A place called Nunavut:Multiple Identities for a New Region

• Main Author: Dam, Kim Irma Margot van
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: Barkhuis Publishing 2008
• Subjects: Proefschriften (vorm); Nunavut; Nationale identiteit; Culturele identiteit; Etnische identiteit; Zelfbestuur; geografie van Noord-Amerika; Canada
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/11370/f861518f-d1fd-47b2-bac4-4ff1035a6682; https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/f861518f-d1fd-47b2-bac4-4ff1035a6682

In contemporary cultural geography there is a general consensus that place and place identities should not be considered as fixed entities: it is not possible to determine objectively that Nunavut is this or that place. Rather, places and place identities are actively constructed by people as individuals, and groups of people. The North of Canada was long perceived as "a homogenous, empty space, outside of history, a place of romance, danger, challenge, mineral resources and so forth for white, southern men"' and this was reproduced in Canadian and perhaps even in global texts. Although many people South (and in Europe) might still think of the North in these terms, there are others who have started to challenge this idea as they do not recognise this to be the North they knew from experience, having lived there for many generations. This illustrates how this place, the North, does not have one single meaning, and this automatically leads to more observations. The fact that people challenged a dominant idea opens up the discussion on the role of power and dominance. It is also a reflection of the fact that not only people living in a place, but also outsiders, are important in constructing identities for that place. Although this dichotomy in perspectives provides useful insights into how one area can have different identities, and how over time one identity takes over the other, it is argued that instead of having just one dominant identity at any given time, more identities can always be ascribed to a place.