Atiqput: Inuit Oral History and Project Naming (McGill-Queen's Indigenous and Northern Studies, 103) (Volume 103) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0228011051 ISBN 13: 9780228011057

Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2022

Synopsis

"Our names – Atiqput – are very meaningful. They are our identification. They are our Spirits. We are named after what's in the sky for strength, what’s in the water ... the land, body parts. Every name is attached to every part of our body and mind. Yes, every name is alive. Every name has a meaning. Much of our names have been misspelled and many of them have lost their meanings forever. Our Project Naming has been about identifying Inuit, who became nameless over the years, just "unidentified eskimos ..." With Project Naming, we have put Inuit meanings back in the pictures, back to life." Piita Irniq

For over two decades, Inuit collaborators living across Inuit Nunangat and in the South have returned names to hundreds of previously anonymous Inuit seen in historical photographs held by Library and Archives Canada as part of Project Naming. This innovative photo-based history research initiative was established by the Inuit school Nunavut Sivuniksavut and the national archive.

Atiqput celebrates Inuit naming practices and through them honours Inuit culture, history, and storytelling. Narratives by Inuit elders, including Sally Kate Webster, Piita Irniq, Manitok Thompson, Ann Meekitjuk Hanson, and David Serkoak, form the heart of the book, as they reflect on naming traditions and the intergenerational conversations spurred by the photographic archive. Other contributions present scholarly insights and research projects that extend Project Naming’s methodology, interspersed with pictorial essays by the artist Barry Pottle and the filmmaker Asinnajaq.

Through oral testimony and photography, Atiqput rewrites the historical record created by settler societies and challenges a legacy of colonial visualization.

About this title

About the Authors

Carol Payne is professor of art history in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Carleton University.

Beth Greenhorn is senior project manager for Library and Archives Canada and managed Project Naming from 2003 to 2017.

Deborah Kigjugalik Webster is an Inuit heritage researcher and author of Harvaqtuurmiut Heritage among other works.

Christina Williamson is a PhD candidate at the Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art and Culture at Carleton University and a research associate for the Métis Archival Project at University of Alberta.

From the Back Cover

In memory of Bruce G. Trigger

Series editors: John Borrows and Arthur J. Ray

The McGill-Queen's Indigenous and Northern Studies series publishes books about Indigenous peoples in all parts of the northern world. It includes original scholarship on their histories, archaeology, laws, cultures, governance, and traditions. Works in the series also explore the history and geography of the North, where travel, the natural environment, and the relationship to land continue to shape life in particular and important ways. Its mandate is to advance understanding of the political, legal, and social relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, of the contemporary issues that Indigenous peoples face as a result of environmental and economic change, and of social justice, including the work of reconciliation in Canada. To provide a global perspective, the series welcomes books on regions and communities from across the Arctic and Subarctic circumpolar zones.

Edition details

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0228011051
• ISBN 13: 9780228011057
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 264
• Editor: Payne Carol, Greenhorn Beth, Kigjugalik Webster Deborah, Williamson Christina