“The trauma experienced by generations past having an effect in their descendants”: Narrative and historical trauma among Inuit in Nunavut, Canada
“ Sivulirijat aksururnaqtukkuurnikugijangat aktuiniqaqsimaninga kinguvaanginnut” translates as “the trauma experienced by generations past having an effect in their descendants.” The legacy of the history of colonialism is starting to take narrative shape as Inuit give voice to the past and its mani...
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crsagepubl:10.1177/1363461512467161 2024-10-13T14:08:36+00:00 “The trauma experienced by generations past having an effect in their descendants”: Narrative and historical trauma among Inuit in Nunavut, Canada Crawford, Allison 2013 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1363461512467161 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1363461512467161 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/1363461512467161 en eng SAGE Publications https://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license Transcultural Psychiatry volume 51, issue 3, page 339-369 ISSN 1363-4615 1461-7471 journal-article 2013 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461512467161 2024-09-24T04:13:30Z “ Sivulirijat aksururnaqtukkuurnikugijangat aktuiniqaqsimaninga kinguvaanginnut” translates as “the trauma experienced by generations past having an effect in their descendants.” The legacy of the history of colonialism is starting to take narrative shape as Inuit give voice to the past and its manifestations in the present through public commissions such as the federal Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Inuit-led Qikiqtani Truth Commission. However, an examination of other discursive contexts reveals a collective narrative of the colonial past that is at times silent, incomplete or seemingly inconsistent. Reading the political narrative through the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, and the proceedings of the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut since its formation on April 1, 1999, exposes an almost complete silence about this history. Oral histories, an important form for the preservation and transmission of traditional cultural knowledge, do narrate aspects of this experience of contact, but in accounts that can appear highly individual, fragmented, even contradictory. In contrast, one domain that does seem to register and engage with the impacts of this history of colonialism is Inuit art, specifically visual art and film. In some cases these artistic narratives pre-date the historical trauma narratives of the commissions, which began with the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) in the mid-1990s. This paper examines these narrative alternatives for recounting historic trauma in Nunavut, while also considering the implications of understanding historical trauma as narrative. Article in Journal/Newspaper inuit Nunavut Nunavut Land Claims Agreement SAGE Publications Nunavut Canada Transcultural Psychiatry 51 3 339 369 |
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“ Sivulirijat aksururnaqtukkuurnikugijangat aktuiniqaqsimaninga kinguvaanginnut” translates as “the trauma experienced by generations past having an effect in their descendants.” The legacy of the history of colonialism is starting to take narrative shape as Inuit give voice to the past and its manifestations in the present through public commissions such as the federal Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Inuit-led Qikiqtani Truth Commission. However, an examination of other discursive contexts reveals a collective narrative of the colonial past that is at times silent, incomplete or seemingly inconsistent. Reading the political narrative through the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, and the proceedings of the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut since its formation on April 1, 1999, exposes an almost complete silence about this history. Oral histories, an important form for the preservation and transmission of traditional cultural knowledge, do narrate aspects of this experience of contact, but in accounts that can appear highly individual, fragmented, even contradictory. In contrast, one domain that does seem to register and engage with the impacts of this history of colonialism is Inuit art, specifically visual art and film. In some cases these artistic narratives pre-date the historical trauma narratives of the commissions, which began with the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) in the mid-1990s. This paper examines these narrative alternatives for recounting historic trauma in Nunavut, while also considering the implications of understanding historical trauma as narrative. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Crawford, Allison |
spellingShingle |
Crawford, Allison “The trauma experienced by generations past having an effect in their descendants”: Narrative and historical trauma among Inuit in Nunavut, Canada |
author_facet |
Crawford, Allison |
author_sort |
Crawford, Allison |
title |
“The trauma experienced by generations past having an effect in their descendants”: Narrative and historical trauma among Inuit in Nunavut, Canada |
title_short |
“The trauma experienced by generations past having an effect in their descendants”: Narrative and historical trauma among Inuit in Nunavut, Canada |
title_full |
“The trauma experienced by generations past having an effect in their descendants”: Narrative and historical trauma among Inuit in Nunavut, Canada |
title_fullStr |
“The trauma experienced by generations past having an effect in their descendants”: Narrative and historical trauma among Inuit in Nunavut, Canada |
title_full_unstemmed |
“The trauma experienced by generations past having an effect in their descendants”: Narrative and historical trauma among Inuit in Nunavut, Canada |
title_sort |
“the trauma experienced by generations past having an effect in their descendants”: narrative and historical trauma among inuit in nunavut, canada |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1363461512467161 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1363461512467161 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/1363461512467161 |
geographic |
Nunavut Canada |
geographic_facet |
Nunavut Canada |
genre |
inuit Nunavut Nunavut Land Claims Agreement |
genre_facet |
inuit Nunavut Nunavut Land Claims Agreement |
op_source |
Transcultural Psychiatry volume 51, issue 3, page 339-369 ISSN 1363-4615 1461-7471 |
op_rights |
https://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461512467161 |
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Transcultural Psychiatry |
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51 |
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3 |
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339 |
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369 |
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1812815281753423872 |