Background: Food nourishes us, sustains us, and has the potential to both heal us and make us sick. Among many Indigenous cultures, traditional activities, ceremonies, events and practices often involve or use food, grounding Indigenous peoples within the context of their local, natural surroundings. This suggests that food is important not only for physical health, but also emotional, mental and spiritual health. The relationships that Indigenous peoples have with food can help us to understand the health of individuals, and the communities in which they live. Purpose: The following qualitative study explores how three generations of adults who live in one Labrador Inuit-Metis community experience and understand their relationships to food in a context of global change. Theoretical Orientation: The research is guided by Two-Eyed Seeing. Two-Eyed Seeing acknowledges that there are many different ways of seeing and understanding the world, some of which can be encompassed through a ‘Western eye’ and some through an ‘Indigenous eye.’ If we learn to see through both eyes, we can gain a perspective that looks very different than if we only view the world through a single lens. Methods: For the study, twenty-four people from the south-eastern Labrador community of St. Lewis participated in individual and joint story-telling sessions. A group story-telling session also took place where community members could share their stories with one another. During many of the story-telling sessions, participants shared photographs, which helped to illustrate their relationships to food. Findings/Discussion: Historically, the people of St. Lewis relied almost entirely upon their own wherewithal for food, with few, if any, government services available and very little assistance from the market economy. This fostered and upheld an Inuit-Metis culture that promoted sharing, reciprocity and respect for the natural world. Currently, greater access to government services and the market economy has led to the creation of certain policies and programs that undermine or ignore established social and cultural norms in the community. Conclusions: Existing Inuit-Metis knowledge should work alongside non-Indigenous approaches to policy and program development. This would serve to protect and promote the health of both individuals and communities.

With recent increases in mineral prices, the Canadian Arctic has experienced a dramatic upswing in mining development and exploration. The communities living in close proximity to proposed mining are poised to experience dramatic change in the face of industrial development and an injection of wage employment. With the development of the Meadowbank gold mine, the nearby Hamlet of Baker Lake, Nunavut is currently experiencing these changes firsthand. In response to an invitation from the Hamlet of Baker Lake, this research seeks to document Baker Lake residents’ experiences with the Meadowbank mine. During two months of fieldwork in 2010 and 2011, these experiences - manifest in stories, opinions and concerns - were recorded. It is evident that the community has changed with the opening of the mine. The employment rates and income have increased, and there have been resulting decreases in food insecurity, increases in hunting participation and increased hope for the future of Baker Lake. However, these outcomes are not felt homogeneously across the community; indeed, residents’ experiences with mining have been mixed. Beyond this core finding, the research suggests four further notable insights. First, employment has provided the opportunity for people to elevate themselves out of welfare/social assistance, provide for their families and pay down debts. Second, the pursuit of high school and post-secondary education has become more common, but some students are leaving high school to pursue mine work. Third, local businesses are benefiting from mining contracts, but this is generally limited to those companies that had the capital and equipment in place before the mine; economic diversification and the development of small business have been minimal. Finally, varied individual experiences are in part generated by an individual’s context; that is, the experience of the mine is conditioned by personal context (finances, education, family, personal history) and personal choices (e.g. alcohol vs. debt repayment, unskilled mine employment vs. education/training). The documentation of these experiences is useful not just for our understating of mining’s impacts on Aboriginal communities, but also for the efforts of the Hamlet of Baker Lake and higher government authorities to develop mitigation measures including niche programs.

Economic data concerning the costs and benefits of Inuit subsistence in the Igloolik region of Nunavut were collected during the summer of 1992. The purpose of the research was to develop a method of valuation to showcase the high "profit", in economic terms, that harvested country food provides. / Wildlife harvesting in Inuit communities represents a traditional way of life which is threatened by the increasing expansion of wage employment, industrial development and the availability of store bought food. However, rather than having a marginalizing effect, these changes make subsistence hunting an essential economic activity. / This thesis develops a method to measure the harvest of country food through a dollar value standard thus quantifying the real economic benefits of Inuit subsistence. The value of harvested food can then be compared economically to store bought food. This comparison shows that subsistence hunting provides Inuit with a relatively inexpensive food source, equivalent to $6 million of income ``in kind'' per community in the Baffin Region. In this era of store bought food and wage employment, Inuit communities remain economically and socially integrated through subsistence hunting. Without harvesting, northern communities would be culturally and nutritionally poorer than at any time in the past.

No description available.

Sailivik is a story about the evolutionary process of planning a mental healing retreat for the Inuit of Pangnirtung, Nunavut. The story is created through community consultation related to site selection, development of program and facility lists, initial site planning, and the building of a qammaq. It offers insights to methods of community work, Inuit landscape preferences, contemporary Inuit culture, and the land-based nature of sociological and psychological healing in an Inuit context. Further, any ideas of a finite outcome are challenged as the project continues to evolve and grow with further community efforts.

No description available.

No description available.

Sailivik is a story about the evolutionary process of planning a mental healing retreat for the Inuit of Pangnirtung, Nunavut. The story is created through community consultation related to site selection, development of program and facility lists, initial site planning, and the building of a qammaq. It offers insights to methods of community work, Inuit landscape preferences, contemporary Inuit culture, and the land-based nature of sociological and psychological healing in an Inuit context. Further, any ideas of a finite outcome are challenged as the project continues to evolve and grow with further community efforts.

This thesis discusses the impact of the snowmobile on the Inuit society in northern Canada and more specifically in Kangiqsualujjuaq (Nunavik). By drawing the portrait of traditional and modern habits of mobility, it is possible to understand the influence of the snowmobile--considered as micro-technology--on the fundamental structures of the Inuit society. More generally, the research illustrates the evolution of the means of transportion starting from the pre-contact period to the 1990's. / Westernization of the Inuit society is not the consequence of only one item but the combination of many. Even if it is difficult to evaluate the influence of a particular technology on a cultural system, snowmobile has had an important impact on the social, cultural and economic values of the Inuit society. The results of the introduction of this vehicle are not only the consolidation of the westernization way of living, because the snowmobile also gives to the Inuit society, the technology needed to practice traditional activities in a contemporary context.

Thesis (M.Sc.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, Faculty of Medicine, 2001. / Typescript. Bibliography: leaves 203-220. Also available online.