In 1999, Nunavut Territory was created in the Canadian Arctic. The area is about 50 times as large as the Netherlands, and is inhabited by a population of 30,000. 85% of the population is Inuit, the indigenous people in this area. The central questions in this research project are what place or regional identities are being ascribed to Nunavut by different groups of people from within and from outside the region, and how do these identities work? In the process of the formation of the region, the territorial Government of Nunavut is an important actor in producing a regional identity that is based on the cultural identity of the Inuit: the Inuit Homeland. This 'official' regional identity creates a symbolic unity that is important in linking people to the region, and through which the land, the history and the people are united in a new territorial membership. However, there is no reason to assume that there is only one regional identity for Nunavut. Different individuals or groups of people from within and from outside the region, such as the people who live in one of the 25 communities and those who work for the multinational mining corporations or as tourist operators, are also involved in the production and reproduction of identities for Nunavut. They represent Nunavut for example as a place to live, a resource region, a wilderness or as a sustainable place. Nunavut Government also links these alternative identities to the area, because as a government they are not only interested in protecting Inuit culture but also aim to modernize the economy in order to enhance prosperity and well-being. As such the place identities are hybrid, and identities that before were produced only by external actors are now also being produced by internal actors, and vice versa.

The Nunavut story told in this book by authors who have all been involved with Nunavut and Inuit politics for a very long time is an important one for indigenous peoples around the world - and for anyone interested in indigenous issues. Stressing the political dynamics of the beginning of Nunavut's autonomous life, the authors provide a clear and accurate account of a remarkable political process. Following an introductory focus on three fundamental questions: Why did Nunavut come to life, what are the challenges and opportunities to come, and what is to be learned from this experience? - the book continues with an investigation of Nunavut, its history and structure and the most recent developments and their impact on the people of Nunavut.

Images of Canadianness offers backgrounds and explanations for a series of relevant--if relatively new--features of Canada, from political, cultural, and economic angles. Each of its four sections contains articles written by Canadian and European experts that offer original perspectives on a variety of issues: voting patterns in English-speaking Canada and Quebec; the vitality of French-language communities outside Quebec; the Belgian and Dutch immigration waves to Canada and the resulting Dutch-language immigrant press; major transitions taking place in Nunavut; the media as a tool for self-government for Canada's First Peoples; attempts by Canadian Indians to negotiate their position in society; the Canada-US relationship; Canada's trade with the EU; and Canada's cultural policy in the light of the information highway.

The transfer of knowledge is a key issue in the North as Indigenous Peoples meet the ongoing need to adapt to cultural and environmental change. In eight essays, experts survey critical issues surrounding the knowledge practices of the Inuit of northern Canada and Greenland and the Northern Sámi of Scandinavia, and the difficulties of transferring that knowledge from one generation to the next. Reflecting the ongoing work of the Research Group Circumpolar Cultures, these multidisciplinary essays offer fresh understandings through history and across geography as scholars analyze cultural, ecological, and political aspects of peoples in transition. Traditions, Traps and Trends is an important book for students and scholars in anthropology and ethnography and for everyone interested in the Circumpolar North. Contributors: Cunera Buijs, Frédéric Laugrand, Barbara Helen Miller, Thea Olsthoorn, Jarich Oosten, Willem Rasing, Kim van Dam, Nellejet Zorgdrager

Bringing together case studies from Ireland, the Netherlands, Canada, Germany and Mexico, this book examines the link between senses of place and senses of time. It suggests that not only do place identities change through time, but imagined pasts also provide resources which the present selects and packages for its own contemporary purposes and for forwarding to imagined futures. The reasons behind the creation of place image are also explored, setting them within political and social contexts. In its three main sections - Heritage in the Creation of Senses of Place; Heritage and Conflicting Identities; and Heritage and the Creation of Senses of Place - the book examines the creation of place identities at the urban, rural, regional and international scales. It questions how senses of place interact with senses of ethnic/cultural identity, what the roles of government, media, residents and tourists are in creating senses of place, and how and why all these variables change through time.

Through an examination of the roles of relief and relocation in response to welfare and other perceived problems and the federal government's overall goal of assimilating the Inuit into the dominant Canadian culture, this book questions the seeming benevolence of the post-Second World War Canadian welfare state. The authors have made extensive use of archival documents, many of which have not been available to researchers before. The early chapters cover the first wave of government expansion in the north, the policy debate that resulted in the decision to relocate Inuit, and the actual movement of people and materials. The second half of the book focuses on conditions following relocation and addresses the second wave of state expansion in the late fifties and the emergence of a new dynamic of intervention.

This atlas illustrates and describes the geographical extent of Inuit land use in the Nunavut Agreement area ( eastern Northwest Territories) in terms of intensity of use (high, medium, low) and of type of wildlife (caribou calving grounds, waterfowl nesting and staging areas, distribution, seasonal ranges and migration routes of animals harvested), based on data collected from hunters and elders in the communities.