In defence of Nunat (the land): Inuit political development as a response to resource conflict

• Main Author: Bleakley, Geoffrey Thompson
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of Cambridge 1988
• Subjects: Arctic; Greenland; Baldwin; Ungava Peninsula; inuit; Ungava peninsula
• Online Access: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/293538; https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.40677

The past twenty-five years have witnessed a significant increase in the ability of Inuit groups to defend local interests against the intrusions of their respective nation-state and, as a result, assume a greater degree of control over their own societies. Most of this increase can be attributed to a series of similar political development proces ses which have occurred throughout the Arctic largely in response to the conflict initiated by threats to the Inuit's mode of production and resource base. This dissertation explores the impetus as well as the course of this political development. Following an examination of the theoretical origins of the conflict, centring on the cultural imperatives linking a hunting society to its resource base, attention is briefly devoted to the powerlessness associated with the political status quo as it existed circa 1960. Focus then moves to a number of case studies in an attempt to satisfactorily elucidate the processes involved. These include those of the Alaskan North Slope, the Canadian western and central Arctic, Quebec's Ungava Peninsula and Greenland. Through examination of these examples, causality is assigned to particular catalytic events seen as generating the response, a resource- based commonality of these events is established, and the specific strategies developed by the Inuit are clarified. Digitisation of this thesis was sponsored by Arcadia Fund, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin.