This dissertation considers the contemporary place of history in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. The political evolution of Nunavut has led to a situation in which incoming archaeology projects must justify their research according to standards of benefit and relevance to Inuit people. Archaeology is desired to function within a framework of "Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit"—more popularly known as IQ, or Inuit traditional knowledge—so as to foster the survival of Inuit culture and traditions in the modern world. As a result of this mandate, Arctic archaeology has been forced to re-position its research in relation to community engagement, social and political landscapes, and Inuit production of historical meaning. Through a series of interviews and ethnographic case studies in the Nunavut municipality of Cambridge Bay, this research asks how the application of a community-based approach can help archaeologists and Inuit create a hybridized, or "parallel", form of archaeological engagement that furthers community wellness and the creation of more nuanced history-based identities. I argue that by shifting the practice of archaeology into local frameworks of experience and learning, resulting research can create new archaeological awareness regarding the nature of Nunavummiut memory and community, while at the same time meeting territorial desires for historical investigation to be conducted in a manner both inspired by, and compatible with, concepts of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.

This dissertation considers the contemporary place of history in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. The political evolution of Nunavut has led to a situation in which incoming archaeology projects must justify their research according to standards of benefit and relevance to Inuit people. Archaeology is desired to function within a framework of "Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit"—more popularly known as IQ, or Inuit traditional knowledge—so as to foster the survival of Inuit culture and traditions in the modern world. As a result of this mandate, Arctic archaeology has been forced to re-position its research in relation to community engagement, social and political landscapes, and Inuit production of historical meaning. Through a series of interviews and ethnographic case studies in the Nunavut municipality of Cambridge Bay, this research asks how the application of a community-based approach can help archaeologists and Inuit create a hybridized, or "parallel", form of archaeological engagement that furthers community wellness and the creation of more nuanced history-based identities. I argue that by shifting the practice of archaeology into local frameworks of experience and learning, resulting research can create new archaeological awareness regarding the nature of Nunavummiut memory and community, while at the same time meeting territorial desires for historical investigation to be conducted in a manner both inspired by, and compatible with, concepts of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.

This thesis examined three different research questions to help build a knowledge base for future intervention strategies by better understanding the reasons behind smoking among pregnant women in Nunavut. The first study focused more at the individual level and investigates clinical and socioeconomic factors and their relationship to readiness to quit smoking. The second manuscript moved beyond the individual level to the broader social and structural environment to identify a broader range of barriers and facilitators to smoking and smoking cessation among Inuit women. This second manuscript draws upon in-depth interviews focusing on perceptions of smoking, and perceived barriers and facilitators of smoking behaviours. Finally, the third manuscript investigated the perspectives of health care providers regarding the barriers and facilitators of smoking cessation for pregnant women in the Baffin Region of Nunavut and describes perceptions of smoking cessation resources available to health care providers in the Baffin Region.

This thesis examines the use and promotion of shamanic themes in contemporary Canadian Inuit art, being the principle venue in which Inuit identity is presented to non-Inuit in Canada and internationally. The image of Inuit identity promoted through the arts since the mid-twentieth century is arguably the product of non-Inuit state authorities, but Inuit artists themselves are increasingly asserting their voice in their arts and crafts, thereby challenging the image of Inuit identity to non-Inuit. This project first problematizes the history of contemporary Inuit art, where the construction of Inuit identity was heavily prescribed, and then turns to the shifts occurring in Inuit art to highlight the process of identity construction and the agency of Inuit within it. In the process, this project challenges the static conceptualization of minority identities in diverse societies by both state authorities and majority populations. This dissertation contends that Inuit art and identity are fluid concepts and there must be an emphasis made to permit for their fluidity, to avoid affirming a static minority identity in a diverse society, whether in the public or state forums. Consequently, the effort to assert the authenticity of these intangible concepts is contrary to the ideals of diversity and equality promoted in Canada.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) is an emerging problem among Inuit of Circumpolar Countries. However, Canadian Inuit health surveillance data are limited. Data from the Nunavik Health Survey were used to evaluate the prevalence of overweight and obesity using the observed body mass index (BMIob) and the standardized BMI adjusted for sitting height (BMIstd). Also, data from Pangnirtung, Nunavut in the Baffin Region pilot health screening were used to evaluate anthropometric correlates of indices of insulin resistance. Obesity among the Nunavik study population (29.8%) is more prevalent than among general Canadians (23.1%), but the prevalence rates are more comparable when using BMIstd (21.5%). In Pangnirtung, anthropometric measures BMIob, BMIstd, waist circumference and percent body fat were associated with indices of insulin resistance/sensitivity (p ≤ 0.05). BMIstd showed similar results to BMIob and does not better predict the indices of insulin resistance/sensitivity.

The settlement of the Nunavut land claim in 1993 followed closely by the enactment of the Nunavut territorial legislation in 1999 were significant historical events for all aboriginal peoples in Canada. The newly formed public government made a commitment to have Inuit traditional knowledge, language, and culture as the foundation of "all we do". This commitment provides the starting point for the present study, which explores how the role of Inuit language and culture is constructed within the curricula and practices of Nunavut schooling. / Data were generated from dialogue with Nunavut teachers and with authors of the Inuuqatigiit curriculum. In order to interpret the interview texts, a discourse analysis was undertaken using James Gee's ideas of situated meanings, cultural models, and discourses at work within them in relation to the Nunavut schooling context. This analysis was informed by a critical review of government and academic texts related to northern education policy. / Thesis (PhDEducation)--University of South Australia, 2006.

Thèse (M.A.) -- Université Laval, 2007. / Bibliogr.: f. 106-114. Publié aussi en version électronique dans la Collection Mémoires et thèses électroniques.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Alberta, 2000. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis examines human-fish relations as an under-theorised site of colonial engagement in the Inuvialuit hamlet of Paulatuuq, Northwest Territories in arctic Canada. By exploring the various articulations of human-fish relations in the community, I investigate how this particular interface serves as a locus for local expressions of an Indigenous legal order, one that enmeshes humans and fish in relationships that are asserted by Paulatuuqmiut (Paulatuuq people), in dynamic and complex ways, as what I gloss as fish pluralities. I argue that fish are agents who are impacted by, who bear witness and are responsive to, and in some cases, even shape aspects of colonialism in northern Canada. I demonstrate that Paulatuuqmiut employ a legal order that incorporates and acknowledges an understanding of fish as sentient beings, to address everyday challenges brought to them by relationships of colonialism, environmental change (ie: climate change), and resource exploration. Through the notion of fish pluralities, I argue, Paulatuuqmiut express a local legal order, kinship and cosmology, and simultaneously engage with and challenge Western preconceptions about (and preoccupations with) Indigenous knowledge systems as fundamentally incompatible with Western epistemologies and ontologies. Fish pluralities enact instead dynamic in situ local logics that enable people and fish, together, to respond to and shape human-environmental relations as realities embedded in ongoing colonialism in Canada. They do this on their own terms and as necessary. By negotiating 'sameness' and 'difference' within, across and between different ontologies, legal orders, and cosmologies, in the context of colonialism and environmental change, Paulatuuqmiut assert ongoing and reciprocal relations to fish that inform diverse and important aspects of community life, refracting colonial and environmental pressures in order to articulate and enact strategies that best meet the needs of people and fish alike.

This thesis examines the use and promotion of shamanic themes in contemporary Canadian Inuit art, being the principle venue in which Inuit identity is presented to non-Inuit in Canada and internationally. The image of Inuit identity promoted through the arts since the mid-twentieth century is arguably the product of non-Inuit state authorities, but Inuit artists themselves are increasingly asserting their voice in their arts and crafts, thereby challenging the image of Inuit identity to non-Inuit. This project first problematizes the history of contemporary Inuit art, where the construction of Inuit identity was heavily prescribed, and then turns to the shifts occurring in Inuit art to highlight the process of identity construction and the agency of Inuit within it. In the process, this project challenges the static conceptualization of minority identities in diverse societies by both state authorities and majority populations. This dissertation contends that Inuit art and identity are fluid concepts and there must be an emphasis made to permit for their fluidity, to avoid affirming a static minority identity in a diverse society, whether in the public or state forums. Consequently, the effort to assert the authenticity of these intangible concepts is contrary to the ideals of diversity and equality promoted in Canada.