada and the Department of Justice Canada.” See SSCAP (2001) http://www.sen.parl.gc.ca/lpearson/htmfiles/hill/22_htm_files/v22_SenateStudy.htm
2001. Inuit elder, artist, cultural worker and activist, Mariano Aupilardjuk was honoured with an Aboriginal Achievement Award in 2001 for his contributions as a bridge between generations, Inuit governance, local residents, on how to use IQ in modern society. In local Rankin Inlet elementary and secondary schools, at NAC, across Canada, advises RCMP, facilitates community and pan-territorial healing, and works with youth to help them acquire land skills.
2002 Bernard Saladin d’Anglure translated Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk’s Sanaaq, a fictional account of a woman in Nunavik who was born in the 1930s.
2002 E/IS. 2002. “Etudes Inuit Studies: Contents of “Inuit and Qallunaaq Perspectives: Interacting Points of View”.” 26 1. http://www.fss.ulaval.ca/etudes-inuit-studies/lastissu.HTML
2003 “Climate change is eroding the role Inuit elders play in their communities because it makes their traditional knowledge unreliable, elders told researchers at a workshop on global warming last week in Kangiqsujuaq (Nelson 2003).”
2004 The ICC got the idea of petitioning the Commission from the compelling scientific evidence of the Artic Climate Impact Assessment (Watt-Cloutier 2004).
2004 Wayne Govereau, Population and Public Health, Dept. of Health and Social Services, Government of Nunavut, Iqaluit, Nunavut was investigator for the Nunavut. Dept. of Health and Social Service for a research project entitled, “Monitoring temporal trends of human environmental contaminants in the NWT and Nunavut : Inuvik and Baffin regions.” “The Nunavut Department of Health and Social Services with support from the Northern Contaminants Program is delivering a program which measures levels of environmental contaminants in the blood and hair of volunteer pregnant women from the Baffin region. The overall goal of this program is to establish a time trend of selected environmental contaminants in human blood and hair in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. The results from this study will strengthen national and international efforts to limit the global pollution that affects northern people. Information collected about lifestyle during pregnancy will help to explain relationships between lifestyle and exposure to environmental contaminants, and to promote healthy babies and pregnancies in Nunavut. The study will involve the recruitment of pregnant women in Iqaluit once they arrive to give birth. Women will be asked to answer some questions about lifestyle and diet during pregnancy. Participants will be asked to sign a consent form agreeing to provide a hair sample, a sample of their blood and blood from their umbilical cord after it has been cut. The blood sample will be collected during a scheduled blood draw, and will not involve and risk or discomfort beyond what is normally experienced. During the recruitment process, women can decide whether they wish to sign a consent form agreeing to also participate in Phase 2 of the study in 2005/2006. Phase 2 involves follow up with their infants at 6 months of age. This follow up will involve tests to assess if prenatal exposure to contaminants has effected infant development. Communication is an important part of this monitoring program. Communication activities will be ongoing with communities, stakeholders and participants throughout the program (ASTIS 2007).”
2004 Kativik Regional Government and Laval University signed an agreement resulting in the creation Nunivaat Nunavik statistics program which provides updated statistics and research reports. Nunivaat now has a database of information at www.nunivaat.org.
2005 “Over 100 dignitaries, family and friends were on hand at the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut as The Honourable Ann Meekitjuk Hanson was sworn in as the third Commissioner of Nunavut on April 21, 2005. In an emotional ceremony, Elders, the Premier of Nunavut, Members of the Legislative Assembly, federal representatives, and honored guests applauded as Ann Meekitjuk Hanson was appointed to the post. She was sworn-in officially and signed the oath of office with Senator Willie Adams presiding, as the representative of the Government of Canada, which officially appointed her to the post [. . .] Commissioner Hanson is the 3rd official Commissioner of Nunavut, following Helen Mamayaok Maksagak and Peter Taqtu Irniq (GN 2005 ).”
2005 Rodolfo Stavenhagen, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people of Canada reported to the Commission on Human Rights that, “In Nunavut, the existing social housing units are among the oldest, smallest and mostcrowded in Canada. There is a severe housing shortage in Nunavut that adversely affects the health of Inuit, in particular of children, and it is estimated that 3,500 new units are needed over the next five years. The overall health of Inuit continues to lag far behind that of other Canadians. Life expectancy is 10 years lower than the rest of Canada. Many health indicators are getting worse. Arctic research shows that changes in traditional diets lead to increased health problems,particularly of mental health, characterized by increased rates of depression, seasonal affective disorder, anxiety and suicide. Inuit leaders are deeply concerned that the housing, education,health and suicide situation have reached crisis proportions and are not being addressed by the federal Government (Stavenhagen 2005:#38-39).”
2006 Gérard Duhaime of Laval university, produced a socio-economic profile of Nunavik.
2007-03-29 Kirt Ejesiak of Iqaluit was chosen to represent Nunavut for the federal Liberals. “Ejesiak, a Fulbright Scholar, has a masters of public administration degree from Harvard, making him the first Inuk to hold a post-secondary degree from the American university. Before going to Harvard, he had served as an Iqaluit city councillor and deputy mayor, and was Premier Paul Okalik’s principal secretary.He is currently CEO and creative director of Uqsiq Communications, an Iqaluit-based multimedia communications firm, as well as managing partner of the Gallery by the Red Boat, an art gallery in Apex (CBC 2007).”
2007-09-25 Indian and Northern Affairs minister Chuck Strahl visited Iqaluit, Nunavut Tuesday, where he announced $17 million in new funding for International Polar Year projects. The money funds 10 research projects, and includes $7 million to study the impact of climate change on the Arctic tundra and $2.5 million to study the changing sub-Arctic treeline.
2007-10-04 A researcher with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Gary Stern, presenting at the northern contaminants workshop in Lake Louise, Alberta, admits that the levels of mercury particularly in the Arctic Ocean have risen over the last fifteen years and indeed have been linked to health problems such as birth defects and cancer. In spite of that however, he contends that the benefits of eating caribou, whale (beluga) or ring seals as a rich source of vitamins and nutrition are greater than the risks. He also admits that more studies must be done to reveal the sources of mercury contamination which are particularly high in Arctic birds, beluga and ringed seals (CBC 2007-10-05).
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