Institutional Boundaries and Regionalism: Social, Economic, and Political Regions in the Canadian Arctic

• Published in: Journal of Canadian Studies
• Main Author: Henderson, Ailsa
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) 2009
• Subjects: History; Cultural Studies; Arctic; inuit; Nunavut
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/jcs.43.2.109; https://utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/jcs.43.2.109

When Nunavut was created in 1999 it was both the product of regionalism and an agent of further regional change within the Eastern Arctic. This essay explores what impact, if any, the new territory has had on two aspects of regionalism. First, it determines whether Nunavut allows us to distinguish among the predominantly Inuit communities in the Eastern Arctic and, if so, whether the new territory has improved material living conditions among Nunavut communities greater than in other Eastern Arctic communities. Second, the article explores regionalism within the new territory, exploring whether we can see regional variations both in the potential cultural benefits of the region and in levels of support for the territory. The article explains that while we do not see significant regional differences across the Eastern Arctic, we can see meaningful differences within the new territory, differences that may be attributed, in part, to the role of particular communities in the administration of public affairs in Nunavut.