This video blog is for all you animal rights
activists out there. Eat your heart out on this video from Iqaluit elder Rita
Nashuk. Actually, maybe you should just consider eating a piece of heart, maybe
seal?
Since the 1980s, animal rights activists have targeted
the human use of seal, particularly the cute and cuddly harp pups on the east
coast of Canada, as a symbol of abuse and mistreatment. However, in systematic
reviews of this history, it is very clear that animal rights and environmental
groups have consistently failed to differentiate between commercial and
traditional aboriginal subsistence hunting of seals. This has had a dramatic
and disastrous socio-economic and cultural impact on Inuit communities. Arguably,
those groups seeking to protect baby seals both inadvertently and intentionally
were the final wave of colonialization against the people of the north,
following in the footsteps of whalers decades before.
In
the 18th and 19th centuries, whalers made first contact in many Inuit regions,
and overharvested their marine biological diversity. As an example, in the
Baffin Bay-Davis Straight region - spanning Nunavut and Greenlandic waters - it
is estimated that approximately 29,000 bowheads were landed between 1719 and
1916. Eventually, European and American commercial whaling depleted the bowhead
population in this region to hundreds of animals, and only now are these
populations on the rebound due in large part to Inuit conservation efforts.
Indeed, near Pangnirtung at Kekerton Island whaling station, the rocks are literally
stained red with blood from this history. To put this in context, large
bowheads can be over 20 meters long and weigh up to 100 tonnes. Whalers were
taking the blubber and baleen back to southern communities where these resources
were used prior to the discovery of fossil fuels. The blubber was rendered into
oil and used for lanterns. The baleen - the keratin sheets that form the filter
system of a bowhead's mouth - was used as a pre-fossil fuel plastic and was
manufactured into flexible items such as combs, corsets and wagon wheels. With
the arrival of "qallunaat", or southerners, Inuit way of life began to
dramatically change.
The
early to mid part of the 19th century was a particularly difficult period of
Inuit history. In Canada, the government rolled out a program called "project
name tag", and every Inuk man, women and child was given an "Eskimo number", or
"e-number" for short, and an associated dog tag to wear around their necks.
Southern names were given to Inuit in a government effort to control and
civilize this nomadic and land-based people that thrived in the Arctic for over
4000 years prior to qallunaat. The state did not consult Inuit about their
traditional naming and kinship structure, which is arguably core to Inuit
culture and believes, and is predicated on the passing on of souls from
previous generations. Reincarnation if you will. So, today, in the north, Inuit
often have southern qallunaat names as well as their traditional Inuktitut
names, which is yet another sign of their ability to navigate a complex and
changing world. Despite the colonial presence of southerners, Inuit remained a
people of the land until around the 1960s, when they were forcibly removed from
camps and placed in communities.
In
our interviews this spring, one elder told us about the relocation period and
said: "we were lied to". He
explained how government officials told Inuit being relocated into communities
that they would be given a house that was cheap to live in. While Inuit did receive
government housing, the financial reality of living in a qallunaat-style settlement
turned out to be very expensive. Inuit now had to pay for southern goods and
services and were no longer near their traditional hunting grounds. Modern
boats, motors, rifles, skidoos and gasoline were now required to travel to
traditional hunting areas and this was costly. To navigate this complex
socio-cultural and economic change, some Inuit turned to wage paying jobs,
while others remained hunters. For those continuing to live on the land, the
key link towards living traditionally in the modern world was the sale of sealskins.
Prior to the seal controversy, hunters could catch seals for sustenance, and
still sell the skin for money to purchase the costly tools to remain a hunter
in the modern world. The sale of sealskins allowed both the traditional
subsistence and modern cash economy to co-exist.
However,
in the 1980s, when the seal became the symbol for environmental and animal
rights groups, the public was dissuaded from purchasing sealskins, and this
effectively destroyed the once lucrative markets that allowed Inuit to live
simultaneously on the land and in settlements. Ironically, environmental groups
like Greenpeace - who based their environmental protection efforts on the
indigenous "Rainbow Warrior" story - targeted the seal, and unfortunately were
partly responsible in undermining traditional Inuit people living sustainably
on the land. To this day, Greenpeace is a "four letter word" in many Inuit
communities, and there is a lack of trust between northern indigenous peoples
and environmentalists. As an environmental scientist working in partnership
with Inuit communities, I have been on this cultural fault line, and Inuit have
made me realize the danger of righteous environmentalism.
Now,
Inuit are perhaps at an even more complex cross-roads, as climate change
continues to alter and erode the Arctic ecosystem, and environmentalists,
scientists and policymakers are all increasingly having a say in how northern
resources are managed. Polar bears, seals and whales are in the cross hair of
all stakeholders. Researchers want to study them. Environmentalists and animal
rights groups want to protect them. And Inuit want to live with the animals as
they have done for thousands of years, which means at times, they will be
killed for food, clothing and cultural well-being. It's a complex issue.
For
Inuit, above all, having respect for animals is most important. Their culture
is predicated on the "harvesting of souls", if you will, and it is very
dangerous work. If animals are taken without respect, this can lead to adverse
repercussions for a hunter and his/her family or community. Therefore, animals
are "never to be played with", "never to be tampered with", and "always to be
treated with respect". These are Inuit teachings passed on over generations
that have allowed Inuit and animals to co-exist healthily for thousands of
years. As Rita Nashuk points out, this arguably makes Inuit the true animal
rights activists.
Duration: 2m 14s
