Content area
Full text
In the past ten years, countless Inuit--women and men aged 19 to 90--have told me that despite centuries of interference by visitors to the North, traditional ways of naming are very much alive.
This is a time of great change in the eastern Arctic, which, although it will not be official until 1999, is already known as Nunavut (Inuktitut for "Our Land"). Inuit women have played a major role in the process of creating this Inuit-majority public government. Among the key players are Rosemarie Kuptana, president of the national organization Inuit Tapirisat of Canada (ITC); Nellie Cournoyea, Northwest Territories government leader (who is Inuvialuit);(f.1) Mary Simon, former head of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference and a member of the Nunavut Implementation Commission; and Martha Flaherty, president of Pauktuutit, the Inuit women's association. In February, Pauktuutit held its tenth annual general meeting in Iqaluit.
Between changing diapers and calming rambunctious children, they talked about rape and the failings of the northern justice system. They wept for the loss of Inuit culture and traditional skills. And they demanded that [the issues] be addressed... (Gregoire 7)
When I spoke with Martha Flaherty in Iqaluit in June, she spoke of the deep meaning of names in her life, and the traditions that have survived generations of interference and change. Her extended family was celebrating the birth and naming of its newest member.
The name never dies... The name which I have is the same one that was carried by my ancestors for a very long time... (Robbe 46)
Before I was born, my mother had to decide who would be involved at my birth... The first person who has to be there is a mid-wife, man or woman.(f.2) In my case it was my grandmother... Also present at my birth was the person I was named after, my other grandmother... we called each other sauniq, name-sake, bone-to-bone relation. (Freeman 72)
In Inuit culture, names insure the continuity of the lives of individuals, families, and communities. Names are passed from one generation to the next without regard for gender. The same namesake can live through several new people, male or female. The ties are so strong that until puberty, kinship terms, dress, and behaviour often follow the namesake relationship, rather than...