University of Alberta INUIT AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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University of Alberta INUIT AUTOBIOGRAPHY: CHALLENGING TKE STEREOTYPES Dale S. Blake A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fuifiIlment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Engiish Edmonton, Alberta Spring 2000 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1+1 of,,, du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services senrices bibliographiques 395 Weüirrgton Street 395, nie Weütngton ûtiawaON K1AON4 ûüawaON KtAON4 Canada CaMda The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the excIusive permettant à la National Li'brary of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Catzada de reproduce, Ioan, distribute or seil reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microfom, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/nlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur fonnat électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thése ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. In border zones, al1 Our academic preconceptions about cultural, linguistic, or stylistic noms are constantly being put to the test by creative practices that make visible and set off the processes of adaptation, appropriation, and contestation goveming the construction of identity in colonial and postcolonial contexts. Françoise Lionnet Postcoronial Representatiom Dedicated to the memory of Susan Brooks. ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the works of eight Inuit autobiographers who write from contact zones and at sites of métissage between the years 1894 and 1993. The case studies presented hvestigate how these writers respond to stereotypical ideas of Inuit people and how they write against such stereotypes in some cases, comply with them in others, or employ them for their own uses. My project studies the effeas of hybndity on the ~e~fashioningof the Inuit autobiographical self, and how that self adjusts to changing material and ideologicai circumstances in order to survive. Founded upon the argument that the site of métissage is one of contact, and ofien confiict, of cultural expressions, this dissertation focuses on the ways in which Inuit autobiographers (and, on occasion. white editors/collaborators), by explonng and adapting to these conflicting ideologies, bring new perspectives to those life writings hitherto relegated to the margins of the Western autobiographical canon. The introduction situates Inuit autobiography in relation to perceived charactenstics of Western autobiography and of North Amencan Aboriginal life stones and Iocates Inuit life writings in areas of cultural crossovers. The first chapter explores the influence of métissage on the writings of Lydia Campbell, Margaret Baikie, and Elizabeth Goudie, women of Inuit heritage who lived in centrai Labrador during times of great cultural change. The second chapter investigates the collaborative autobiography of a woman of mixed ancestry, Anauta (Sarah Elizabeth Ford), and American author, Heluiz Chandler Washbume. The third chapter examines another coiiaborative work, hher: Skid Row fikirno (1 976). written by an incarcerated Inuk, Anthony Apakark Thrasher, and two joumalists, Aian Mettrick and Gerard Deagie. The fourth chapter situates Aiice French and Minnie Aoda Freeman as speakers from the contact zone of the South and as transistors of hitways for both their own people and for outsiders. The fifth chapter centers on the work of Alootook Ipellie, whose unconventionai text nevenheless continues to uphold ancient traditions while adapting to modem times. The conclusion hvestigates the reception of Inuit autobiographies in contemporary Canadian societies, both Nonh and South, and points to funire directions in Inuit life writing. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1 have received a great deal of support for this work from individuds and fiom fiuiding agencies. 1 am very gratefùl for funding from these sources: the Labrador Inuit Association, a Doctoral Fellowship fiom the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, a Walter H- Johns Graduate Fellowship, a Province of Alberta Graduate Fellowship, and travel and research grants corn the Northern Scientific Training Program, the Department of Indian and Northem Mairs, the Polar Continental Shelf Project, and the Canadian Circumpolar Institute, the Mary Louise Imrie Graduate Student Award, and the Sarah Nettie Christie Travel Bursary. 1 thank Robin McGrath for her generous advice and information; this dissenation is founded on her groundbreaking work on Inuit literature. 1 am especially gratefbl to my supervisor, Ian MacLaren, for his patience, his excelient editing, and his learned guidance al1 through this projea. He has always chailenged me to do my best. 1 also thank the members of my cornmittee, Milton Freernan, Arnold Krupat, Rob Appleford, Julie Rak and Paul Hjartarson. Their comments have been most helpful and insightful. 1 thank, too, Gordon Moyles and Shirley Neuman for their early advice regarding my work. 1 express my gratitude to a cornmunity of other scholars and friends. I received a great deal of support from fnends I met through Native Student SeMces at the University of Alberta. 1 also thank Michele Gunderson, Lisa Lafiamboise, Mary Chapman, Jane Magrath, Doris Woq Jane Haslett, Ann Hal, CWLobe, Renée Hulan, Linda Warley, Knain Gardner, Karin Kellogg, and Maureen King for their kind support and comments. 1 thank, too, al1 my friends outside of Alberta, especially Adrian McKeever, Peter Soucy, Marion Cheeks, Sharon Heard, Tony White, Rick Blake, Kathy Ken, Brigid Cheeks, Hazel McLean, Laura Halfyard, Randy Gover, Pam Janes-Young, Patrick McKeever, Heather Barter, Shirley Jones, Deanne Barrett, and Liz Paddon. 1 am grateful also to al1 those people 1inte~ewed in the course of this dissertation: Doug and Florence Squires, Beatrice Watts, Hector Blake, Alootook Ipellie, Alice French, Minnie Aodla Freeman, as weli as those inte~eweesin the Mackenzie Delta. 1 thank Jirn Spearing, Richard Budgell, Leslie Baikie, and Mary Buckner for their correspondence and Anne Hart and Roberta Buchanan for their information. I gratefuily acknowledge permission to quote from Pemmican, Peguis, Thrm Doys, HarperCollins Publishers (for Anauta and Washbume), McGiIl-Queen's UP (for Greenhill and Tye and for Mitchell), Johns Hopkins WP and the Purdue Research Foundation (for Beverley), College Literature (for Lionnet), Comell UP (for Lionnet), Routledge (for Pratt), U of California P (for Knipat), Georges Borchardt, Inc. (for Lejeune), Robin McGrath, Susan Gustavison, the Institute of Social and Economic Research (for Zimmerly), Nimbus (for Goudie), Princeton UP (for Eakin), U of North Carolina P (for Adams), and U of Minnesota P (for Smith and Watson's De/Coloniring the Subject; al1 nghts reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retneval systern, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the pnor written permission of the publisher). Cornpiete bibliographical detaiis for di these publications are found in the "Works Cited" section of this dissertation. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Chapter One Three Labrador Women: Complex Hybrid Identities Chapter Two Sarah Elizabeth Ford (Anauta): "Autobiography in the Third Person" Chapter Three Waming fiom the Contact Zone: Tony Thrasher, Skid Row Eskimo Chapter Four Translating Life Wntings: Minnie Aodla Freeman and Alice French Chapter Five Alootook Ipellie: Inuk Autobiographer-Adventurer Conclusion Works Cited Introduction The Eskirno rnakes his and her appearance with a smile. Imposed on the stereotypical background of impossible terrain and intolerable weather is an eterndy happy, optimistic linle figure; a round, furry and cuddly human with a pet name; a man or woman who mues and delights Our European representatives with innocent simplicity. (Brody, Living Arctzc 19) Inuit have lived with such representations as that descnbed by ethnographer Hugh Brody since the tirne of contact with southemers. A reluctance to critique such cornfortable myths may explain why Inuit Ise Stones are only now beginning to become more widely known outside the North. Canada's southem societies piaure northem peoples in a certain light; sociologist Marybelle Mitchell points out that Inuit remain important "as guardians of Canadian arctic sovereignty and as a nationalist symbol in a country seeking to promote the romance of the original peoples living in harmony with nature" (From Talking 390). In many ways, the Inuit have become icons of the Canadian North, and, having become as much, find themselves relentlessly burdened by southemen' insistence that they represent dl that is chenshed. Meanwhiie, their life aones counteract this iconicity, instead, Inuit present themselves as individuals struggiing againa stereotypes that lock them into such potentiaiiy harmfùi imagery and entrap them in categories such as the c'colourfÙl" and the exotic. The Iast few decades have seen a proliferation of Inuit life writings and some pater notice has been paid them, especiaiiy by critics Like Robin McGrath, Renée Hulan, Penny Petrone, and Michael Kennedy. Against this background of heightening