The recent demographic shift, sparked by a combination of political and environmental forces, towards urbanization in the Canadian Arctic has uprooted a tie to the land that largely defines Inuit cultural identity. The transition of Iqaluit from a seasonal camp to the capital city of Nunavut has been swift, forcing residents to find their place between tradition and modernity, land and city. Though the populations of Nunavut communities are predominantly Inuit, many Inuit maintain a rather negative view of urban spaces in the Arctic, identifying them as places where Inuit values and practices have been eclipsed by Qallunaat (“white people”) values. While Inuit identity weighs heavily on a connection to the land, the spatial organization of Iqaluit ignores the opportunistic proximity of the urban centre to Frobisher Bay. Similarly, individual buildings often are designed as though sunlight, wind, and snow did not exist. This follows a historical trend of poor and imported design in the Canadian Arctic; design which does not properly serve the needs and aspirations of its inhabitants. Architecture which fails to serve Iqaluit’s distinctiveness undermines the ambitions of the territory. The creation of Nunavut in 1999 was to be an expression of Inuit self-determination, yet the territory is unable to meet the needs of its 33,000 inhabitants. Nunavut remains fiscally dependent, with 92% of its annual revenue coming from the federal government. Due to a lack of infrastructure and training opportunities, agency for social and economic growth remains weak. By leveraging expanding natural resource based industries, Iqalungmiut – the people of Iqaluit – have the potential to shape a more economically autonomous future using their cultural and environmental resources. Understanding how infrastructure can support the visions Iqalungmiut maintain for their community is crucial in a place where shortsighted developments threaten a unique way of life. The thesis proposes an urban facility in Iqaluit to support and promote what is currently a primarily informal subsistence economy. Animal processing, food and craft production, and training are accommodated in this new building typology. The proposal, while enabling Iqalungmiut to participate more actively in the economy, also applies regional cultural and environmental processes in an attempt to avoid some of the mistakes of the past. A congruent soft system infrastructure is proposed to aid in the collection of raw materials across the region. Taking cue from Iqaluit’s vernacular, mobile structures respond to the seasonal rhythms of Nuna – the land – and its people. The design harnesses traditional activities through a range of economic scales to find new spatial and programmatic models for a place in transition.

The recent demographic shift, sparked by a combination of political and environmental forces, towards urbanization in the Canadian Arctic has uprooted a tie to the land that largely defines Inuit cultural identity. The transition of Iqaluit from a seasonal camp to the capital city of Nunavut has been swift, forcing residents to find their place between tradition and modernity, land and city. Though the populations of Nunavut communities are predominantly Inuit, many Inuit maintain a rather negative view of urban spaces in the Arctic, identifying them as places where Inuit values and practices have been eclipsed by Qallunaat (“white people”) values. While Inuit identity weighs heavily on a connection to the land, the spatial organization of Iqaluit ignores the opportunistic proximity of the urban centre to Frobisher Bay. Similarly, individual buildings often are designed as though sunlight, wind, and snow did not exist. This follows a historical trend of poor and imported design in the Canadian Arctic; design which does not properly serve the needs and aspirations of its inhabitants. Architecture which fails to serve Iqaluit’s distinctiveness undermines the ambitions of the territory. The creation of Nunavut in 1999 was to be an expression of Inuit self-determination, yet the territory is unable to meet the needs of its 33,000 inhabitants. Nunavut remains fiscally dependent, with 92% of its annual revenue coming from the federal government. Due to a lack of infrastructure and training opportunities, agency for social and economic growth remains weak. By leveraging expanding natural resource based industries, Iqalungmiut – the people of Iqaluit – have the potential to shape a more economically autonomous future using their cultural and environmental resources. Understanding how infrastructure can support the visions Iqalungmiut maintain for their community is crucial in a place where shortsighted developments threaten a unique way of life. The thesis proposes an urban facility in Iqaluit to support and promote what is currently a primarily informal subsistence economy. Animal processing, food and craft production, and training are accommodated in this new building typology. The proposal, while enabling Iqalungmiut to participate more actively in the economy, also applies regional cultural and environmental processes in an attempt to avoid some of the mistakes of the past. A congruent soft system infrastructure is proposed to aid in the collection of raw materials across the region. Taking cue from Iqaluit’s vernacular, mobile structures respond to the seasonal rhythms of Nuna – the land – and its people. The design harnesses traditional activities through a range of economic scales to find new spatial and programmatic models for a place in transition.

This thesis seeks to identify the mosaic, rather than the monolithic, nature of culture contact by integrating historical and archaeological sources relating to the concept of gender roles, as they influence response within a contact situation. Specifically, I examine how the Inuit gender system structured artifact patterning in Inuit-European contact situations through the investigation of three Inuit sites in Frobisher Bay, Baffin Island. These date from the 16th, 19th and early 20th centuries and represent a variety of seasonal occupations and dwelling forms. / The ethnographic data suggest that Inuit gender relations were egalitarian and complementary. On this basis I hypothesize that European goods and materials were used equally by men and women. Within each gendered set of tasks, European goods and materials were differently used, according to empirically functional criteria such as the nature of the tasks. / Opportunities for and responses to European contact differed depending on the types of tasks in which Inuit women and men engaged and the social roles they played. Seasonality of occupation bears upon the archaeological visibility of gender activities. / Sixteenth-century Elizabethan contact did not alter Nugumiut gender roles, tasks, authority or status but served primarily as a source of raw material, namely wood and iron. Based on the analysis of slotted tools I suggest a refinement to take account of the overlap in blade thickness that occurs for metal and slate, and which depends on the function of the tool. I conclude that there was much more metal use by Thule Inuit than previously believed. However, during Elizabethan contact and shortly afterwards there was actually less metal use by the Nugumiut than in the prehistoric era. / Little archaeological evidence was recovered for 19th-century commercial whaling contact, (suggesting geographic marginality to European influence), or for 19th century Inuit occupation in the area. This is partly because of immigration to Cumberland Sound and because of subsequent structural remodelling of the dwellings by later occupants. / By the early 20th century, the archaeological record showed not only equal use of European material across gender but a near-ubiquitous distribution across most activity classes, even though commercial trapping never replaced traditional subsistence pursuits but only supplemented them.

No description available.

Iqaluit, capitale territoriale et plaque tournante du transport aérien dans l’est de l’Arctique canadien, possède un aéroport en mauvais état et mal adapté à l’augmentation prévue du trafic aérien pour les prochaines années. En effet, la piste, les voies d’accès et le tarmac sont endommagés par des processus de fissuration, d’effondrement et d’affaissement. Le présent travail vise, à l’aide de l’analyse des données climatiques et du régime thermique du pergélisol, de la cartographie des dépôts de surface et des formes associées au pergélisol, de la cryostratigraphie et de l’analyse de documents d’archives, à localiser les secteurs et les causes des problèmes géotechniques de l’aéroport. Les résultats obtenus confirment que les conditions initiales du terrain ont un impact considérable sur la stabilité actuelle des infrastructures. De plus, la présence de l’infrastructure elle-même a pour effet de modifier les conditions de surface entraînant un ajustement du régime thermique du pergélisol à ces nouvelles conditions.

Les pratiques de l’écriture à Iqaluit, la capitale du Nunavut, et à Igloolik, une plus petite communauté au nord de la région de Baffin, mettent en scène la gestion quotidienne du bilinguisme chez les locuteurs du nouveau territoire. Depuis l’apprentissage du syllabique jusqu’aux sites de socialisation sur Internet, des expériences individuelles sont présentées et explicitent le contexte et les attitudes linguistiques qui gouvernent les choix de langue en fonction du mode d’expression. Le caractère marginal de l’écriture en langue inuit ressort nettement dans ce portrait des pratiques, quelle que soit la vitalité de la langue à l’oral. Cette restriction sur l’épanouissement de l’inuktitut dans tous les domaines possibles d’utilisation fragilise l’équilibre d’une nécessaire relation de complémentarité avec l’anglais. Une étude de la situation linguistique au Groenland laisse entrevoir une autre réalité, ce qui suscite plusieurs questionnements. La diversité dialectale, l’expérience d’urbanisation, les dynamiques économiques et les mobilisations identitaires influencent les pratiques de l’écriture. Les conséquences quant à l’effort de promotion de la langue inuit en sont tirées. Mots clés : écriture syllabique, Nunavut, langue inuit. / Literacy practices in Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, and Igloolik, a smaller community located in the northern Baffin region, illustrate the daily management of bilingualism by the speakers of the new territory. From the learning of syllabics to social networking sites, a large range of individual experiences is discussed. They contextualize linguistic attitudes, which determine language choice according to the mode of expression. The marginality of Inuit language literacy is readily perceived in this portrait of practices, regardless of the vitality that the language may show orally. These limitations on the expansion of Inuktitut, in all possible domains of use, weaken the balance of an unavoidable complementary relationship with English. A study of the linguistic situation in Greenland shows a different reality, which raises several questions. Dialect diversity, lived experiences of urbanization, economical dynamics and identity mobilizations all have an influence on literacy practices. Conclusions are then drawn about the promotion of the Inuit language. Keywords: syllabic literacy, Nunavut, Inuit language.

Historic and future extreme precipitation and wind events over southern Baffin Island, more specifically Iqaluit, Kimmirut, Pangnirtung and Cape Dorset are examined. Two sets of modeled re-analysis data, the Canadian Regional Climate Model (CRCM) forced with European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Regional Analysis 40 (ERA40) and the other the North American Regional Re-analysis (NARR) dataset were used to characterize the atmosphere during historic events. Two sets of CRCM data forced with Canadian Global Climate Model (CGCM) data, one from 1961-1990 and the other from 2041-2070, are compared to assess the changes in extreme events in the future. Extreme events were defined by daily precipitation and sustained wind thresholds. Based on the CRCM future projection, events were inferred to increase in intensity for all communities and increase in frequency for 3 of the 4 communities. A shift in the Arctic storm season was also inferred in the future projection.

Historic and future extreme precipitation and wind events over southern Baffin Island, more specifically Iqaluit, Kimmirut, Pangnirtung and Cape Dorset are examined. Two sets of modeled re-analysis data, the Canadian Regional Climate Model (CRCM) forced with European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Regional Analysis 40 (ERA40) and the other the North American Regional Re-analysis (NARR) dataset were used to characterize the atmosphere during historic events. Two sets of CRCM data forced with Canadian Global Climate Model (CGCM) data, one from 1961-1990 and the other from 2041-2070, are compared to assess the changes in extreme events in the future. Extreme events were defined by daily precipitation and sustained wind thresholds. Based on the CRCM future projection, events were inferred to increase in intensity for all communities and increase in frequency for 3 of the 4 communities. A shift in the Arctic storm season was also inferred in the future projection.

Thèse (M.A.)--Université Laval, 1999. / Comprend des réf. bibliogr.

Planning for transportation within northern Canadian communities presents unique challenges, but new research tools offer opportunities for testing potentially innovative solutions that might help improve mobility within these communities. In particular, problem solving has been enriched in recent years by using the spatial modeling methods offered by Geographical Information Systems (GIS). This thesis first reviews various GIS methods before applying one method – the ‘Route Utility Theory’ – to a newly-developed set of metrics for determining the cost of alternate modes of intracommunity transportation. This set of metrics is applied to a data set that represents the trips or journeys made by non-car users in Iqaluit, the capital city of Nunavut Territory. GIS data on roads, walking trails, land contours, and public and residential neighbourhoods are analyzed. The results facilitate comparisons between road options and trail options for improving the movement of people within Iqaluit. Five bus routes were then custom designed and compared using the study’s metrics. The study found that increasing bus and trail options within Iqaluit would provide more efficient options for non-car users. It is argued that the study’s metrics can be adapted for application in other northern communities, and possibly in other isolated and rural communities in different world situations. / Graduate