"The Advent of Civilization Amongst Them Will Not Tend to Their Betterment": Understanding Representations of Colonial Contact in the Kitikmeot.
Between 1915 and 1920, members of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police (RNWMP) wrote four major narratives of making contact with Inuit living in territory now known as the Kitikmeot region of Nunavut. The authors were the first representatives of the Canadian state to enter the region, and their narr...
| Published in: | Journal of Canadian Studies Vol. 55; no. 4; pp. 481 - 507 |
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| Format: | Article |
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University of Toronto Press
Fall2021
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=153949919&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 153949919 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00219495 JCS jtl: Journal of Canadian Studies issn: 00219495 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Fall2021 vid: 55 iid: 4 pid: 678 pub: University of Toronto Press artinfo: ui: 153949919 10.3138/jcs-2020-0004 ppf: 481 ppct: 26 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 623KB tig: atl: "The Advent of Civilization Amongst Them Will Not Tend to Their Betterment": Understanding Representations of Colonial Contact in the Kitikmeot. aug: au: McLean, Scott su: Royal Canadian Mounted Police Colonization Imperialism Decolonization Scholarly method sug: subj: Royal Canadian Mounted Police Colonization Imperialism Decolonization Scholarly method keyword: colonisation colonization cultural representation GRC histoire history Inuit Kitikmeot Nunavut RCMP représentation culturelle RGCNO RNWMP colonisation GRC histoire représentation culturelle RGCNO ab: Between 1915 and 1920, members of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police (RNWMP) wrote four major narratives of making contact with Inuit living in territory now known as the Kitikmeot region of Nunavut. The authors were the first representatives of the Canadian state to enter the region, and their narratives positioned Inuit as "better off without civilization." Various members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) stationed in the region over the subsequent three decades reproduced such discourse. While, at first glance, this discourse seems to attribute a nobility to traditional ways of life, upon closer inspection it actually positions Inuit as incapable of adapting successfully to changing socio-economic circumstances. Methodologically, this article critically reinterprets archival documents from the early agents of colonization in the Kitikmeot. While advancing historical scholarship concerning relations between Inuit and the Canadian state, the article contributes to contemporary agendas of decolonization and reconciliation by enabling a more complete understanding of the origins and nature of colonial rule in the Arctic. By arguing that colonial discourses have roots in local and specific relations of production, the article also contributes to postcolonial theories of efforts to legitimize colonization and represent colonized Others in essentialist and paternalistic terms. Entre 1915 et 1920, des membres de la Royale Gendarmerie à cheval du Nord-Ouest (RGCNO) ont écrit quatre grands récits de prise de contact avec des Inuits vivant sur un territoire aujourd'hui connu sous le nom de région de Kitikmeot, au Nunavut. Les auteurs étaient les premiers représentants de l'État canadien à pénétrer dans la région, et leurs récits présentaient les Inuits comme « mieux lotis sans la civilisation ». Divers membres de la Gendarmerie royale du Canada (GRC) en poste dans la région durant les trois décennies suivantes ont répété ce discours. Si, à première vue, celui-ci semble attribuer une certaine noblesse aux modes de vie traditionnels, en y regardant de près, il présente en fait les Inuits comme incapables de s'adapter avec succès à l'évolution socioéconomique. Sur le plan méthodologique, l'article réinterprète de manière critique les documents d'archives des premiers agents de la colonisation dans le Kitikmeot. Tout en faisant progresser la recherche historique sur les relations entre les Inuits et l'État canadien, il contribue aux programmes contemporains de décolonisation et de réconciliation, car il permet de mieux comprendre les origines et la nature de la domination coloniale dans l'Arctique. En soutenant que les discours coloniaux ont des racines dans des relations de production locales et particulières, l'article contribue également aux théories postcoloniales sur les tentatives de légitimation de la colonisation et de représentation du colonisé en termes essentialistes et paternalistes. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Journal of Canadian Studies is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Journal of Canadian Studies holder: University of Toronto Press dt: @attributes: year: 2021 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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