Artifact #6: A Photo of the Early Grise Fiord Settlement

Citation:

View of Grise Fiord. Photograph. Archives Canada, Catalogue no. 3192987. https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Home/Record?app=FonAndCol&idNumber=3192987&ecopy=a061670

The photo shows a view of the early and incredibly isolated Grise Fiord settlement. In the initial years both settlements consisted of sparce development.  Both locations lacked a school, a nurse, and a Hudson’s Bay store, amenities that the residents had become quite reliant on back in Inukjuak.  As well, while the Inuit had been told these locations were to offer better hunting and subsistence conditions, these claims proved unfounded and based on classic stereotypes. The RCMP had assumed that all Inuit people could live off the High Arctic land.  In reality, the climatological differences between Québec and the High North left the Inuit having to frantically adapt to hunting marine animals as opposed to the caribou and muskox they were familiar with, lest they starve throughout the harsher winters.   Minnie Allakariallak, one of the Inuit settlers, recounted that, “[Grise Fiord] was like a desert, just gravel…”, food was evidently not as abundant as the Inuit were led to believe.  Several deaths were reported during these years, likely due to lack of medical care and malnutrition.  By no stretch could these conditions be considered as an improvement to the quality of life that the settlers had experienced back home.

Bibliography:

Privy Council Office. High Arctic Relocation: International Norms and Standards. By Russel L. Barsh. Catalogue no. Z1-1991/1-41-3E. Ottawa, ON: Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2016/bcp-pco/Z1-1991-1-41-3-eng.pdf

Qikiqtani Inuit Association. Qikiqtani Truth Commission Community Histories 1950 - 1975: Grise Fiord. Iqaluit, NU: Inhabit Media Inc., 2013. https://www.qtcommission.ca/sites/default/files/community/community_histories_grise_fiord.pdf