High Arctic relocation
The High Arctic relocation (French: La délocalisation du Haut-Arctique, Inuktitut: ᖁᑦᑎᒃᑐᒥᐅᑦᑕ ᓅᑕᐅᓂᖏᑦ, romanized: Quttiktumut nuutauningit[1]) took place during the Cold War in the 1950s, when 92 Inuit were moved by the Government of Canada under Liberal Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent to the High Arctic.[2][3]
The relocation has been a source of controversy: on one hand being described as a humanitarian gesture to save the lives of starving indigenous people and enable them to continue a subsistence lifestyle; and on the other hand, said to be a forced migration instigated by the federal government to assert its sovereignty in the Far North by the use of "human flagpoles",[4] in light of both the Cold War and the disputed territorial claims to the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Both sides acknowledge that the relocated Inuit were not given sufficient support to prevent extreme privation during their first years after the move.
In the media[edit]
Carvers Looty Pijamini (of Grise Fiord) and the late Simeonie Amagoalik (of Resolute) were commissioned by Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated to build a monument to commemorate the Inuit who sacrificed so much as a result of the Government relocation of 1953 and 1955. Pijamini's monument, located in Grise Fiord, depicts a woman with a young boy and a husky, with the woman sombrely looking out towards Resolute Bay. Amagoalik's monument, located in Resolute, depicts a lone man looking towards Grise Fiord. This was meant to show separated families, and depicting them longing to see each other again. Pijamini said that he intentionally made them look melancholy because the relocation was not a happy event. The monument was unveiled in September 2010, and received praise from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.[20][21]
The High Arctic relocation is the subject of Zacharias Kunuk's film Exile. The film was produced by Isuma,[22] who also released Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, the first feature film ever to be written, directed and acted entirely in Inuktitut.[23]
The High Arctic relocation is the subject of the film Broken Promises - The High Arctic Relocation by Patricia Tassinari (NFB, 1995).[24] The relocation is also the subject of Marquise Lepage's documentary film (NFB, 2008), Martha of the North (Martha qui vient du froid). This film tells the story of Martha Flaherty, granddaughter of Robert J. Flaherty, who was relocated at 5, along with her family, from Inukjuak to Grise Fiord (Ellesmere Island).[25] Lepage later released the 2013 web series Iqqaumavara, telling the stories of several other affected people.[26]
Larry Audlaluk was a toddler when his family was relocated from Inukjuak on Hudson Bay to Grise Fiord in 1953; his father died 10 months later. His life story, What I Remember, What I Know: The Life of a High Arctic Exile (2020), provides a detailed personal account of the danger and death that they faced.[27]