Perceptions of Water among the Inuit Community in Iqaluit, Nunavut: An Anti-Colonialist, Feminist Political Ecology

• Main Author: Watson, Victoria Catharine
• Other Authors: Wood, Patricia Katharine
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Geography; Arctic; Inuit; Indigenous; Water; Policy; Iqaluit; Emotional Geographies; Feminist Political Ecology; Indigenous Methodologies; Community-Based; Colonialism; Well-Being; Nunavut; inuit
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10315/34466

Water is an essential part of everyday life. In Iqaluit, residents receive their water through either utilidor or trucked water delivery, which is an integral system for everyday life in the North. For Inuit residents, gathering water from the land is also an essential source of drinking water. Based on fieldwork results from 2016, this thesis argues that perceptions of municipal water in Iqaluit are a source of added stress to daily life, and that gathering water from the land is an important part of Inuit identity that can be a source of healing. Both experiences with municipal water and water from the land are emotional and embodied. Specific results will be discussed with regard to age and gender. Using principles from Indigenous methodologies with feminist political ecology, data was collected through participant observation and a series of twenty-one semi-structured interviews with Inuit community members.