Shifting Identities in a Shifting World: Food, Place, Community, and the Politics of Scale in an Inuit Settlement

Abstract

Using the case of an Inuit settlement in Northern Québec I explore the interactions between place, identity, scale, and the construction of community. This case study provides a discussion of what a relational construction of the identity of place means in practice. Focusing on country foods—foods that people catch from the land, water, and sky—I describe how the getting of these foods affects Inuit notions of place and constructions of identity and community. Sharing country foods is required in order to ensure future success in hunting and fishing. Such sharing and the social capital it generates were prerequisites for survival in the days when Inuit were living on the land in communities that were constantly changing as people traveled from one location to another in search of food. The move to settlements has brought about changes in Inuit notions of sharing food and ideas about identity. By using a particular event in one Inuit community, I explore the ways in which Inuit have developed a relational sense of identity as a result of the changing places and scales in which they live as occupants of fixed settlements who retain the mores of life on the land. As they call upon different identities, Inuit are invisibly shifting between places. I argue that there is a distinction between a settlement and a community, and that as people adjust to life in settlements they learn to manage their shifting places and shifting identities strategically so that they are able to benefit maximally from the conventions appropriate to both life on the land and life within settlements.

Contemporary programs in support of traditional ways: Inuit perspectives on community freezers as a mechanism to alleviate pressures of wild food access in Nain, Nunatsiavut

“…Some of these storage units have, in fact, evolved to become community freezers. Research to date has focused on the role and acceptability of the community freezer in contemporary society (see, for example, Kishigami, 2001;Gombay, 2005Gombay, , 2009. While maintenance issues have been cited as a rationale for discontinuing some freezer initiatives , generally they are perceived as a viable option to support access to wild foods for individuals who do not always have the capacity to procure their own foods, especially in the context of a rapidly changing socio-cultural context and climate with respect to its impacts on the local landscape (Furgal and Seguin, 2006).…”

The Challenges of and from Indigenous Geographies

“…Niezen (2003) observes that the lack of a rigorous defi nition for Indigeneity precludes analysis and demands further scrutiny of its social meaning. We agree that the debate must continue but, whilst academics deliberate, the communities which are the focus of their debate must sustain their lives (e.g., Gombay 2005 ) and engage with political institutions to secure rights and recognition (e.g., Coombes 2007 ;Porter 2006 ). Equally, international organizations tread boldly towards defi ning Indigeneity, closing defi nitional borders around specifi c nations and communities.…”

Investigating Migrants Adaptation Process through Gardening Practices in Community Gardens

“…As it is commonly used by other studies focusing on cultures and migrant adaptations (Airries & Clawson, 1994;Christie, 2004;Gombay, 2005;Matsunaga et al, 2010), case study methodology was used in this research. It is in order to "understand everyday practices and their meanings to those involved" ( artley, 2004, p. 325), which in this case were migrant gardeners.…”