A window open January 197S on the world (28th year) 2.80 French francs

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a people ^ r y^ iL^-^ ± --* that refuses to disappear TREASURES

WORLD ART

95

EGYPT

Queen

Nefertiti

1975 has been proclaim¬ ed "International Wom¬ en's Year" by the Uni¬ ted Nations. Through¬ out the year, the "Unes¬ co Courier" will devote its "Treasures of World Art" page each month to works of art depict¬ ing women. Here we show a famous portrait bust of Queen Nefertiti (50 cms. high) wrought in limestone 34 cen¬ turies ago. It was dis¬ covered in the workshop of an Egyptian sculptor among the vestiges of the ancient city of Akhe- taton, today called Tell el-Amarna (Upper Egypt), some 300 km from Cairo. Nefertiti was the wife of the pharaoh Akhenaton, or Amenhotep IV, founder of Akhetaton. This bust from the hand of a great master is today in Ber¬ lin's Staatliche Museen. Courier 4 THE ESKIMOS : A PEOPLE THAT REFUSES TO DISAPPEAR

A far-reaching debate on human rights in the Far North JANUARY 1975 28TH YEAR 12 THE CHANGING CANADIAN ESKIMO PUBLISHED IN 15 LANGUAGES " The development of the North is a historical process that cannot be reversed " Arabic Hebrew English By Alexander Stevenson French Japanese Persian

Spanish Italian Dutch 14 ESKIMO TRADITIONAL WAYS Russian Hindi Portuguese MUST NOT DIE German Tamil Turkish The Arctic people face their greatest challenge: how to preserve their identity Published monthly by UNESCO By Jean Malaurie The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 18 'GIVE ME WINTER, GIVE ME HUSKY DOGS. . Sales and Distribution Offices

Unesco, Place de Fontenoy, 75700 Paris Photo report Annual subscription rate 28 French francs

The UNESCO COURIER is published monthly, except in 20 'I WAS BORN 1,000 YEARS AGO. . . August and September when it is bi-monthly (11 issues a year) For list of distributors see inside back cover. Open letter from the chief of the Capilano Indians (Canada) Individual articles and photographs not copyrighted may be reprinted providing the credit line reads "Reprinted from By Dan George the UNESCO COURIER," plus date of issue, and three voucher copies are sent to the editor. Signed articles re¬ printed must bear author's name. Non-copyright photos will be supplied on request. Unsolicited manuscripts cannot 21 THE PEOPLE OF PAYNE BAY be returned unless accompanied by an international reply coupon covering postage. Signed articles express the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily represent A textbook for Eskimos by Eskimos from New Quebec the opinions of UNESCO or those of the editors of the UNESCO COURIER. 27 INTO THE SOVIET TUNDRA. The Unesco Courier is produced in microform (micro¬ film and/or microfiche) by : (1) University Microfilms (Xerox), Ann Arbor, Michigan48100, U.S.A.; (2) N.C.R. ...where learning to lasso reindeer Microcard Edition, Indian Head, Inc., 111 West 40th is an everyday school subject Street. New York. U.S.A.; (3) Bell and Howell C°.. Old Mansfield Road, Wooster, Ohio 44691, U.S.A. By Vladimir I. Vasilyev The Unesco Courier is indexed monthly in the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, published by H. W. Wilson Co.. New York, and in Current Con¬ 34 A STATEMENT ON ISRAEL tents - Education, Philadelphia, U.S.A. By Amadöu Mahtär M'Bow, Director-General of Unesco

Editorial Office Unesco, Place de Fontenoy, 75700 Paris - France 2 TREASURES OF WORLD ART Editor-in-Chief .Sandy Koffler Queen Nefertiti (Egypt) Assistant Editor-in-Chief René Caloz

Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief Olga Rodel

Managing Editors English Edition : Ronald Fenton (Paris) French Edition : Jane Albert Hesse (Paris) . Spanish Edition : Francisco Fernández-Santos ("Paris) Russian Edition": Georgi Stetsenko (Paris) Cover German Edition : Werner Merkli (Berne) Arabic Edition : Abdel Moneim El Sawi (Cairo) Montage showing the head of a Greenland Edition : Japanese Kazuo Akao '(Tokyo) Eskimo and a sleigh drawn by huskies gliding Italian Edition': Maria Remiddi (Rome) across the Arctic snows an ¡mage of the. Hindi Edition : Ramesh Bakshi (Delhi)- Tamil - Edition : N.D." Su'ndaravadivelu (Madras) traditional Eskimo way of life, today confront¬ Hebrew; Edition : Alexander Broido (Tel Aviv) ed by modern civilization. Cover design spe¬ Persian Edition : Fereydoun Ardalan (Teheran) cially executed for the "Unesco Courier" by Dutch Edition : Paul Morren (Antwerp) Unesco graphic artist Rolf Ibach. Portuguese Edition : Benedicto Silva (Rio de Janeiro) Turkish Edition : Mefra Telci (Istanbul) Photos © Camera Press, London and © Bonnardel. Aix-en-Provence, France Assistant Editors

English Edition : Roy.Málkin French Edition : Philippe Ouannès Spanish Edition : Jorge Enrique. Adoum SPECIAL NOTICE

Illustrations': Anne-Marie Maillard Many of our readers, particularly those whose subscriptions are served from Paris, have received their November and December Research . Christiane Boucher 1974 issues of the " Unesco Courier " with some delay. Layout and Design :, Robert Jacquemin We very much regret this inconvenience which was due entirely All correspondence should be addressed to to prolonged strikes in the French postal services. the Editor-in-Chief in Paris THE ESKIMOS A people that refuses to disappear

This issue of the "Unesco Courier" is devoted to the human rights of the Eskimos and the uphill struggle they are waging so as not to vanish as a people. For 2,000 years the Eskimos have lived a nomadic life in the vast Arctic regions. Today the impact of modern civilization and economic development is threatening to destroy their culture, way of life, language, and the traditional structure of their society. At its recent General Con¬ ference (October-November 1974), Unesco decided to co-ordinate a pro¬ gramme of Arctic studies to be carried out by experts from various coun¬ tries and regions such as Canada, the U.S.A., the U.S.S.R., and Northern Europe. The programme will take into account "the cultural cohesion of a vast region whose peoples and values... are still largely unknown to the general public".

The article published below presents some of the highlights of a recent symposium on economic development in the Arctic and the future of Eskimo societies. The symposium was held under the chairmanship of Dr Jean Malaurie at an international congress organized by the Foundation of Nordic Studies in France (1 ). The President of the International Institute of Human Rights, Nobel Peace Prizewinner René Cassin, pointed out at the symposium that "for the first time in their history, the Eskimos themselves from Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Siberia [had] been able to meet and discuss problems of common concern."

Text © Copyright

We have got into the habit of Union, for instance, where a system of collective ownership Jacques judging everything from the West¬ prevails. Ownership is not individual but concerns the ern viewpoint. History has always community, and when the individual ceases to be part of ROUSSEAU been written by whites and for the community or leaves it, so his participation in communal

(Canada) whites. We usually talk about the ownership ceases as well. formerly of the Europeans discovering Canada. Should these natives have a system of ownership I am about to publish a history of Centre of modelled on the white man's system? I myself do not Canada in which It is the Indians Northern Studies, think they should. They should be allowed the right of who discover the French and the Laval University, communal ownership to start with, so that they can organize English. We have to try to take in Quebec their own affairs as they see fit on their own territory. both points of view; the natives are (now deceased) human beings like ourselves and The natives' ownership should therefore extend not only to the little area in which they live but to all the land which like the whites they change and provides their only livelihood. The influx of whites from will continue to change. the south into the Far North Is now happening on a scale My European ancestors French and English entered which is gradually becoming a matter for concern. In into an undertaking with my Amerindian ancestors I must certain cases, these new arrivals are being granted exclusive admit I am quite a mixture to respect their rights, to make hunting and fishing rights on the very lands where the life easier for them and to help them to develop. natives depend on hunting and fishing for their livelihood. The whites settled in Canada wjth their own legal system, This is an intolerable situation. ^ their own laws, and from the very outset there was this failure of comprehension which still prevails in the Far North. Outsiders move In and take over the land, which (I) " Le Peuple Esquimau Aujourd'hui et Demain " (The Eskimo People Today and Tomorrow) 4th International Congress of the French Foun¬ belongs In fact If not by law to group, tribe or community. dation of Nordic Studies, edited with a foreword by Jean Malaurie. The concept of private property does not exist among Bibliothèque Arctique et Antarctique. Vol. 4. Mouton, Paris - The Hague, 1973, 696 pp. " Développement Economique de l'Arctique et Avenir des the natives, only that of communal ownership. I have Sociétés Esquimaudes " (Economie Development ol the Arctic and the avoided using the term "collective ownership" because the Future of Eskimo Societies). Debates of the 4th International Congress situation is not quite the same as In a country like the Soviet of the French Foundation of Nordic Studies, Rouen, 1972, 370 pp.

4 Jumping across gaps in the ice is a traditional springtime game for Eskimo children, although dogs harnessed to sleds usually need to be enticed to join in the fun.

Photo © Fred Bruemmer, Toronto DOME SHAPED IGLOO, photo right, takes shape as an Eskimo skilfully lays blocks of firm snow sliced with his long knife. The gap at the top is filled in with a key-block, which holds the beehive-structura together. From inside the igloo the builder cuts a door facing away from the prevailing wind, and a ventilating hole well down the curve of the wall, as seen in igloos of 19th-century snow village on Baffin Island shown below. The igloo today is mainly used as a temporary shelter on hunting trips, but it is part of a traditional way of life which many Eskimos are forsaking for new towns like Holsteinsborg on the west coast of Greenland, far right.

W^^9

Photo Information Canada, Ottawa Photo © Dominique Darbois, Paris

The density of population In It seems obvious that the legal Arthur B. Jean Canada as a whole is 950 per situation concerning property rights YATES is different in each of the countries FOURNIER hundred square miles while in the Northwest Territories it is only 8 per (Canada) with an Eskimo population. Green¬ (Canada) hundred square miles. Director land is an extreme case In this Director This state of affairs, seen in Northern Policy respect, with its legislation for¬ Territorial and and Program relation to the question of the Social Planning Branch, bidding private ownership of the Development administration of natural resources, Northern Affairs land occupied by private individuals. Branch, raises the question whether such a Program, The same applies in the Soviet Department of small number of citizens, admin¬ Department of Union, while we in Canada and Indian Affairs Indian Affairs and Northern istering such a vast, rich territory, and Northern the United States have very Development, should take the profits from its Development, different legislation. Ottawa potential mineral, petroleum and Ottawa other wealth. The potential is there; although extraction is not on a very large scale, we are convinced that the future possibilities for expansion Some Eskimo groups do have are considerable. William L. land, the reservations administered by the Federal Government of the The Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Devel¬ HENSLEY United States. If the whole terri¬ opment operates on the principle that one of Its main (Eskimo, of tory was made up of reservations responsibilities Is the redistribution of the national wealth Alaska, U.S.A.) under the trusteeship of the Federal and that It can and should use the rich mineral resources Executive Government, the Eskimos would get of the Far North of Canada to raise the living standard Director, the benefit from the minerals that of the people in the poorer parts of the country, such as Alaska State may be there or may subsequently the maritime regions and part of the province of Quebec. Legislature be discovered. Unfortunately, most House of It is for reasons of fairness that the Federal Government Eskimos have no land which is the Representatives. wishes to maintain its control over the natural resources. property of the village or held under trusteeship as in the case of One of Greenland's problems is the reservations. As things stand at Henning that the country is, officially, an present, villagers cannot work either in the mines or the integral part of Denmark, although BROENDSTED oil producing installations on their territories. In Greenland we have our own The native population does not, in fact, regard compen¬ (Denmark) different rules and laws concerning sation as the ideal solution, particularly cash compensation, Judge of the landed property. We have an old which in many cases seems the easiest and quickest way Greenland High legal tradition whereby land belongs of dealing with Eskimo and Indian groups. They are given Court, to the State, to the community. No money in the hope that this will divert their attention from Godthaab, private individual is allowed to buy their real Interests, but the Eskimos and Indians are fully Greenland a plot of land. It is possible to obtain permission to build a house aware that Congress has never yet passed any bill actually on the land or to sell the house, but abolishing their right of ownership. the sale of the land on which it is We have set up a number of regional organizations in built is not allowed. Alaska grouping several communities together, such as the

6 Photo Erik Betting © Pressehuset, Copenhagen associations for natives living in the mining region of As far as Greenland is concerned, Alaska, in the northwest, etc. There are In fact local Claus some reports give the impression organizations of this kind covering the whole State now. BORNEMANN that it is official policy to remove As a result of political pressure by these groups and hunters from their areas and transfer of intervention by the Secretary of the Interior, one measure (Denmark) them into cities. This Is Incorrect, has been adopted which Is entirely to our satisfaction, an Head of the although In the fishing districts, order "freezing" further acquisition of land either by the Secretariat, small groups are indeed migrating state or by private individuals. Ministry for towards urban centres. In any case, the natives who are pressing for a speedy Greenland, But in the hunting districts the settlement of this problem do not regard this as an Copenhagen government would like to see the exorbitant demand. They have certainly no Intention of scattered settlements maintained, partitioning the state or stirring up trouble. Considering especially in areas where seals the living conditions in the villages, we do not think there abound. The authorities try to Is anything which runs contrary to the interests of the encourage this by granting housing Federal Government and the State ¡n our claim that the loans to small communities and setting up building enter¬ resources of "our country" should be placed at the disposal prises in these areas. Hunters are also given loans for of the natives so that they can provide for their own the purchase of motor-boats. economic development in full freedom of action. In the schools children who will one day be hunters receive some instruction in hunting. But I agree that I should like to ask you to make schools in hunting districts are providing above all a formal, Jean a leap In space that would take us not a practical, education. into those Eskimo communities MALAURIE I should like to know whether scientists can carry out where hunting is still the main an enquiry to determine in realistic terms whether a district (France) occupation. is overpopulated or not. I should also like to know if Director, Centre Let us put ourselves in the pos¬ biologists have assessed the possibilities and the cost of of Arctic ition of these small communities of subsidizing hunting. Studies, École 300 to 500 persons, isolated In Some reports I have read claim that an archaic society Pratique des the Far North, impoverished and which comes in contact with industrial civilization is Hautes Études, anxious about their future. They Inevitably doomed. What are the grounds for saying so? Paris owe their survival and their conti¬ Does this mean that hunting as a modern industry is nuity solely to their intelligence, doomed? their sense of organization and, in the last three generations, to our I go along with Mr. Malaurie when he says that school pricing policies. Proud of having shrewdly overcome is the key factor in hunting communities for I feel that, the rigours of the climate over the centuries, they feel, whatever the school, its impact will be negative. Shouldn't whatever others might think, that these now-coveted ter¬ people be told and taught about what ¡s happening In the ritories, frozen and snowbound, are theirs by absolute right. modern world? I think hunting is a very tough way of But what kind of future can there be for hunting com¬ making a living, and even if many Eskimos enjoy it, the munities In this day and age? We know it will depend younger ones who have been through school will probably, largely on the practical measures that local authorities sooner or later, want to get out of these places where the and governments will take. only prospect is hunting. Mr. Bornemann asked whether Arthur B. surveys have been made to find out

YATES how far these hunting districts could meet the population's require¬ ments. I can tell you such studies have been carried out in Northern Canada and that they have shown that the resources are barely sufficient to meet the present population's needs, and hence, will be even more deficient, in relation to the needs of the future popu¬ lation. Mr. Bornemann's second point raised the question of setting up schools for hunters. That's another problem with which we in Canada are greatly concerned. Most of the Eskimos do want hunting tech¬ niques to be incorporated in school programmes; but that's a tricky thing to arrange, because of the difficulty of TOUGH AS NEW BOOTS

obtaining teachers capable of giving that sort of technical Below, Eskimo woman chews on a piece of sealskin, Instruction and the problem of limited budgets. to soften it for use as the sole of a waterproof boot, ingeniously sewn so that the needle never completely Whether we like it or not, there'll pierces the skin. Eskimo women need to be skilled Jacques always be hunting, though admit¬ needlewomen; faulty clothing could lead to their menfolk dying of exposure. Right, Eskimo hunter ROUSSEAU tedly it may now be declining. This is bound to happen with the and family from Thule, Greenland, where the pack ice appearance of synthetic and ranch- usually begins to break up only in late July, cross a bred furs. Fur-farming is a prof¬ stretch of open water using an ice-floe as a raft. itable business and a white mono¬ poly today, though I don't see why the north's traditional hunters should, not take it up themselvesl The north produces luxury furs; if fur-farming caught on in the north, the native peoples would put a luxury fur on the market. In fact, fur-farming must be treated as an extension of hunting, though fur-bearing animals will continue to be hunted, even if only by a minority. There is no magic solution for the American Indians any more than there is for the white man. No territory can survive by marketing a single product. There are all kinds of stock-farming. I should like to show you an example of what may be done with the musk-ox. Here's a sweater made of musk-ox wool; it's the first ever of its kind made in the Province of Quebec. It's a very light wool, a half or a third as light as sheep's wool. This sweater is made of thick-knit wool, but this same wool can be used to produce a cashmere as fine as any in the world. Alaska already has a musk-ox wool industry, and Quebec Is shortly to have one too; it is a highly profitable product.

I personally doubt whether there Trevor are any sound economic grounds for claiming that a good proportion LLOYD of the Arctic population of Canada, Alaska or Greenland could I am (Canada) Director, Centre not saying should live off hunting

for Northern and fishing, even if these activities

Studies and were modernized. I know something

Research, about the musk-ox business, and

McGill I don't think anybody would

University. question the quality of sweaters Montreal made of musk-ox wool. But I have real doubts about the future of proposals for breeding musk-oxen on a domestic scale. This was first considered for Canada's northern districts, then in Alaska and now in New Quebec. Such ideas are to my mind more glamorous than practical or economically feasible. There was talk a number of years ago about raising certain varieties of sheep in the north; all kinds of uses were to be made of them, and in the most unexpected places. The author of one study had worked for some time in Iceland and in southern Greenland. The concepts were attractive enough but do not stand up in the face of actual conditions. There is a long-established sheep raising

8 Photos Bryan Alexander © Camera Press, London industry In southern Greenland, but extending it has proved located fairly close to heavily populated urban centres. quite impossible. There were some catastrophic failures. This is not the case in Canada and Greenland. Even were some of the plans to prove practicable on a limited scale, they could only have minimal effect on the Even if men are working at various trades, either in their daily lives of the Greenlanders even as sources of food. own villages, or in larger urban centres and in cities, they We are agreed that every effort must be made to protect must not give up hunting, for they love it. Even those who the traditional life-style of those who wish to continue work in new industries like petroleum, when they return to In it. But today many Eskimo children in Canada are their villages after spending three weeks or so in an oil- going to high school. Let us hope they go on to higher drilling camp, can indulge in a fortnight of hunting and education later. It would be absurd to expect these young fishing. people on leaving school to be able to earn a living from There is still plenty of game in Alaska, even though the traditional Eskimo occupations of their grandfathers. question today is what proportion of the population can live off it. I know that in the past before the white man settled down in Alaska there was a big wildlife population. White The Alaskan Eskimos have had to civilization has resulted in urban centres springing up adapt to a variety of trades to sur¬ around schools and churches and has had repercussions William L. vive, for It Is not possible to live on the state's basic ecological resources. HENSLEY entirely off hunting and fishing. Additional activities must therefore We still have sleds drawn by huskies, but tracked power sleds are beginning to supplant them nearly everywhere. be found, and the Eskimos must And so we must ask ourselves whether the Eskimo who is learn other skills. doing a regular job in town can afford to be a hunter as well. To understand the problems of the Alaskan Eskimos, as distinct Even with plenty of jobs paying reasonable wages, the from those of the Greenland or fact remains as Mr. Malaurie has pointed out that the Canadian Eskimos. Alaska's geogra¬ Eskimo workers' basic food, their staple diet, comes from phy must be taken into consider¬ hunting. We still hunt whales at Point Barrow, and, even ation. Most of the Eskimos live though this is not highly commercialized as it is meant in some 200 villages scattered primarily to meet local demand, whaleskins, for us, are anw throughout the western and eastern parts of the State and extremely valuable commodity. " r

9 Then, of course, there is reindeer-breeding, which is Greenland's Increasingly heavy burden of consumer imports. closed to the white man by U.S. federal laws which prevent Our goal must be to produce and to diversify our him from owning reindeer. Herds of these animals about production. Furs should be exported and the meat of 60,000 head owned by Eskimo herdsmen are to be found marine mammals sold all over Greenland, with the hunting only in the north-western and peninsular parts of Alaska. districts sending their produce to the game-poor south. Reindeer breeding has an excellent industrial potential Another aspect of the problem Is that of increasing the for the future but, unfortunately, the State of Alaska is today value of products before exporting them so as to obtain planning to take over this activity. the best possible return. Greenland regularly exports furs We Eskimos get the Impression that the idea is to take and pelts, but curiously enough has no tanning industry. away from us an industry we could develop quite well This could become a new industry depending wholly on the ourselves! The Japanese, who are already buying reindeer produce of local hunting. antlers which they make into a powder, have shown a keen I should also like to speak of the cultural aspects of interest in purchasing reindeer meat. hunting. None of you may think there is any relationship We have musk-oxen, too, though at the present time this between the economy and culture where hunting is activity is still only In its early stages. The transplantation concerned. I personally maintain that there is a very of musk-oxen to parts of northern Alaska ¡s a very close link. promising development. If Greenlanders are to remain a proud people and continue to be themselves, then they must accept their real national Identity, based on the centuries-old Eskimo culture, which is so closely bound up with hunting activities. We should also adopt a modern and forward-looking attitude and make every effort to guarantee the continuity of hunting as an I was very glad to hear that occupation In its own right and, at least in the beginning, hunting, as an industry, can be Angmalortok as the framework for a national identity. modernized. Oddly enough, though, OLSEN it is considered today In Greenland We could go on talking about economics for ever. But by both the Danish Government if we fail to provide the conditions to enable the Eskimos (Eskimo, of and the Greenlanders themselves of Greenland, Alaska and Canada to take pride in their Greenland, as an occupation for backward national Identity and culture and assert themselves as a Denmark) peoples. people In their own right, then I am afraid all the wonderful Chairman, I feel hunting ought to be re¬ economic plans made for them will turn out to be mere Greenlanders garded as a modern and creative operations for propping up the economy of a deprived Society, activity. It provides more than half people who will be regarded with something like mockery. Copenhagen the food requirements of the The close link existing between the economy and the way hunting communities and, de¬ people feel about their work is well known. This, In fact, pending on market prices, ensures is what motivation is all about. There is also a very close fairly high incomes. There is an assured market for relationship between motivation and the economy. wild fox furs but it is up to us to Improve the quality of the I myself was born in Thule, in Greenland, in a hunting area. species in order to become competitive in this market. My father became one of the best hunters in the area. So far nothing of the sort has been done. Both he and my mother used to say it was by coming in Looking at Greenland as a whole, we need to examine contact with the Thule hunters, who have remained so close ways and means of dovetailing this hunting micro-economy to their natural culture, that they discovered the best In into the full range of Greenlandic activities. We cannot human nature, as well as the most combative, the most afford to overlook any resource that may help to reduce constructive and the most independent men. So I feel

SEA-BORNE SAFARI

Walrus hunting is a hazar¬ dous enterprise, calling for great skill and teamwork, since adult males, weigh¬ ing over a ton, react violently if wounded. Not a scrap of the mammal is wasted. Reserves of walrus meat and blubber are hid¬ den in caches beneath rocks for use during the long winter months. The ivory tusks are sold or carved. Thick walrus hide covers the open boat, the umiak, of these Alaskan Eskimos shown right. Once the boat in which women and children moved bet¬ ween hunting areas, in the Arctic the umiak is now chiefly used by Bering Strait Eskimos and east coast Greenlanders.

10 strongly that there is a very intimate tie binding men, the extended for seal-hunting ten times further in the north¬ culture in which they live and the economic conditions of west, which is at present uninhabited. their lives as a whole. If there has been a drop in the turnover of fox skins, it is due to market price levels, and has nothing to do with I spent two years in Thule as a biogenetic causes. Lars teacher running a school. I often No published findings of any properly conducted bio¬ CHEMNITZ asked myself whether we should not genetic and social and economic survey exist to support instruct young children in hunting a biogenetic explanation of this drop, and I am not saying (Eskimo, of techniques rather than Imparting this lightly. It would be surprising if there were, considering Greenland, rudimentary knowledge. the vastness of territories that all kinds of modern means Denmark) But having thought it over care¬ place at the disposal of a relatively small hunting population Chairman of the fully, and having left Thule, I began (5,000 hunters operating all year round in the vast American Provincial to see Greenland as a whole and and Green'and Arctic). What's more, hunting must be seen Council realized that the policy followed in as a modern and highly mobile occupation. of Greenland Thule today reflects the aspirations I fear that after the departure of the discouraged Eskimos, of the Eskimos living there: they white industrialists may exploit these hunting grounds for want to be integrated into Green¬ themselves. And I should be surprised if they fail to land society. obtain the assistance and financial backing which the native Foxes, once the Eskimo hunter's staple, have declined people lack today. considerably, whereas the human population in these The Arctic is vast, and biologically almost unexplored. regions has risen. At Angmagssalik, for example, it would It would be astonishing indeed If so limited an Eskimo be wrong to disperse the hunters, but it may soon become population 80,000 in all, less all those who may not want necessary to cut back hunting expeditions gradually as to, or cannot, remain in the north failed to obtain the reserves of foxes and other wildlife will not be adequate. economic and administrative Independence they need for A similar situation prevails in other parts of Greenland. pursuing modern occupations. Because of its oil, natural It has to be accepted then that people who can no gas and minerals, the American and Siberian Arctic promises longer hunt must be steered into other activities. to be one of the regions with the highest per capita income in the world. A bold territorial policy would surely enable native communities to finance their own development. I must object once again to the Jean assertions made by the Canadian and Greenland authorities that wild¬ MALAURIE life stocks in the present hunting areas are Insufficient to meet the needs of today's hunting com¬ munities and that this shortage will be felt In the foreseeable future (in one or two generations). As regards foxes, Thule has always been, and still is, one of the world's best-stocked areas. The potential is still vast. There are 100 hunters in Thule; the territory is as big as 20 French departments, and it can be easily

Photo Georg Gerster © Rapho. Paris THE CHANGING CANADIAN ESKIMO

by Alexander Stevenson

Photo J.-Ph. Charbonnier © Réalités, Paris

12 The development of the North is a historical process that cannot be reversed'

TText © Copyright

HE traditional home of the ed from Asia across the Bering Strait source from which Eskimo culture Canadian Eskimos is over or over an isthmus which might have developed. 2.6 million square kilometres of Arctic joined Asia and America much farther If the ancestors of the present-day Canada. They have occupied this area back in time. They came as primitive Canadian Eskimos arrived in North since many centuries before Christ, hunters seeking game without realiz¬ America over 5,000 years ago, they wresting a precarious living from a ing that they had crossed into another had spread across 8,000 km. of harsh land where only a hardy and continent. winding coast from Siberia to Green¬ intelligent race could survive. Today Over the centuries there were a land by 1000 A.D. This is about the about 15,000 live in Canada, mainly in series of migrations; probably the same time that, according to the early coastal settlements of 200 to 500 earliest was of Indian people who Norse sagas, the Vikings sailed from Greenland across Davis Strait to people, scattered along many 'thou¬ almost never settled north of the tree- sands of miles of the Arctic mainland line. When the land bridge became Baffin Island. There they saw or met and archipelago. covered with water 11,000 years ago, people called Skraellngs a Norse word which seems to describe both It is generally agreed by anthropo¬ new arrivals could have crossed at the Indians and Eskimos. When the Norse logists that the ancestors of the first nearest points of headlands between withdrew, a gap of centuries passed northern Indians and Eskimos migrat- the continents. The short distance is 90 km. of open or frozen channel before explorers and adventurers across the Bering Strait to Alaska from again visited the stark, silent shores of Arctic Canada. the Asian side. It is difficult to generalize about The sub-Arctic may have been inhab¬ ALEXANDER STEVENSON, of Canada, is Eskimos as a whole because there are ited for up to 40,000 years, but the director of the Social Development Division of significant regional differences bet¬ Canada's Department of Indian Affairs and bleak Arctic tundra where the average ween groups. Generally speaking, the Northern Development. Since last year he has temperature for the warmest part of the great majority were coastal dwellers been directing a commission of inquiry into the year is less than 50°F. seems to have Eskimo language for Canada's National Eskimo and most of their food, fuel and had a shorter human past. Recent Association, and since 1969 he has headed clothing was obtained from the sea the consultative committee for the preservation findings in Alaska, known as the Den¬ in the form of walrus, whales, seals. of the historic heritage of the Far North. The bigh Flint complex, contain artifacts author has written a more extensive study of and evidence indicating this culture Land animals such as the caribou the Canadian Eskimos today, published In "The and musk ox also contributed to their Eskimo People Today and Tomorrow", Mouton goes back to 3500 B.C. and It is and Co., Paris and The Hague, 1973. generally accepted as the primary way of life. Many generations never

CONTINUED PAGE 30

ESKIMO HOMELAND

The Eskimos live on the nor¬ thern edge of the world, occu¬ pying a huge area stretching from eastern Siberia to Green¬ land and covering thousands of kilometres of coastline. Al¬ together there are some 80,000 Eskimos spread over four ter¬ ritories: Greenland (Denmark) has around 38,000; Alaska (U.S.A.) is the home of about 24,000 Eskimos; in Canada they number almost 1 5,000 and in Siberia (U.S.S.R.) less than 3,000. At left, an Eskimo Currently occupied by Eskimos (villages and hunting areas) couple in Alaska. Areas formerly inhabited by Eskimos but now abandoned

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Photo Charles Lenars © Atlas Photo, Paris ESKIMO TRADITIONAL WAYS MUST NOT DIE

Victors for thousands of years over a harsh environment, the Eskimos today face their greatest challenge : how to preserve their identity by Jean Malaurie

Text © Copyright

JEAN MALAURIE, French geographer and N America it is expected that the far as their limited local hunting and explorer, is professor of Arctic anthropology and last autonomous groups of native fishing resources allow, into consumer geomorphology at the University of Paris and hunters in the Arctic will disintegrate societies? Or is it felt that the com¬ professor of Arctic geography at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes In Paris, where he if not totally disappear within the next prehensive development of these un¬ Is also director of the Centre of Arctic Studies. 20 years. The total assimilation of the der-developed regions presupposes a Secretary-General of the French Foundation of native peoples of the North American respect for local cultures which form Nordic Studies, he is the author of over 150 scientific studies. In 1970 he produced and Arctic and sub-Arctic during this part of our global civilization and directed a film version of his best-selling book period is, however, quite impossible. without which the world would be so on the lile and present-day problems of the But the decline, already dating back much the poorer? Greenland Eskimos, "The Last Kings of Thule" (Crowe/I New York, 1956), translated into 15 some years and the cause of serious Not long ago Unesco defined this languages. His "Les Civilisations Esquimaudes" unrest, will only be hastened by complex notion of "development" as (Eskimo civilizations) was published last year, current mineral and oil prospecting in "any process aiming to create the andhis work, "Anthropogéographie Esquimaude " (Eskimo anthropogeography) , will appear shortly northern Alaska (Prudhoe Bay) and conditions of a given society's eco¬ (Plön Paris). In 1974, the French radio and TV northern Canada, and plans to speed nomic and social progress with the commissioned Jean Malaurie to make three films up the development of Greenland's help of that society's active partici¬ on "The Eskimos Face their Destiny" in co-opera¬ codfishing industry. pation and, if possible, at its own tion with native organizations and the authorities of Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Siberia. Is the object to incorporate these request." Shooting on location has been completed in societies in the West's market-oriented The French economist Daniel Nat Alaska and Canada and is under way in Green¬ land and Siberia. production system and turn them, as has made the following excellent ana-

14 MODERN LIFE PLAYS HAVOC WITH ESKIMO EYES AND the Eskimos enjoyed good eyesight, often spending long TEETH. Eskimos' eyes are very well adapted to the Arctic periods on close work in poor light. Dr Elizabeth Cass, of the climate. The eye fissure is extremely narrow (photo left), Department of National Health and Welfare, Ottawa, studied and to protect themselves against snow blindness Eskimos the eyesight of groups of Canadian Eskimos and discovered wear goggles carved of wood, bone, ivory or other materials that when Eskimo children moved to townships or settlements which admit light through a narrow slit (below). But changes where they ate starchy foods, poor in proteins, they began in diet brought about by contact with modern civilization to develop myopia. Starchy diets have also been found to have had deleterious effects on many Eskimos' eyesight. ravage the teeth of many young Eskimos, even resulting in When they lived in natural conditions on a high-protein diet. the total loss of teeth at adolescence and digestive disorders.

lysis of these points of view: "Either of Keewatin and Southampton Island jacket of their traditions, centred on we consider that a culture Is sovereign (In the Hudson Bay) should grow let¬ the family with its intricately woven and unique and that the material and tuce or eat canned fish, that a timber texture of kinship and its web of rules. cultural elements which comprise it industry should be developed in a For planners, the Eskimo needs edu¬ are indivisible; or we consider that treeless tundra, and that workshops cation, training in the white man's underdevelopment englobes all aspects manufacturing felt for hats should be system and a sense of responsibility. of society... A people's underdevelop¬ set up in Cambridge Bay. If current trends are not checked, ment then becomes, and this is the Boarding schools in northern Green¬ whole areas of the Arctic which have commonest attitude, a sign of Inferior¬ land provide no instruction in modern been populated for centuries will soon ity, a sickness inherited from the hunting methods for the sons of trap¬ be deserted. Idle and bitter, the Eski¬ past." pers. With local facilities offering, for mos will drift into a few big towns The white man's first contacts with the moment, no prospect of jobs other without an economic future places the Eskimos in the 18th century were than those they have done for cen¬ like Fairbanks, Anchorage, Nome and sometimes violent. Quite soon, how¬ turies, one wonders what kind of Kotzebue in Alaska ; Fort Chimo, Ran¬ ever, the native peoples put up only future these children are being edu¬ kin Inlet and Frobisher in Canada; and ä passive resistance, while trying to cated for. In the words of one obser¬ Godthaab, Godhavn, Angmagssalik and Thule-Kranak in Greenland. Unrest absorb into their culture everything ver, the progressive school conceived practical and useful the white man according to the assimilative ideas of will grow among these unemployed could offer them. the white man will end up by killing minorities and they will become in¬ development. creasingly difficult to assimilate. In reality, this superficial passive- Is it surprising then that the native The deserted plateaux of Keewatin ness showed the immense pragmatism and New Quebec, considered too poor of this impoverished people, their age- peoples, long uncomplaining, are be¬ ginning to grumble about the white in game for Eskimo hunters, will be¬ old patience and their unshakeable man's inconsistencies? "Send us back come a playground for millionaires confidence In their destiny. Econo¬ to our lands...", they say. "If we stay from southern Canada and the United mists have frequently misinterpreted the Eskimo's mask-like smile. It has here too long we shall have lost even States. This is already happening. the will to live." This at any rate was White tourists on hunting and salmon- been seen as a sign of eagerness to receive aid or become assimilated, the gist of what Garry Lake Eskimos, fishing trips are beginning to take the in Canada's District of Keewatin, told place of the Eskimo, whose status has whereas it was a manifestation, at government researchers in 1962. been reduced to that of guide. Who least until recently, of a desire to knows, the demand for local colour co-operate in a spirit of self respect The missionary will probably say may soon lead to the building of Eski¬ and dignity. that the Eskimo should be converted and turned Into a church-goer. The mo villages as tourist attractions. Given this state of Incomprehension teacher will argue that everybody, The governments exercising trustee¬ between the agents of the dominant white or Eskimo, should be given equal ship over these peoples are no longer society and the native peoples, it Is opportunities. He will tell Eskimo convinced that hunting is an econo¬ hardly surprising that some quite children that they should learn English mically viable activity, although some absurd situations have arisen. or Danish, for every white man is se¬ relatively impressive results have been It has actually been suggested that cretly convinced that bilingualism will achieved. Greenland still applies a ^ the inhabitants of Canada's District release these people from the strait- policy of guaranteed minimum prices to r

15 Photo Georg Gerster © Rapho. Paris Snowmobiles, above, are one of many modern innovations in the Far North. These motor-driven snow scooters mounted on a caterpillar track are widely used nowadays in parts of the Arctic, but in sub-zero temperatures, breakdowns are frequent and many Eskimos consider that dogs are more reliable for extended hunting expeditions. its hunting communities in the north¬ Thule, this territory provided its Ad¬ settling down more and hunting less. west and on the east coast, but neither ministrator (at the time, Knud Ras- They are increasingly dependent on Canada nor Alaska subsidize this vital mussen) and his staff with a relatively manufactured gadgets, investing less activity of their Eskimo population. high annual revenue. in production, and their traditional codes are falling Into disuse. This refusal to organize an economy The extraordinary cohesiveness of based on contracts is a measure of the Thule community was successfully Some Eskimos are leaving their the mistrust in which the native peoples preserved by Knud Rasmussen. As communities, and educated Eskimos, are held. The government reaction is: early as 1923, he gave the community scarcely representative of the com¬ "What future can they have as Eskimos a political form, through a series of munity's confused aspirations, are and hunters? Let's civilize them first; new laws based on old customs. A betraying their origins and seeking then we'll see." "Hunters' Council" with limited powers rapid assimilation into white society. And yet hunting has brought excel¬ but foreshadowing tomorrow's Eskimo Drunkenness and tooth decay are lent returns. In Its time it has made government, was set up to administer on the increase (few Eskimos do not a fortune for powerful firms like the the territory. ; Proud of their privileges, need dentures by the age of 40). They Hudson's Bay Company, and together the people felt that they were working are increasingly subject to eye dis¬ with other occupations like fishing and for themselves. Living in relative orders and their resistance to cold reindeer rearing, It has been organized isolation, the community was also has diminished as a result of un¬ on rational modern lines and still pro¬ protected from outside diseases and suitable foods (flour, jam, sugar, etc.). had no chance to eat unsuitable foods. vides a good income for the inhabi¬ This moral crisis and physiological tants of the U.S.S.R.'s Chukotka After Knud Rasmussen's death, and weakening have reduced productivity. region and the autonomous districts of especially since 1936, the adminis¬ Once a creditor society, the District northern Siberia. trative district of Thule was gradually of Thule Is now heavily in debt. This incorporated into the rest of Greenland, is particularly alarming because of the To be profitable, a hunting economy with the result that this model group of presence of a big military base at requires certain specific conditions. Eskimos lost its uniqueness and its Dundas-Thule. The first requirement is that the area privileges. Drawn by the garbage, large numbers should be biologically rich. Secondly, Since 1950 this decline has followed of foxes, prized by the hunters, con¬ the hunting community Itself must be a classic course, with the break-up of verge on the base (which is out of tightly-knit if the operation is to be the family as a unit of life and pro¬ bounds to Eskimos), with the result soundly managed. Thirdly, and this is duction (one woman in four now does that the rest of the region is depleted. especially true today, hunting must be not marry, but instead bears children The base is also a permanent remin¬ organized on industrial lines. If the to a number of men); abortions; a der to the hunters of their impove¬ second two conditions are not met, growing indifference to group interests; rishment, for an unskilled Danish or and if the native society is not pro¬ a weakening of leadership. American worker there makes four tected against itself, even the richest Young people are giving up the times more than an experienced hunting area will only support an kayak, since they are not taught how Eskimo hunter. impoverished community. to handle kayaks at school and are The Thule Air Base at Dundas has Before the Danish State took over afraid of sailing them. Marksman¬ thus become a symbol to the Eskimos, full responsibility for the District of ship is getting worse; the Eskimos are prompting them to ask questions about 16 the meaning of the historic segregation recognized that all cultures are equally by market prices, flying in the face of which they discover there. "It's too valid, and so long as the Universal any resistance on social or historical late," Eskimo hunters of the region Declaration of Human Rights is not grounds, or to guarantee these minor¬ told me again and again In the spring reinforced by a universal declaration ity peoples a future within the context of 1969. "The young are increasingly of the rights of societies as they are of a policy of overall development? at odds with their elders and lack and as they hope to be." As long as there is no well-defined confidence in themselves. They no integrated policy of getting the native longer know what they are and some The International Covenant on Econ¬ people to develop the tundra for their of them are likely to quit the land in omic, Social and Cultural Rights own use by their own efforts (as in the near future ... It is the cleverest, clearly indicates in Article I that "All the U.S.S.R. and Sweden) so that pri¬ those who have done best at school, peoples have the right of self-deter¬ ces paid to hunters and fishermen are who will go away. Our hunting mination. By virtue of that right they guaranteed at a very high level by economy, which depends on team freely determine their political status royalties from oil and mining industries effort, will be disrupted and further and freely pursue their economic, developed on their territory, there will impoverished. social and cultural development." be a strong temptation to drift into "The schools cream off the best of Article 11 of the Convention con¬ discouragement and pessimism and our hunters. As technicians, they will cerning the protection and integration encourage the derelicts of Arctic socie¬ only find work away from our territory, of indigenous and other tribal popu¬ ties to emigrate south or to the growing in the south, which is In some ways lations, adopted by the General mining Industries in the north. a foreign country to them. The less Conference of the International Labour An active, vigorous society is also intelligent ones will stay with us. They Organization in 1957, is quite explicit: a productive society. By turning to the don't learn how to handle a kayak at "The right of ownership, collective or Arctic seas (fisheries, fish breeding, boarding school, which also robs them individual, of the members of the etc.) and the tundra (traditional and of the opportunity to get day-in day- populations concerned over the lands modern ways of hunting, raising rein- out Instruction in hunting from their fathers. And so they won't be such good hunters. They won't be able to make a living from hunting. 40 MILLION ACRES FOR NATIVE ALASKANS "We only go out hunting regularly On December 18, 1971, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was signed by because we love our dogs and have the President of the United States. This was hailed by the native peoples of to feed them. And yet hunting is our Alaska as the beginning of a new era. The Act invested 12 newly created native real life, our natural source of satis¬ Alaskan "Corporations" with considerable economic and political power. faction as men. In the south don't The Corporations became the full owners of 40 million acres of land and all its they know that we don't live to underground resources, which they were free to choose. They also received the 'produce', but to be ourselves, living sum of $962.5 million from the U.S. Treasury in compensation for relinquishing together according to our customs? their historic rights to any other territories in Alaska. On December 18, 1974, the choice of lands by the Corporations was finally completed. "We Eskimos don't even own the Among the various legal provisions, one specifically authorizes and encourages land on which we have been living bilingualism ¡n all regions where the people still speak their native languages. for centuries. What will it be like The Eskimos and Indians of Alaska representing one-third of the State's population when oil is found beneath our soil? have displayed outstanding adaptability and political acumen in coping with the Whose will it be?" difficult legal and economic problems raised by the Settlement Act The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act may well provide a model or indeed It is easy enough to criticize, but a lesson, if some of its provisions turn out to be negative for any new measures these deplorable facts are convincing which might be envisaged for Canada as well as Greenland. proof that it is basic principles that must be re-examined, not remedies which are likely to turn out to be mere palliatives. The Thule hunters which these populations traditionally deer and musk oxen) the Eskimos will are in fact saying what Jean-Jacques occupy shall be recognized." regain their dignity and their full au¬ Rousseau observed two centuries ago: The Canadian Prime Minister, thority as a community, through doing work which is natural and familiar to "The slightest change In customs, Mr. Pierre Trudeau, has written that them. It Is Important that the life of the even if it has certain advantages, In view of Canada's "polyethnic" Eskimos as hunters and fishermen always turns out to the detriment of character, "the different regions within which is a civilization in itself no morals." Rousseau went on to add, the country must be assured of a wide longer be a survival from the past but with a wisdom close to that of the Eski¬ range of local autonomy, such that be recognized as a privilege and mo, "For customs are a people's mora¬ each national group, with an Increasing model for others to follow. This can be lity. The moment it ceases to respect background of experience In self- brought about through a hunting and them, there is no rule but its passions, government, may be able to develop no brake but laws." the body of laws and institutions essen¬ fishing production policy, biologically planned and economically guaranteed The questions that arise today need tial to full expression and development to provide high remuneration from to be framed In the context of the of its national characteristics." local oil revenues. general problem of relations between One could wrangle endlessly over co-existing cultures. the meaning of the word national, but Endowed with substantial financial resources, such a community could On this subject, an editorial which it cannot be denied that the Eskimos become the centre of modern Eskimo appeared in the review Inter-Nord and the Indians are ethnic groups with life, a true "national home", where in March 1968 had this to say: a national vocation. There was, one may recall, a confederation of Five those Eskimos who are eager to be¬ 'Until now these relations have come involved in the life of the south Iroquois Nations in the 18th century. usually been defined by outright (mining, public works, service indus¬ conquest, latent colonization, enforced Since 1951, administrative changes tries) could nevertheless rediscover have been taking place in Greenland, integration and by the anthropological their cultural identity. annihilation of the weakest. The and today the Greenland Council, the question now is whether the modern "Landsraad", is administratively auton¬ This is no Utopian idea. Already relationship patterns worked out in the omous within the Danish State. The Alaskan Trustees and Corporations American Arctic in recent years are changes reflect a trend towards an are studying revolutionary plans for radically different from previous increasingly autonomous system. Eskimo villages. The Eskimo people, we can be sure, still have plenty of attitudes, and whether they can What kind of development is being surprises in store for us. M eliminate the old ways of thinking, so sought in these regions? Is the aim long as it is not clearly and expressly to create an economy governed solely Jean Malaurie

17 « ' . ^ *

Photo J.-Ph. Charbonnier © Réalités, Paris

Eskimos have always depended on animals for 'Give me X- their survival, and many an Eskimo caught in a blizzard owes his life to the stamina and sense of direction of huskies like the one shown at left, peering through a snowy mask. In good conditions a hard-driven eight-dog team can and you pull a sled over 100 miles in 24 hours. "Give me winter, give me dogs and you can keep the rest", wrote the great Greenland ethnologist Knud Rasmussen (1879-1933). Trained huskies are invaluable on hunting expeditions, .using their keen sense of smell to sniff out seals' breathing holes and polar bears' lairs.

The young bears shown above will not harm the Eskimo children watching them, but hunting the full-grown animals across snow and ice, far right, is perilous. Bear-hunters use huskies to harass their quarry until they can get within shooting range. In the past, in some parts of the Arctic where there were few dogs a man would pursue a bear over long distan¬ ces on foot, armed only with a harpoon.

Skilled carvers, the Eskimos often depict ani¬ mals in ivory and stone. The base of this stone carving of a polar bear, right, by Manno, represents the animal's reflection on the ice.

Animal farming as well as hunting is practised in some parts of the Arctic. The forest of ant¬ e o lers seen in this striking light effect, above right, Q belongs to a reindeer herd on Yamal Peninsula in the Soviet Far North. '. sf Photo B. Ushmaikin © APN, Moscow winter, give me dogs can keep the rest' Open letter from Chief Dan George of the Capilano Indians

'I was born 1,000 years ago../

My very good dear friends : are ugly? It depresses man, for man level and flat and ugly the black top is. must be surrounded by the beautiful But look, now it is recess time, the WAS it only yesterday that man sailed around the moon? You if his soul is to grow. students pour through the doors. and I marvel that men should travel so Do you know what It is like to feel Soon, over there, is a group of white students and see, over there, near the far and so fast, yet if they have trav¬ you are of no value to society and elled far then I have travelled farther, those around you, to know that people fence, a group of native students, and and if they have travelled fast then I came to help you but not to work with look again, the black is no longer level: mountain ranges rising, valleys falling faster, for I was born a thousand years you, for you knew that they knew you and a great chasm seems to be ago, born in a culture of bows and had nothing to offer. Do you know arrows. But within the span of half a what It is like to have your race opening up between the two groups, yours and mine, and no one seems lifetime I was flung across the ages to belittled, and have you been made the culture of the atom bomb and from aware of the fact that you are only capable of crossing over. But wait, bows and arrows to atom bombs is a a burden to the country? Maybe we soon the bell will ring and the students distance far beyond the flight to the did not have the skills to make a will leave the playground. moon. meaningful contribution, but no one Integration has moved Indoors. would wait for us to catch up. We I was born in an age that loved the There is not much room in the class¬ were shrugged aside because we were things of nature and gave them beauti¬ room to dig chasms so there are only dumb and could never learn. ful names like "Tessoualouit" instead little ones there, only little ones for of dried up names like "Stanley Park". What is it like to be without pride we won't allow big ones, at least not I was born when people loved nature in your race? Pride In your family? right under our noses.

and spoke to it as though it has a Pride and confidence in yourself? What do we want? We want first soul: 1 can remember going up Indian What is It like? You don't know for of all to be respected and to feel we river with my father when I was very you never tasted its bitterness. I shall are people of worth; we want an equal young. I can remember him watching tell you what it is like. It is like not opportunity to succeed in life. But we the sunlight fires on Mount Pé-Né-Né. caring about tomorrow for what does cannot succeed on your terms, we I can remember him singing his thanks tomorrow matter! It Is like having a cannot raise ourselves on your norms, to It as he often did, singing the Indian reserve that looks like a junkyard we need specialized help In education, word "thanks" very very softly. because the beauty In the soul Is dead specialized help in the formative years, and why should the soul express an And the new people came, more and special courses in English; we need external beauty that does not match it? more people came, like a crushing guidance, counselling; we need equal rushing wave they came, hurling the And now, you hold out your hand job opportunities for our graduates. years aside, and suddenly I found and you beckon to me to come over: Otherwise our students will lose myself a young man in the midst of "Come and integrate", you say, but courage and ask: "Well, what Is the the twentieth century. how can I come? I am naked and use of it all?" ashamed; how can I come in dignity? I found myself and my people adrift Let no one forget it: we are a people I have no presents, I have no gifts. In this new age but not a part of it, with special rights guaranteed to us What is there in my culture you value? engulfed by its rushing tide but only . by promises and treaties. We do not My poor treasure you can only scorn. as a captive eddy going round and beg for these rights, nor do we thank Am I then to come as a beggar and round. On little reserves and plots of you for them because, God help us, receive all from your omnipotent hand? land, we floated in a kind of grey the price we paid was exorbitant. We unreality, ashamed of our culture which Somehow, I must wait, I must delay. paid for them with our culture, our you ridiculed, unsure of who we were I must find myself, I must find my dignity and our self respect. We paid and where we were going, uncertain treasure. I must wait until you want and paid and paid until we became a of our grip on the present, weak in something of me, until you need beaten race, poverty-stricken and our hope of the future. something that is me. I can raise my conquered. I had a glimpse of something better head and say to my wife and family: I know that in your heart, you wish than this for a few brief years. I knew "Listen, they are calling, they need me, you could help. I wonder if there is my people when they lived the old life; I must gol" Then, I can walk across much you can do, and yet there ¡s a I knew them when there was still a the street and I will hold my head high lot you can do. When you meet my dignity in their lives and a feeling of for I will meet you as an equal. I will children, respect each one for what he worth in their outlook; I knew them not scorn you for your gifts and you is: a child and your brother. Maybe when there was unspoken confidence will not receive me in pity. Pity It all boils down to just that. in the home and a certain knowledge I can do without. My manhood, of the path they walked upon. But I cannot do without. I shall not come Dan George they were living on the dying energy as a cringing object of your pityl I of a dying culture, a culture that was shall come in dignity or I shall not slowly losing its forward thrust. come at all! This letter from Dan George, chief of the We did not have time to adjust to You talk big words of integration in Capilano Indian tribe In British Columbia, the startling upheaval around us; we the schools: does it really exist? Can Canada, was read to a recent symposium on seem to have lost what we had without we talk of Integration until there is the economic development of the Arctic and a replacement; we did not have time social integration? Until there is the future of Eskimo societies (see pages 4-11) to take our twentieth-century progress by a missionary. Father André-Pierre Steinmann. Integration of hearts and minds you He told the symposium that in his ' view this and eat it little by little and digest it. have only a physical presence and the eloquent letter could equally well express the Do you know what it is like to be walls are high as the mountain range. feelings of Eskimos In Greenland and Canada. without moorings? Do you know what Father Steinmann, of Puvirnituq, New Quebec, Come with me to the playground of has spent over 30 years with the Eskimos and it is like to live In surroundings that an Integrated high school. See how is a pioneer of their cooperative movement.

20 The texts and drawings on the following pages are by Eskimo story tellers and artists. The illustrations are ÍTCDG PßGJPHß not taken from the Eskimo textbook presented here. They have been chosen from (1) a 1975 calendar of prints by Eskimos of Cape va Dorset, "On the Land Cape Dorset 1975", pub¬ lished by the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative Ltd., PMß IMIC Cape Dorset, North West Territories (2) a catalogue of Eskimo art, "Cape Dorset Prints 1973", also published by the West Baffin Eskimo On the following pages the "Unesco Courier" pre¬ Co-operative Ltd., (3) Paul- sents passages from a unique and as yet unpublished Emile Victor's "Eskimos, textbook of Eskimo culture. The chapter from which Nomades des Glaces" (Eski¬ the extracts are taken is an account of the Eskimo mos, Nomads of the Ice) way of life as related by the people of Payne Bay, published by Editions Mon¬ an Eskimo village of 250 inhabitants on Ungava Bay do, Lausanne, and Hachette, in New Quebec (Canada). While compiling the book, Paris 1972. a Canadian specialist in Eskimo language and culture, Michèle Therrien, spent many hours listening to the village story tellers of Payne Bay recounting for the benefit of their children the folk wisdom and skills which have enabled the Eskimos to survive in a harsh and inhospitable environment. In the past, Eskimo children lived in close contact with their parents, who were their sole teachers. With the coming of modern civilization and a more settled way of life, many Eskimo children now attend residential schools and are thus separated from the family and its traditional education. For this reason, Eskimos have often asked that special attention be given to the teaching of Eskimo culture in schools. The Eskimos use two sys¬ tems of writing, one sylla¬ It was in response to this wish that the School Board bic, the other alphabetic. of New Quebec asked Michèle Therrien to prepare The letters in syllabic writing a textbook in which the Eskimos themselves would above are pronounced "Kan- share in setting down the basic features of their girsumiut" and mean "the culture. Madame Therrien is a lecturer at the Centre people of Payne Bay". Payne Bay (whose Eskimo name is of Arctic Studies and at the Institute of Oriental Kangirsuk) isasmall villagein Languages and Civilizations (both in Paris). The the Canadian Far North textbook is to be published shortly in a trilingual whose inhabitants helped to Eskimo, English, French edition by the School produce the textbook of Board of New Quebec (Quebec Ministry of Educa¬ Eskimo culture, extracts of tion, Canada). which are published here.

The magic owl, copper engraving by Eskimo artist Kenojuak

21 the snow was deep enough to collecting firewood and looking The way we lived How we travelled cut blocks out of it. after the children.

FOOD: After the summer hunt¬ HOUSEHOLD EQUIPMENT: ing and fishing, the food was This consisted of a soapstone / When we were young, our Leaving the village, we used put in store. Seal meat was lamp (qulliq), lamp oil, rlintstone homes were cold places. My to follow the Payne river placed in balloon-shaped bags (kasuk), dried moss, sufficient mother used to go off fishing upstream. Accidents sometimes of sealskin (purtaq) from which sealskins to make the harness while I stayed behind. When happened. I remember Sarah the fur had been removed. for the dog-sleigh, a wooden she was nearly home, I could Attasi being pulled out of These were left on the spot platform on which the bed was hear the noise she made cross¬ the boat (umiak) by the rope and covered with rocks, and placed in the houses and hunt¬ ing the snow and at last I with which the dogs towed the when the men or the dogs ing igloos, crockery and uten¬ would see her emerging from boat along the river bank. The needed food in the winter sils. the darkness of the night. dogs were pulling the boat they would go out by dog- near to the bank and Sarah We were very thankful when sleigh to fetch it. It was TEMPERATURE: A sharp eye she brought fish back with her was helping them when the impossible to transport all the should be kept on the weather to see if it is suitable for hunt¬ or when my father brought rope got caught in the rocks fish and game taken during the summer to the winter back seal meat. When they and pulled her in. My father ing, gathering fuel etc. Check were away, I stayed by myself began shouting "She is dead". camp as families travelled the weather very early in the from summer to winter quar¬ in the cold house. The journeys were often very morning. ters by boat (umiak). The food When I grew up, I went off difficult, especially when we consisted of dried and frozen FISHING TACKLE, WEAPONS: in search of moss for the fire. were passing upstream through fish, walrus, whale and seal The hunter needs to have all I used to bring back great the rapids. The dogs would meat. Shellfish were a fa¬ his equipment in good order quantities of it. This was how pull the boat with long ropes, vourite food in summer. and ready for use. He makes it was until the time came to a woman going ahead to guide them. The men would look fishing-spears (kakivak) sledges move into the igloo. FUEL: In addition to wood, after the boat. The passengers and a canoe (kayak), and The menfolk used to hunt the seal oil (ursuq) and various were not allowed to move. The cleans his gun. He makes a mosses were used for lighting walrus. When the hunting had men rowed and the man at the white screen out of a piece of the stove. They were stocked been good, they would bring tiller had to be very careful. cotton or skin, stretched over the sledge (qamuti) laden with up in the autumn, like food. a wooden frame for seal-hunt¬ I recall another accident. The meat inside the igloo. The Brushwood was gathered be¬ ing, to conceal him from his boat was holed and the peo¬ fore the snow fell. Fuel was meat used to be cut up imme¬ prey. He gets his cartridges ple in it were drowned. Two diately after the kill and soon needed every day for heating ready. Before guns came into of them, an old man and his froze on the way back. Thus and cooking. use, hunters used to have to we would have a supply of wife, were washed away and make their bows and arrows the stream carried their bodies TRANSPORT: The traditional good fresh food. We usually and harpoons. The hunter umiak of wood and skins was ate it raw because the oil lamp right from the headwaters of always needs to carry a knife the Payne river back to the (qulliq) cooked things only very replaced by a more modern and a bag with him. all-wooden boat. The umiak slowly. village. Mary Taqullk was only used in summer and SEAL HUNTING: The hunter When we gave up the igloo a family rich enough to own may be hunting the seal single- and moved back into our tent, one would invite another family handed on the ice. He climbs it felt warm and seemed very to use it to return to winter a hill to see if there are seals light, and life was quiet and camp (it could carry about ten around. If there are, he sets peaceful. people). off with his dogs, taking with Mary Taqullk him a youngster to hold off preparing CLOTHING: Autumn was a for the long winter very busy season for the wom¬ in days gone by enfolk,, who had to sew all the winter clothes for their husbands and children: mittens, atigi (warm jacket), coats of SHELTER: People used to live caribou or sealskin or eider¬ in tents made of skin from the down-stuffed coats, sealskin springtime until late autumn. boots, trousers. All this sewing After hunting and fishing, they was done in addition to the Sun dance, would return to Payne Bay in usual daily chores of cooking. stone cut print, autumn but would leave again by Kalvak for their camp in the winter. They would use their tents until Solitude, stone cut print, by Kalvak there was enough snow to build an igloo, putting up a wall of snow round them until

22 the dogs while he tries to kill There 'are no trees here and down a long way from the the seal. After the kill, he How to build you. must be very careful when village. you go out hunting. If you are signals to the youngster to an igloo in a storm When the Igloo is finished, bring up the sledge. If they going to be away for more than you still need to protect your¬ suspect there are other seals in a day, if you cannot get back self. Just coming into the the neighbourhood, the young¬ to the village and a storm is in igloo from the cold immediately ster will stay in the background You need to know quite a lot the offing, you must size up makes you feel warm, but if the situation very carefully. and try to calm the dogs. to build an igloo. We used to you have no sleeping bag or Every minute counts when build shelters for ourselyes heater it starts to feel very snow is falling, the northeast FISHING IN WINTER: Fishing when we travelled with dogs cold inside at night. When this and we still build them even wind is blowing and dark Is done through the ice with happens, you must keep mov¬ now when we travel with snow¬ clouds are building up. a hook and line. One can also ing about. You should dig mobiles. build a stone dam (saput); the If you are making an igloo a hole in the snow and put fish then group together and It's dangerous when the during a snowstorm and you your feet in the hole, keeping can be speared with the snow is falling and the wind see the snow piling up around your boots on to prevent frost¬ kakivak. blowing at the same time. The the igloo, it is a danger signal, bite. You must also find igloo may be buried or you may especially if you have only just something to sit. on so that FISHING IN SUMMER: Nets lose your way. You must stop started building. This has hap¬ your clothes do not get wet. and think where to build and pened to me twice. When the are used, and must be placed I was taught how to get in a certain way if the catch you must choose the right spot, fresh snow covers the igloo around and how to build a is to be a good one. They otherwise the igloo may be you must abandon it and find shelter. I watched others do it should not be stretched too blown away or covered with another place to build a shelter. and I did it myself. You should tight, they must be kept clear snow. My brother used to go with try to do things that are worth of waterweeds and must not Nowadays we use fast snow¬ me and I was careful not to doing. I say these things so be placed in deep water where mobiles which can get. us back let him out of my sight. I that the young people should it is difficult to net fish. to the village quickly, if all used to call him so that we know about them. What I am goes well, but you have to did not get separated. If you saying will help them when TRAPPING: Both men and learn to take precautions just cannot make yourself heard, it they hear others talk about women set traps. A good catch in case. Is better to call the dogs since these things or have to do depends on having a good they have very good hearing. them themselves. They may You put a canvas screen technique. The trap must be This was how I found where seem hard to believe at first, upwind from the igloo; if you covered over with soft moss, I was when I called to my but when you try them out, haven't got a screen, you can not too thickly or the moss dogs for help. It is a good use blocks of snow. Soft snow you will find that they are will get caught while the fox idea to carry some reserves is soon blown away and you useful, particularly during our in case of a sudden storm. escapes. The scrap of meat cannot build with it. It is diffi¬ coldest months, December, or rotten eggs that are put in cult to breathe inside the igloo You must also look after the January and February. the trap should not be too big when there is no wind. You snowmobile. When we used Zacharissie Tarqiapik or the fox will be able to bite should also be wary of freezing to have dog sleighs, we built them without getting caught. snow. When it is very cold a platform with blocks of snow The direction of the wind is and the igloo is on too high and put the qamuti (sledge) on important: If the trap is up¬ ground, the snow can easily be it out of reach of the dogs, wind from the fox, it will be blown away. which would otherwise eat the attracted by the smell and go harness. A snowmobile can If there is no good snow straight towards the trap. get buried under the snow, and about, you have to build an Young boys also set traps. it is also very heavy to lift. igloo with whatever you can It is always a red-letter day find. The best snow for build¬ Before leaving the village, when a catch is made as the ing igloos is shiny, with crystal¬ make sure you have a knife and a screen. Without these proceeds of the sale can be lized snowflakes on its surface, used to buy tools or hunting looking as if rain had fallen on implements, a hunter can freeze weapons. it. This is good snow; it looks to death or get frostbite in his feet if his snowmobile breaks the same on top and under¬ FAMINE: When food is short, neath. It is neither too soft nor families count on one another's too hard. help. Those who have a little food share it with their neigh¬ bours. People still remember particularly difficult years when families broke up and went their separate ways to avoid running out of food. Sias! Grey Saalati Simioni and Minnie Annaatak

Life in the igloo, stone cut print, by Kalvak

23 The state of the ice Dangers of the ice Fishing Hunting in autumn in springtime

Put a piece of tunu (caribou Floating ice is sometimes You should know that In the There are several signs meat), fat or guts of fish on piled up by currents at the old days, when the dogs were which warn you that the spring the end of the line to attract mouth of the Payne river. One the fish. You can also use crossing dangerous ice, it was Ice is dangerous. These are must be very careful. easy to turn around and go some of the signs you will a piece of white cotton. When you are going hunting back. In the daytime you could see on lakes and rivers. Be¬ The bait should not be attach¬ and you want someone to go tell by the dogs what state the ware of holes filled with ed too firmly or the fish will with you, never force anyone ice was in. Nowadays, the soft snow, which forms little not bite. to go. They may agree to it bubbles. Melting ice is also snowmobile keeps straight on Saalatl Simian! without really wanting to. So and there Is no means of know¬ dangerous. The ice sometimes they may be lazy and careless ing whether the ice is dan¬ looks firm underneath a layer during the hunting expedition. gerous or not. of snow but the snow may An accident can happen or you conceal a hole. When you see small snow- can lose your boat if the per¬ flakes on the surface of the Lakes which are in the lee son with you doesn't look after Ice it means that this is Ice of mountains often have holes it properly. This sort of thing Gathering shellfish which has only just frozen and filled with soft snow. always causes trouble. in winter A woman can be very useful which is not yet very solid. When you want to walk on if she is used to hunting. She So it Is dangerous. You some¬ a lake, it is best to keep at times also see a sort of snow can do the things that a boy first by the shore where the mixed with water. The fisherman makes a hole would do in similar circums¬ snow is piled up. Ice and in the ice and slips down tances and she will also learn You should never walk on snow float better where the through iL At low tide, it is to hunt well in addition to new ice. Lakes sometimes snow on the shore of the lake possible to crawl along under working at home. seem to be frozen hard, but is deep. the ice. You take a lamp with the ice may be very thin In When you kill a seal, you Zacharlssle Tarqlaplk you and in this way you can the middle. There is no dan¬ must cut it up immediately and gather the shellfish from the ger near the shores of the put the pieces in the boat. If rocks. Sometimes there is no lake: the water begins to you get caught in the ice, you need to make a hole, as the freeze around the edges and can then easily throw the cracks in the ice are big the Ice gradually spreads pieces overboad. It is also enough for a man to pass towards the middle of the lake. Building a kayak better to stay within sight of through. other boats. If you are in Zacharlssle Tarqtaplk This is a very dangerous danger you can easily call for way of collecting shellfish. help. Fishermen have sometimes It takes four weeks to build If you see a seal lying on been unable to find the hole a new kayak, including the time the ice with its fur dry, it needed for sewing the skins. where they came in and have means that it is asleep. If Its Four large seal skins are need¬ been caught under the thick fur is wet it Is not asleep and ice as the tide rose. ed for a large kayak. The can see you perfectly well, as finished boat is heavy and Saalatl Slmlonl seals have sharp eyesight You two men are needed to carry can try to catch it by making it down to the water. The lots of noise. people of the interior used to The mother seal is very dan¬ use a kayak made of wood gerous. It loves and protects and caribou skin. It was light its young. It will attack your enough to be carried by one boat if you try to kill the young. man. It has very sharp claws. Tumasl Kallak As they rise to the surface, big seals make bubbles. Just before a seal emerges, the ice moves and you will see two big bubbles. If you touch the ice, it will know you are there. The best thing is to hit it the moment it appears. Game, stone cut print, Owl, detail from a by Akourak print by Joe Talirunili The small seal, known as tigituraq, Is easier to hunt. Even if the boat makes a lot of noise as it runs into the Ice, these seals are not bothered.

You can try listening for big seals by holding an oar pushed through the ice. When you hear the seal coming towards the boat, you must circle round and round the same point. The seal will then surface for a second.

Tiriluk seals are often found on Ice floes around islands at low tide.

You sometimes see seals on the ice but you cannot get to them because too many ice floes are being carried along by the current, but you some¬ times also see places which are not dangerous. If you find a place where there ¡s a lot of ice or where the ice floes are too near to each other, you can easily pull

24 away from the shore; when we used kayaks, it was more diffi¬ Hunting the fox Hunting the hare The diver bird cult as the kayak was heavy and had no motor.

Beware of freezing water. When the hunter goes around The hunter can follow the Old people believe that the In autumn sea water Is very his traps in autumn, he some¬ tracks of hares on the hills. diver bird can tell them certain heavy, much heavier than fresh times sees a fox outside the water would be. When there If the hare is going round one things. When the diver is in trap. If the fox sees the hunter, side of the hill, the hunter can the water and moves its body is snow on the surface, It looks the hunter must pretend not set off round the other side from side to side to show that as if no snow has fallen. That to have seen it so as not to and meet it. Its feet are pointing in a certain is the time to be very careful. frighten it away. direction, it is called nulurtutuq, Also, you should not leave If the hare hides among big which means that it is holding your boat on the ice near the If the fox does not see rocks to rest, it will stay there its feet above the water. water's edge, and especially the hunter coming, the hunter until the hunter sees it When not at right angles to the sea. should hide behind a rock and the hunter approaches, it runs You must then look to see The melting Ice may break and whistle. The fox will think it away. The best thing to do is if both its feet are raised: If the boat may slip into the is a lemming and will come to pretend not to see it and to so the diver telling you that water. Put it in a safe place. closer. head off in another direction to it has seen caribou In a certain , Ice breaks near the shore. find a good angle from which direction. If the fox is facing him, the to shoot. Before trying to walk on the hunter must stop when the fox The hunter knows that the ice when you have seen a seal, stops, otherwise it will run Never walk straight towards caribou are there but still a you must make sure that the away. When a fox is near and a hare. By approaching from long way away If the diver ice will not break. When there is not looking in the hunter's the side, you can get very does not dabble its feet in the is not much ice left round direction, the hunter should fire close to it. It is possible to water when it moves them. about, what remains will be quickly before the fox sees follow the tracks of hare, but This means that the hunter will brittle. him. If you see a fox asleep, they may go on for a very reach the spot where the herd rolled up in a ball, you can get long way. It is better to look of caribou is in two or three Take care of your canvas very close to it. elsewhere. days. screen. Do not rest your gun near the frame. Fire over the Saalatl Simionl Saalatl Simionl He sets off straight away and top of the screen because when he arrives in the area some seals have very keen indicated, he immediately sees eyesight and you may other¬ tracks on the ground; he then follows them in the direction wise miss your chance to fire. Hunting the ptarmigan shown by the diver. If you are walking towards a seal and you see it move Its If the diver dabbles its feet head, you must stop If it starts in the water as It moves, then Walk down wind. If you see to move. the hunter knows that the several birds together and they caribou are nearer. Seals raise their heads when fly off, you know that they will they are breathing in. They do settle again. Walk down and If you are soon going to not breathe when they are lying fire. Some of them will fly run out of food during the down, just as if they were in away and settle a little further summer time, the diver appears the water. to be very sad; it makes a off. Keep following them down Slmloni Simionl, wind and In this way you can noise showing that it knows the kill them all. people are going to go hungry. Zacharlssle Tarqiaplk, If you see a pair of divers Tumasl Kallak It is good for children to go dancing on the water and with their parents to hunt the and Augiak Tamisa making a lot of noise, it means ptarmigan, but they must stay well away and be careful. you are going to be lucky and have plenty to eat. They some¬ When the birds hide, you can times even disturb the water follow their tracks. on a very calm lake and this Saalatl Slmloni is an omen for the hunters.

Killing a caribou, stone cut print by Kalvak

Joyfully, I see ten caribou, print by Pootagok

25 When the diver flies In a would help me. I would simply circle and looks as if It is going give them their head. Left to Foot races When they returned to Puvir¬ to land, this means that there itself, a dog will find its own and bail games nituq, the hunters used to are caribou nearby but you way, but If the hunter tries to collect whale oil during the cannot see them. If the hunter direct it, the dog will probably summer. This used to be sent has understood this signal from get lost in the snowstorm as off to the south. Some hunters the diver, he should go to a well. Puvirnituq means stinking went away to hunt caribou nearby hill to spot the caribou. rotten meat (during the hot inland. Those who stayed to Nowadays we use snow¬ work were taken on by the These things are only of summer). mobiles and we have to be very whites and were paid a wage; use to those who know the There were several women careful. There is nothing to part of the money was given habits of the diver. who used to travel over the help the driver. I can easily to them in the morning and What I have said is true: ice. They used to build their lose my way If I don't watch the rest in the afternoon. A own igloo. There were also these things have really hap¬ out. I know that some paths whole day's wages were called groups of men who hunted. pened. are dangerous. I would have tatauti. They had a dog which used Tumasl Kallak been very glad If someone else had warned me about them. A to smell out the holes in the The various people of Unga- track leading out of the village ice. The hunters would stick va the Sirqinirmiut, the Nuna- can sometimes become bad and their harpoons in the hole in miut and the Sinaamiut used Hunting expeditions, dangerous, especially in spring- the ice and pile blocks of snow to get together for games. yesterday and today . time. all around. Then they would Some of these people lived on wait all night for the seal to the coast, some on the main¬ Unless I keep an eye on the come up to breathe. Some¬ land, and some on the ice. weather, I can run Into trouble. times they would fall asleep. They used to organize compe¬ You need plenty of petrol for How shall I tell the story? The men were so hungry that titions. Their clothes were the return journey, especially if Perhaps I can tell you what I they grabbed hunks of meat. very prettily decorated. it takes longer than the outward know myself, by my own ex¬ One of them cut his hand journey. Two of the women folk had perience, things that nobody without even feeling it. One a reputation for embroidering else has taught me. It would have set my father's of the hunters who wanted to beautifully ornamented clothes. and mother's minds at rest if keep all the pieces for himself I used to have dogs and a They began to sell these to I had learned to move around had nothing at all. sledge. I went out in all wea¬ the Europeans and learned two thers. When there was a safely away from the village: They fed their dogs on a kind words: yes and no. snowstorm and I did not know that is what the Inuit think. of soup made with seal meat. which way to go, my dogs Piita Angutlnguak One of the hunters was There used to be foot races responsible for warning the and ball games. To decide others If the ice started to which of the teams should have break. If it did, they would the first turn In the team set off for the land. The jour¬ games, a circle was drawn and ney might take a whole day. a stake to which was attached a loop of rope was driven into The igloo built on the ice the ground. The ball had to had a block of ice in place of be thrown as high into the air a window. This ice came from as possible and had to pass a lake which was often far through the loop. away. Every time they moved they took the window with Tumasl Kallak them but sometimes they forgot it and they would have to go back to fetch it.

Caught out at his own game stone cut print, by Akourak ^^

Geese, man, and animals, print, by Parr

26 Into the Soviet tundra...

..where learning to lasso reindeer is an everyday

by Vladimir I. Vasilyev school subject

Text © Copyright

THE peoples of the north in the inhabited by the peoples of the north had been satisfactorily solved in most U.S.S.R. have always handed were virtually non-existent. Then in the districts of the north. (See "Schools down their stock-breeding skills from first years of Soviet rule school build¬ of the Soviet Far North", "Unesco generation to generation within the ing began in the Far North and con¬ Courier", June 1972.) tinued at a brisk rate. By the end of the family or the encampment. Young In the years which followed, particu¬ 1930s there were 86 day and boarding children were taught the basics of lar attention was devoted to increasing schools in four of the seven districts animal farming, and as they grew older the number of schools and Improving of the Far North and In' the Murmansk they learned more advanced methods teaching methods, specially adapted to and techniques. Studies of this prac¬ oblast (administrative region). local conditions. tice have led to the idea of a "people's In addition to the permanent schools, In 1970, the Far North regions had school" providing vocational training mobile schools began to be opened more than 600 schools of different for young people in the Far North. in the tundra and the taiga forest types, including primary (four years The passing on of practical know¬ regions of Siberia about 40 years ago, of schooling), shortened secondary in reindeer breeders' camps, among ledge from parents to children has long (8 years' course) and full secondary been an integral part of general family fishing communities, and in places (10 years' course). education, in the past the only means inhabited seasonally by hunters, fisher¬ These secondary schools provide of vocational training. men and herdsmen. The purpose of these mobile schools was to provide training in various occupations such In czarist Russia schools providing education in the native tongues for the as reindeer-breeding, fishing, etc., and general education in the districts greatest possible number of children, the teaching is specially adapted to most of whom at that time shared the farming conditions In the Far North nomadic life of their parents. regions, where reindeer farming is the chief activity. VLADIMIR I. VASILYEV is a Soviet historian This intensive drive to open schools and ethnologist who has taken part in 15 ex¬ in the Far North paid dividends. In a The vocational training of children peditions to the tundra and taiga regions of the in the Far North as it exists at present Soviet Far North and East. Author of over fairly short time schools were available 30 studies on the peoples and cultures of these for all children over the age of seven, comprises three main stages: regions and their present social and economic both those living sedentary or semi- 1) Vocational training for pre-school development, he is currently engaged on res¬ earch at the Institute of Ethnography of the sedentary lives and the nomads. By children and those in junior classes at* U.S.S.Ft. Academy of Sciences. about the 1940s this education problem school (5 to 10 years) generally takes r

27 place within the family. At this age jects are taught in the native languages. the chief subject taught there has been toys are the main teaching aids. These 2) The next stage of vocational the raising of furred animals. are usually miniature versions of tools training is important because it intro¬ In the two upper classes, two and which are (or were) used by adults duces the children to the techniques three hours respectively were devoted in daily life. Among the most common of fishing, hunting, reindeer-breeding to this subject each week. Lessons are bows and arrows, which develop and other occupations of the Far North. were also given on a stock-rearing qualities such as accuracy and visual At this age (11 to 15), the children farm belonging to the local kolkhoz judgement. Hunting games such as familiarize themselves with fishing and (collective farm), known as "Zarya throwing the lasso (maoute, chaoute) hunting equipment. They are taught kommunizma" ("the dawn of com¬ develop similar skills. Gradually, how to look after reindeer, and learn munism"), under the direction of the parents see to it that their children about the biology of furred animals biology teacher and a specialist in spend less and less time playing. and fish. They do jobs on reindeer the breeding of furred animals. Each Games begin to take on a more pract¬ farms, working directly with the pupil looked after two or three animals. ical character: children use young rein¬ reindeer-breeders. Other schools in the north gear deer as targets for lassoing and prac¬ The secondary school in the village their education to hunting, fishing or tise harnessing dogs to small sleighs. of Novoye Chaplino (Chukotka district) reindeer-breeding, and some combine The basic vocational training in the is a concrete example of the kind of training in a number of these activities. junior classes consists of energetic vocational training courses provided The secondary school of Laryakskaja games and sports (especially skiing). for the children of the Far North. In the district of Khanta-Mansi Is No vocational training is provided in Chukchi, Eskimo and Russian children a case in point: it offers courses in the primary schools, where all sub attend this school, and in recent years hunting, fishing and the breeding of

28 furred animals. Another school, at during the winter holidays they help Ust'-Belsk in the district of Chukotka, out in partridge rearing. trains its pupils In fishing, breeding The family, however, still plays a furred animals and raising reindeer. key role in vocational training, de¬ At Bajkitski in the Evenk district, the pending on the children's ages. Skills school provides instruction in hunting normally acquired within the family and the breeding of furred animals. Include: how to use fire-arms, how to The education provided In each handle draught animals and reindeer school is determined by the economic sleighs, how to cure reindeer skins, needs of the local kolkhozes and make certain kinds of clothes and sovkhozes (state farms). Particular prepare food. Not all schools in the care is taken to ensure that the schools north can yet provide every aspect have adequate equipment and are of the vocational training described well-staffed. above, and so the contribution of the In practice, all the reindeer-breeding family is still highly Important. instruction is provided by the kolkho¬ 3) During the final stage of vo¬ zes and the sovkhozes. For example, cational training, teen-agers specialize at Novoye Chaplino school mentioned in the work they have chosen. After above, the head teacher and the local taking the short course of secondary kolkhoz arranged for pupils in the education, some pupils choose to con¬ four senior classes whose parents centrate on reindeer-breeding and go were members of the farm's reindeer- on to attend more advanced courses In breeding sections to work with them animal farming, which are available in during the summer as apprentice- many districts and in the bigger towns herdsmen. A large number of pupils of the polar region. These schools in schools In the Taimyr district work train technicians specializing in the during the summer in the fishing breeding of reindeer and furred sections of the local kolkhoz, and animals. For instance, the Naryan-Mar ^technical school In the Nentsy district trained 608 students in 14 years, including 139 Nentsys and 135 Komis.

At the end of the short course of secondary education (and In some cases even before), some teenagers start work immediately in the various sections of the kolkhozes and sovkho¬ LEARNING zes, one pupil usually being assigned to each section. BY DOING In the hunting sections, pupils learn In the vast Chukotka dis¬ how to set traps, how to skin animals, trict of northern Siberia, how to treat hides, and how to track reindeer farming is still animals. the most important tra¬ Apprentice fishermen learn all about ditional occupation of the native peoples. In the the art of fishing: where to fish in Soviet Far North the different seasons, how to tell the depth of the water, and how to forecast the schools provide special weather. lessons on the habits of reindeer (below). But In the reindeer-breeding sections, handling a lasso (left) the pupil learns all about the herds¬ needs a high degree of man's job; he is taught about calving skill, and there is no real and migrations and how to distinguish substitute for practical between the different breeds of experience and guid¬ reindeer and the various kinds of ance from parents. pasture. He learns how to build and repair reindeer sleighs, and how to train draught reindeer and hunting dogs. A specialist is responsible for each pupil throughout the training period.

Training lasts from one and a half to two working seasons for fishing and furred animals and from two to three years for reindeer-breeding. After this the pupil becomes a full member of his section.

Such is the present educational system in the Far North of the U.S.S.R. In the future it will, of course, have to be improved. But generally speaking this vocational training system meets current requirements In training the specialists which are acutely needed by the farms and communities of the reindeer-raising economy of the north.

Vladimir I. Vasllyev

2$ THE CHANGING CANADIAN ESKIMO

Continued from page 13

saw any explorers or whalers and fatalistic phrases passed down by The trader was a more permanent some had very infrequent association generations to today is Ayungamut: fixture than the whaler; he introduced with the traders. Historically they it cannot be helped. the idea of bartering white fox furs firmly believed that theirs and the Traditionally, the Eskimo believed for store goods, and in so doing animal life of the hunt was the only that the amount of game which the prevented the Eskimo from ever again world of man. hunter secured depended upon his being totally independent. The luxu¬ ries of store supplies became the This is reflected in the name they relations with the spirits who con¬ necessities of the home. called themselves Inult The People trolled the supply of animals. He used (the real or only people). The word harpoons, fish spears, bird darts and The development of the white fox Eskimo, meaning "Eaters of Raw bows and arrows and could usually trade, however, has had both good and Meat", appears to have originated obtain enough food to sustain life. bad effects on the Eskimos. Opinions from the language of the Algonquin The primitive weapons did not appre¬ differ as to which out-balances the Indians In Eastern Canada. It was ciably affect wildlife resources as a other. The trade had revolutionized absorbed into French and was first whole. their way of life and disrupted many used in 1611. The introduction of the rifle made of their traditional habits. The white fox was prime from November to Although early explorers of the it much easier for the hunter to pro¬ April the period when most Eskimos Canadian Arctic had met Eskimos from vide meat for his family, but it also of the past would be hunting seals at time to time over a period of 300 years, put modern weapons Into the hands they had few dealings with them. of men who killed more than they The people lived in a natural economy, needed. Resources on which they had gaining their food and clothing from depended for so long were quickly the hunt. depleted. Whales were virtually wiped out; walrus were slaughtered and They were sheltered through the became scarce where they had been long dark winter in an amazing piece plentiful. The musk oxen were elimi¬ of architecture the igloo or snow nated from the coastal areas. house; In summer they lived in tents By the turn of the century, the ESKIMO YOUNGSTERS, like all chil¬ of seal or caribou skin. There was bottom had dropped out of the whaling dren, love to play and are especially some sort of balance with nature and market and a new influence came with good at improvising games with the perhaps the population in those days the arrival of the traders. Hudson's simplest of materials. Opposite page, was about 20,000 to 25,000, or nearly Bay Company traders turned their wooden planks on a mound of earth one-third more than the present figure attention to the fur of the Arctic or provide "springboard" see-saws for' of 15,000. white fox; this luxury fur then became these children at Kotzebue in Alaska. But there Is no point in idealizing. the principal commodity exchanged by Below, a Greenland Eskimo family has Their numbers remained small because the Eskimos for food, utensils and hung out its embroidered sealskin death came often. Eskimos starved, equipment from the south. boots on a line to dry in the sun. died by violence, died young. Possi¬ bly they had some of the diseases of our civilization before we came arthritis, heart disease, pneumonia, appendicitis. Life was precarious and life was relatively simple. Eskimos had learned to conform to the nomadic hunters' way of life and the climatic cycle of the seasons. They were almost imprisoned in their Arctic environment. The historian Arnold Toynbee refers to Eskimos as one of the arrested civilizations whose "tour de force" was living and hunting on or around the shores of the Arctic seas. This demanded so much of their energy that none was left to apply to further advances. The climatic cycle made them captives of their Arctic environment.

They had no written . literature or writing of any sort but they had a strong cultural heritage in the story, the folk song, the drum dance. They had ethics, taboos and philosophies of social relations which were practical and effective for the good of all. In some respects their morality shocked the newcomers from the south, but it was a morality born of the Arctic environment and not Europe's. In time It was we who changed their philosophy and brought many tensions and contradictions to these hardy, resourceful people. They retained their sense of humour even In the extreme adversity that they faced daily. One of their philosophical or

30 Photo J.-Ph Charbonnier © Réalités, Paris

their breathing holes, the floe-edge, established at a number of places. illiterate. One in eight had active or at open water leads. The Eskimos The situation of the Eskimo people tuberculosis. This was the early 1950s replaced "bannock" made of flour for became a matter of concern to the and as the world was becoming more some of their customary foods like Canadian public. and more conscious of the needs of seal meat and developed a taste for the developing nations, Canada was A high incidence of tuberculosis tea, sweets and tobacco. becoming equally conscious of the was discovered among the Eskimos, needs of its first Arctic citizens, the The white fox, before the advent of and epidemics of other diseases the white man, was perhaps the most Eskimos. The jet age broke down followed the greater contact with men barriers of distance and the isolation useless animal in the country. The from the south. The white fox market of an almost stone-age people. primitive Eskimo seldom used the pelt collapsed in 1949, creating serious because it was not strong and durable hardship, and brought a rather belated In the past decade great progress like the seal, the polar bear or the realization that the Eskimos could no has been made in health care and all caribou. It did not have layers of fat longer be treated as an isolated group. Eskimos now have regular medical common to other Arctic animals with examinations. Tuberculosis is a conti¬ Steps would have to be taken to the result that the flesh was seldom nuing problem and although they are prepare them to take their place in a eaten. building up an immunity to other changing Arctic and eventually to be diseases introduced from the south The Eskimo did not entirely give up integrated into the Canadian economy. his seal hunting practices to trap they are still subject to many of these. With this inevitable change the Eski¬ foxes; he only interrupted them during One of the latest efforts made to mos had three great needs health, the short trapping season. The tran¬ education and an economy that would raise the standard of living for Eski¬ sition from a hunting economy to mos and combat the adversities of a support them. trapping and hunting was much the harsh environment was the federal same as when our ancestors turned One essential fact of the Canadian government's approval in 1965 of a from hunting to agriculture and indus¬ Arctic In the mid-twentieth century five-year rental housing programme. try to obtain a better and easier way was that change had come and come The aim was to provide suitable living of life with many amenities resulting irrevocably. Another essential fact Is accommodation to all Eskimos in the from the change. that the Arctic as it was in the early north according to family size and at 1950s had to change again unless From roughly the early years of a rent based on family economy and the Eskimos were to be condemned to this century onward to World War II, resources. The nomadic igloo-tent life slow exinctlon or permanent economic the allure of the new goods offered of the Eskimos is now changing to a and social serfdom. by the fur trade gradually enmeshed community one. the Eskimos in a new economy and The land would no longer support One of the cornerstones of any with it came the breakdown of a very them. The caribou had declined alarm¬ framework of a positive social and ancient way of life. This influence was ingly from about 600,000 to around economic structure is, of course, edu¬ widespread in varying degrees over a 175,000 In the five years from the end cation. At the mid-century mark of million square miles of Arctic territory. of the war to 1950. The white fox, sole 1950, out of an Eskimo population of However, until the world conflict Eskimo source of income, had dropped approximately 9,000 in the Northwest Canadian Eskimos still lived a fairly from $30 or more to about $5. The Territories, only 120 Eskimo children primitive nomadic life in a remote, cost of store goods was rising. went full time to school. sparsely populated country. The Eskimos had learned to read No Eskimos had reached matricu¬ The war and the rapid development and write using a simple syllabic script, lation, none had received a vocational of long-range air travel broke down but their source of reading was mostly training course, none could aspire to the isolation of the Arctic. Defence, religious material. In the English or a job higher than trapping for the meteorological and radio stations were French language they were 95 per cent white man or being his interpreter. ^

31 LNo intellectual attainment or career choice. This should be the ultimate trapping of the white fox. Although appeared open to the Eskimo people. objective of government policy to the number of trappers .will no doubt Prior to this time many of the provide a framework within which the decline as more and more turn to missionaries conducted classes in Eskimo people may independently other forms of wage employment, association with their missionary acti¬ choose for themselves what kind of life there will always be those who prefer vities. However, the percentage of they want to live and where they want to trap as long as there is a demand children receiving any formal educa¬ to live It. for white fox furs. Our estimation is tion was small when the federal For the traditional Eskimo there that there are still about 1,000 families system got underway around 1950. was but one choice to live off the spread over a vast area who continue Additional schools or classrooms were land, to move where the game was. by choice and circumstances to live built in the north each year. Today, For the Eskimo of today the options by a hunting and trapping economy. after a short span of 20 years, over have increased from living off the land Many of these people derive their 90 per cent of all school-age children main cash income from the sale of to accepting wage employment of are attending school regularly. some sort at the settlement and seal and fox skins. The government is attempting to adjusting to the routine of settlement Hunting, trapping and fishing are provide a system which will give the life. But the options are still limited. closely related to tourist promotion Eskimo people equality of educational The hunting and trapping economy programmes Involving Eskimos as opportunities with other Canadians. or the renewable resources of the guides and operators of sports lodges. The language barrier and the problems north have always been limited in The scenic and rugged beauty of the of cultural dissimilarities have made it relation to outside markets rather than Arctic and the fish and game attract an difficult to develop satisfactory curri¬ to the very much smaller local require¬ increasing number of visitors to nor¬ cula. ments. It would seem that within the thern Canada each year. The language chosen for the me¬ 2.6 million square kilometres of the Probably one of the most demand¬ dium of instruction is English. In the north and along the thousands of kilo¬ ing adjustments and changes in the lower grades, Eskimo teacher assistants metres of coastline, there are certainly Eskimo way of life in recent years is ease beginners into school routine and enough resources and potential re¬ urbanization. Today more and more help bridge the cultural gap. sources to support a larger local families are leaving their small scatter¬ The development of the north population. This depends largely on ed family camps and are settling In requires skilled technical labour. locating the resources and improving concentrated communities designed Southern labour has been difficult to the methods of harvesting them. on the model of southern Canadian recruit and hold in the remote and One traditional activity that is still towns. harsh environment. Throughout the popular is the hunting of seals. This The trading post" has become a north, Eskimo men are being trained at provides food and cash for the skins general store and isolated settlements various levels as miners, heavy equip¬ and confers prestige on the hunter, are organized communities in a nor¬ ment operators, plumbers, carpenters which Is equally Important at this stage thern setting. This has led to a more and mechanics. They hold positions of cultural change when the dominant sedentary way of life with all the as interpreters and clerks in retail and figure in the Eskimo way of life is amenities of a town such as municipal co-operative stores and in government being threatened in so many ways. services, co-operative stores, schools, offices. The government has set a Associated with seal hunting is the nursing stations or hospitals, churches. desirable objective to fill 75 per cent of northern government positions with local residents by 1977. Young Eskimo girls are learning to become teachers, hairdressers, nurses' aides and commercial cooks. They learn the techniques of homemaking in modern housing in home economic laboratories in nine Arctic communi¬ ties. Their classes Include home management, child care, home nursing, nutrition and clothing. These courses are also available to adults with little or no formal education.

There are many aspects to the education programme and one of the most important Is adult education which, briefly, offers adults regardless of age or academic qualifications an opportunity to acquire new skills. It is also designed to inform the older generation who may feel themselves cut off from their children in school.

Eskimos are already involved in the search for and development of the mineral and oil wealth of the north, and a number have completed an oil- well drilling course in Alberta, and are now working in the High Arctic, in the oil Industry. There is no doubt that the lives of many more Eskimos will change even more in the years imme¬ diately ahead as the accelerated pace of mineral development takes place. But all Eskimos will not be miners. As Canadians, many will choose to live in the south. With education comes mobility and with mobility comes

32 good housing, opportunities of wage and as Canadians today in democratic society must express itself both in employment and other facilities for an society they are expressing themselves. terms of resources and of people. active social life within the established There are many people who believe In the north, the irony of the situa¬ town. The growth of these communi¬ that the Eskimo should remain in a tion is that resource development is ties, although bringing much that is primitive state, and government plans not only the prerequisite for human good, has also meant a radical social for these people are often questioned. development but also the major threat adjustment for the Eskimo nomad now I think it is obvious, as Knud Ras- turned townsman. to social responsibility. The po¬ mussen, one of the greatest authorities tential of the land is being developed on the Eskimos, said, that "when the Accustomed to the unscheduled and by means of the best that modern hand of civilization touches a primitive independent life of the camp, some of technology has to offer. people anywhere there is no turning those employed find it difficult to back". Therefore the benefits of accu¬ Where does this leave the people comply with certain work regulations mulated human knowledge should be directly affected by such develop¬ and the discipline of a nine to five made available to all people as widely ment? The concept of social respon¬ day. The head of the family who as possible. sibility precludes leaving the Eskimos continues to hunt and trap may travel to their traditional pursuits, a very on a skidoo [small motorized sledge] Another question often raised Is: unromantic life, regardless of the instead of by the traditional dog team. are people better off if they have romantic picture that has been drawn He leaves his family in their permanent more material possessions, educa¬ by those who are blind to its hard¬ home and covers his trapline, ranging tion, increased life expectancy, better ships, its disease, the tragedy of death farther afield than in times past. health, more help in adversity? The at a young age. Such attitudes would answer can only be yes, because condemn them to nothing more than Many people today still have roman¬ these things are the material objects gradual extinction in the face of a tic ideas about Eskimos: that they as distinct from the spiritual objects technologically superior society from live in snow houses, eat raw meat and of human aspiration and these are the which they are excluded. are pleasantly smiling, quaint people. areas in which are framed our con¬ This view is a particular weakness of crete concepts of good, of morals and The only course open is one which, writers prone to sensationalism after a law. in some way, fulfils the social respon¬ week-end's visit to the Arctic. The core of the problem, however, sibility in terms of the hard facts of It seems to me that in all the contro¬ lies in the concept of northern dev¬ economic development. To be a vital versial material written about the elopment itself. The development of part of society jnvolves more than Canadian Eskimo people today (much the north is a historical process which becoming a cog in a machine. It invol¬ of it ill-informed and much overly began in the past and is continuing ves the concept of cultural Identity and sentimental) there is a tendency to into an unforeseeable future. For eco¬ without this identity a large part of the human value of the nation is lost. forget that Eskimos are not quaint nomic reasons alone, this process curiosities. They are ordinary human cannot be reversed. But there is an It cannot function if it bears no rela¬ beings living in a special environment. equally important aspect the people. tion to the economic realities of Even with the transition and cultural Pockets of human neglect are no more Canadian life which surround it. clashes of change they share much of acceptable than are pockets of econo¬ the same fears and hopes of mankind, mic neglect. The responsibility of Alexander Stevenson

MISSED ME I (left). The Eskimo language has dozens of words to des¬ cribe seals (depending on their age, size, posi¬ tion on the ice, etc.), reflecting the major Im¬ portance of seals to the Eskimos as a source of food, heating and cloth¬ ing. In winter Eskimos wait for a chance to spear seals when they surface at their breath¬ ing holes in the ice. Often the quickness of the seal deceives the hunter's hand I Right, Eskimos pierce holes in the ice and sit patien¬ tly for hours to catch fish, a valuable item of fresh food during the long Arctic winter.

33 A Statement on Israel by Amadou Mahtar M'Bow

Director-General of Unesco

eports carried by press, radio a new resolution, the General Conference considered that and television on recent deci¬ the Israeli Government had not heeded the urgent appeals R sions by the eighteenth ses¬ made to it since 1968 calling on it to "desist from any archaeo¬ sion of the General Conference logical excavations in the city of Jerusalem and from any of Unesco concerning Israel have frequently been lacking modifications of its features or its cultural and historical in accuracy and even objectivity. character, particularly with regard to Christian- and Islamic religious sites." Noting that the excavations and works were Two resolutions adopted by the General Conference continuing which it considered susceptible of endangering chiefly concern Israel: the first refers to the composition the Christian and Islamic sites, the. General .Conference of regional groups set up within the Organization; the second decided six years after Issuing its first notification, to refers to the protection and preservation of the cultural condemn the attitude of Israel, which It considered "contra¬ heritage in Jerusalem. dictory to the aims of the Organization as stated in its Because the resolution defining regions with a view Constitution..." to carrying out activities of a regional character has been interpreted incompletely or incorrectly, it- has been main¬ I wish to stress that in reaffirming all the prior resolutions tained that Israel has been excluded from Unesco or denied concerning Jerusalem the General Conference again explicitly the possibility of participating in Its activities. invited the Director-General to " continue his efforts to establish the effective presence of Unesco in the city of Israel has neither been ousted from Unesco nor from any Jerusalem." regional group within the Organization. Israel continues to be a member of Unesco, as one of the 135 Member States, Such are the facts. I hope they will permit the general which make up the Organization. public to form a fairer and more accurate opinion of the resolutions adopted by the General Conference at its eigh¬ Israel also continues to be listed, for elections to the Exec¬ teenth session. Similar decisions have been taken in the utive Board, in Group I (Western Europe) onthesamefooting past without giving rise to the reactions of these last few as Australia, Canada, the United States of America and New weeks. Zealand, which are situated geographically outside of Europe. There has been reference to the "politization of Unesco", During the eighteenth session of the General Conference, as if the agencies of the United Nations system had not in Israel, like Canada and the United States of America, intro¬ fact been born of a political determination to found a just duced a draft resolution with a view to being included and durable peace by contributing to the general progress "in the list of countries entitled to participate in the Euro¬ of humanity and to strengthening understanding and co¬ pean regional activities in which the representative character operation among all peoples. Unesco is composed of almost of States is an important factor." While the resolutions the same Member States as the United Nations. The delegates referring to Canada and the United States were adopted, to its General Conference are government representatives. the one tabled by Israel was rejected by the General Con¬ It is therefore natural that the problems which perturb the ference, that is, by the duly accredited representatives of world today should find an echo there. the governments of the Member States of Unesco. For my own part, as I had occasion to say at the close of Thus, Israel is in exactly the same situation it was in prior the eighteenth session of the General Conference, I think to the eighteenth session of the General Conference. It that, in an Organization devoted to education, science and therefore cannot be argued that It has been ousted from culture, we must avoid those conflicts which take on the anything at all ; the only new fact is that Israel is now the character of systematic confrontations.' We should perhaps only Member State not to be included in one of the regions also avoid the adoption of resolutions, even with large "with a view to the execution of regional activities", since majorities, that could result in deep bitterness in certain Australia and New Zealand, at the proposal chiefly of five quarters. The golden rule for an organization such as Unesco Asian countries, have been listed in the Asia and Oceania should always be the search fora consensus through patient group, while Canada and the United States (at their request) and, open dialogue. have been listed in the Western European group. That is why, as the newly elected Director-General, who Canada and the United States, I should recall, had requested had not taken part in the discussions which went on long unsuccessfullyat the seventeenth session of the General before my election, I indicated to the General Conference Conference in.1972 to participate in the Second Conference my firm intention If so authorized to speak out henceforth of -Ministers of Education of European Member. States. and whenever it Is necessary, in order to try to reconcile At that time nobody, either in Canada, or the United States, different points of view so as to reach the widest- possible much less' in Europe, accused Unesco of having excluded agreement. them from any regional group whatsoever. Thus, these countries have, like Israel, taken part in the conference held I therefore regret that on the basis of information which at Bucharest in December 1973 as observers.. This possibility' is to say the least incomplete and often distorted,- certain is open at all times to Israel should a ministerial conference' eminent persons have thought fit to adopt such uncompro¬ again be convened in Europe. In the same way, Israel can mising attitudes, although thinkers and scholars might be participate as an observer, as it has, done In the past, at expected to be more. Inclined to. discussion and dialogue. any regional conference of ministers no matter where it is held. I think it is appropriate to recall that for nearly 30 years The second resolution "invites the Director-General Unesco has been engaged in a vast undertaking, in its fields to withhold assistance from Israel in the fields of education, of competence, with the help of men and women of all ori¬ science and culture until such time as it scrupulously respects gins and all creeds for. the good of the international com¬ the resolutions and decisions" of the Executive Board and munity, and that today in the Unesco Secretariat itself men the General Conference. and women from more than 100 Member States including Israel are joined in a common effort. This resolution Is based essentially on resolutions 2253 of.4 July 1967 and 2254 of 14 July 1967 of the United Nations I am firmly convinced that it should always be possible General Assembly and resolutions 267 of 3 July 1969 and for Unesco if only interested States agree to workalong with 298 of 25 September 1971 of the United Nations Security it to overcome the tensions which hinder International Council on the status of Jerusalem, as well as on the decisions co-operation and understanding In its fields of competence. of the Unesco General Conference at its fifteenth and seven¬ But this presupposes that the norms and rules established teenth sessions and of the Unesco Executive Board at by the Organization should not be considered a dead letter its 82nd, 83rd, 88th, 89th and 90th sessions. When it adopted each time they conflict with specific interests. Just published Two important Unesco studies on race relations in Africa

A factual account of racism An analysis in depth of and apartheid in South Afri¬ former Portuguese policy ca and Namibia, based on' in Africa and the effects material prepared by the Anti- of Portuguese colonialism Apartheid Movement: on education, science, the historical background culture and information. to apartheid Putting recent events in apartheid in operation their historical context, it from opposition to resist¬ brings into timely pers¬ ance pective problems which Namibia's history and three emergent African peoples states must now confront.

the South African takeover 156 pages, Written by Eduardo de 15 Francs Sousa Ferreira with an Namibia and the United Nations. introduction by Basil Davidson. 175 pages Written for the layman as well as the teacher, and an 20 Francs invaluable companion volume to Unesco's Apartheid: its effects on education, science, culture and information, first published in 1967.

Where to renew your subscription and place your order for other Unesco publications

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Unesco Publications Center, P.O. The University Bookshop of Cape Coast, The University Government Printing Office, Government Bookshops Box 433, Murry Hill Station New York, N.Y. 10016. Bookshop of Legon, P.O. Box 1, Legon. GREAT at : Rutland Street, P.O. Box 5344, Auckland; 130, U.S.S.R. Mezhdu- narodnaja Kniga, Moscow, G-200. BRITAIN. See United Kingdom. GREECE. Anglo- Oxford Terrace, P.O. Box 1721, Christchurch ; Alma YUGOSLAVIA. Jugoslovenska Knjiga, Terazije, 27, Bel¬ Hellenic Agency, 5, Koumpari Steet Athens 138. Street, P.O. Box 857 Hamilton; Princes Street, P.O. grade; Drzavna Zalozba Slovenije Mestni Trg. 26, Lju¬ HONG-KONG. Swindon Book Co., 13-15, Lock Box 1104, Dunedin; Mulgrave Street, Private Bag, bljana. Artists of great talent, the Eskimos have always decorated everyday objects such as tools, utensils, hunting weapons and musical instruments, sculpting or engraving walrus tusk ivory, caribou antlers, wood or stone. Works by Eskimo artists are nowadays known and admired around the world. The two shown here, stylized portrayals of northern animals, are from Cape Dorset (Canada). Top, "Baby owls", a stone cut print by Eskimo artist Jamasie. Bottom, "Musk ox", by Pudlo, decorating an Eskimo print calendar, "On the Land Cape Dorset 1975" (see also illustrations on pages 21 to 26).