Réinstallation d’Inuit
Politiques et pratiques coloniales, résilience et résistance d’un peuple
by Frank James Tester and Krista Ulujuk Zawadski
A French translation for use in immersion classes of a ground-breaking account of multiple forced relocations by the Canadian government of Inuit communities and individuals. The subject of apologies, little known beyond the Arctic. The Inuit community has proven resilient to many attempts at assimilation, relocation and evacuation to the south.
The award-winning Righting Canada's Wrongs series is now available in French for Immersion classrooms.
In a highly visual and appealing format for young readers, this book explores the many forced relocation of Inuit families and communities in the Canadian Arctic from the 1950s to the 1990s. Governments promoted and forced relocation based on misinformation and racist attitudes. These actions changed Inuit lives forever. This book documents the Inuit experience and the resilience and strength they displayed in the face of these measures. Years afterwards, there have been multiple apologies by the Canadian government for its actions, and some measure of restitution for the harms caused.
Included in the book are accounts of a community forced to move to the High Arctic where they found themselves with little food and almost no shelter, of children suddenly taken away from their families and communities to be transported to hospitals for treatment for tuberculosis, and of the notorious slaughter by RCMP officers of hundreds of sled dogs in Arctic settlements.
Though apologies have been made, Inuit in northern Canada still face conditions of inadequate housing, schools that fail to teach their language, and epidemics of infectious diseases like TB. Yet still, the Inuit have achieved a measure of self-government, control over resource development, while they enrich cultural life through music, film, art and literature.
This book enables readers to understand the colonialism and racism that remain embedded in Canadian society today, and the successful resistance of Inuit to assimilation and loss of cultural identity.
Like other volumes in the Righting Canada’s Wrongs series, this book uses a variety of visuals, first-person accounts, short texts and extracts from documents to appeal to a wide range of young readers.
About the Authors
Reviews
…a worthwhile acquisition for both high school libraries and as a supplementary text for social studies classrooms. It teaches much about the strength of the Inuit people and their ability to survive despite incredible challenges. Highly recommended.