Our communities are among the most culturally resilient in North America. Roughly 60 percent of Inuit report an ability to conduct a conversation in Inuktut the Inuit language , and our people harvest country foods such as seal, narwhal and caribou to feed our families and communities.
This affects how our population interacts with the policies, programs and services targeting Inuit. Our population is also increasingly urban: more than 3, Inuit live in Ottawa alone. Despite our small population, Inuit communities have produced world renowned musicians and artists and our leaders have helped advance the global struggle for Indigenous self-determination and human rights. Today Inuit occupy a number of professions in the arts, medical field, government and academia.
T hese are some of the assets that reflect the resilience and potential of our people. However despite these positive characteristics too many Inuit face persisting social and economic hardship. Many families are struggling to meet their basic needs in areas such as safety, housing, and getting enough food to eat. Statistics and research paint a distressing picture of our society, in which too many people are struggling with violence and trauma.
The social and cultural challenges that exist today can similarly be undone in large part through policies that support and empower Inuit institutions, families and communities. There are four Inuit regions in Canada, collectively known as Inuit Nunangat. Inuit consider the land, water, and ice, of our homeland to be integral to our culture and our way of life. The Inuvialuit region comprises the northwestern part of the Northwest Territories. In , the Inuvialuit, federal and territorial governments settled a comprehensive land claims agreement, giving Inuvialuit surface and subsurface mining rights to most of the region.
The Agreement ensures environmental protection, harvesting rights and Inuvialuit participation and support in many economic development initiatives. With a population of approximately 1,, Inuvik is the largest community in the region and is also the regional administrative center. Economic conditions in the Inuvialuit region focus on oil and gas development, diamond mining and transportation, but the region is also on the verge of significant economic development in the construction of a major natural gas pipeline.
Inuvialuit speak Inuvialuktun The Inuit of this region are known as Inuvialuit and their mother tongue is Inuvialuktun, one of several dialects of the Inuit language. The name change acknowledges the distinction of the Labrador region of the province.
The Inuit region of Labrador is called Nunatsiavut. Approximately 2, Inuit live along the Labrador coast, primarily in five communities. Nain is the biggest Inuit community in Labrador, and is also the administrative center, with a population of 1, Signing up enhances your TCE experience with the ability to save items to your personal reading list, and access the interactive map.
For approximately 4, years, Indigenous people have inhabited Nunavik, including Inuit who have made the region their homeland. For more than 4, years, people such as the ancient Thule and Inuit have lived a nomadic life above the 55th parallel in what is now known as the province of Quebec. In , through the Quebec Boundaries Extension Act , the Canadian government ceded the whole district of Ungava to the province of Quebec.
From the s to the s, the creation of administrative structures, the implementation of governmental services such as education, health and social assistance, the establishment of military installations, and the development of mining and hydroelectric projects forced the Inuit to settle in permanent communities.
The Anglican bishop often acted as their political spokesperson. In , without consulting the Inuit and Cree , the Quebec government announced a major hydroelectric development project, the James Bay Project. The ruling went in their favour but was quickly overturned by an appeals court. It was considered the first modern Indigenous land claims settlement in Canada. This ownership included both surface and subsurface rights. Communities depend on air transportation year-round. Kuujjuaq is the largest community and the administrative centre.
Inuktitut is the mother tongue of 87 per cent of the population and 62 per cent of Nunavimmiut Inuit from Nunavik are under the age of Anglican is the predominant religion. For millennia, the Inuit culture was orally passed down to the next generation. Today, since contact and relocation, Elders now see themselves as the holders and teachers of their language and values, as they only form about 2 per cent of the Inuit population.
They also have a voice in research, as they have seen the rapid climatic changes to the land and animals. Knowledge of the land, importance and continuance of family structures, and rites of passage is just one of the contributions Elders make to maintaining Inuit communities today, using an oral tradition.
This diagram highlights Inuit knowledge sila of the movement of resources and changes to the land and sea. This knowledge is passed on through oral traditions and time spent on the land. With the resettlement of Inuit to different areas of the Arctic in the s, this knowledge was disrupted. Research on and revitalization of knowledge and traditions are ongoing. The resulting Pan Inuit Trails [3] is an interactive atlas that is a knowledge repository and an assertion of Inuit sovereignty.
There are numerous dialects of Inuktitut, with varying levels of speaker fluency. Dialects are nuances in a language that reflect a specific location and community. Today, each regional governance organization supports language learning in schools and communities to continue the use of the language in everyday life.
There are two styles of Inuktitut writing: syllabics and Roman orthography.
0コメント