Food, Power, and Policy in Arctic Canada Eleanor Skye Stephenson
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Akaqsarnatik: Food, power, and policy in Arctic Canada Eleanor Skye Stephenson Department of Geography McGill University Montréal, Québec November 2020 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy © Eleanor Stephenson 2020 ii Preface Akaqsarnatik (ᐊᑲᖅᓴᕐᓇᑎᒃ): One of several Inuktitut translations of the English term ‘protest,’ meaning, ‘they are not comfortable’ with something; ‘expressing discontent’ with something; or ‘in protest of’ something.1 In 2012, food protests spread across Nunavut communities in Arctic Canada, many organized through a grassroots group called Feeding My Family, as Nunavummiut stood up against the high costs of food and issues of food insecurity. The scale of the protests was unprecedented within in the Territory and, as I describe in Chapter 1, precipitated a search for new terminology. This title reflects the idea that food concerns in Nunavut have reconfigured both political space and language in a search for change. 1 Other translations include naammagusunnginniq (‘they are not okay’ with something, ‘not in agreement’ with something). The spelling akaqsaratik is also recorded. These appear in the Hansard transcripts of Parliamentary debates from the Government of Nunavut, which publishes a parallel text in English and Inuktitut and is a resource for translators (http://www.inuktitutcomputing.ca/NunavutHansard/). iii Abstract In the past decade, food (in)security has been recognized as an important public health and human rights issue in Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit homeland in Arctic Canada. Nunavut in particular has been characterized as the epicenter of a Northern food crisis. While a growing number of studies have addressed Northern food insecurity, comparatively less attention has been paid to food insecurity as a political issue, and links between colonial institutions, food, and power in Arctic Canada continue to be overlooked within contemporary food security discourse. In response to research interests identified in consultation with Inuit organizations and community members, this doctoral research project investigates the intersections of food and social policy in Nunavut in both historical and contemporary terms. The study draws on primary data gathered in Kangiqtugaapik (Clyde River), Iqaluit, and Ottawa from 2017 to 2019. I take a multi-sited ethnographic and ethnohistorical approach, drawing on oral histories, community-based and key informant interviews, economic diaries, and archival research at the Library and Archives of Canada. Conceptually, I situate this work within scholarship on the social and structural determinants of Indigenous health, Inuit foodways and the social economy, and Northern governance. The research is structured by four interwoven objectives. The first is to describe the historical and political context for transformations of the Nunavut food system and to address the role these changes have played in issues of food insecurity. Drawing on oral history interviews and ethnographic sources, I describe the shift from a highly localized food system and Indigenous economy towards the mixed food system and mixed economy that persist today, showing how these transformations have introduced both new social adaptations and new forms of precarity with regards to food. The second objective is to show how food is entangled in histories and legacies of colonization in Arctic Canada. Archival analysis reveals that food was a critical medium of the Government of Canada’s expanding control over the Eastern Arctic in the post war period (1945-1970). I document how food rations administered through the Family Allowance program were treated as a tool of compliance towards centralization and school attendance and as a medium to inculcate Euro-Canadian norms concerning diet, nutrition, child weaning, and iv gender and family roles. I argue that these practices reflected an extension of missionary activities, as colonial authorities sought to ‘improve’ Inuit lives and health while denying Inuit the right to determine the course of their own lives. I suggest such secular missionization has animated much of Northern social policy in the Government Era, and I find social policy has itself played a significant role in constituting the contemporary food system of Nunavut. The third objective is to characterize contemporary policy approaches to food insecurity in Nunavut and investigate the narratives and beliefs that underpin them. Drawing on key informant interviews, I find that a preference for market-based approaches to Northern food policy reflects the entrenched power of the private sector and has limited the capacity of food interventions to support the food security and self-determination of Inuit communities. While many agree that tackling food insecurity requires collaboration, a lack of mandate and ownership have also constrained policy action in recent years. Meanwhile, I argue that dominant narratives casting food insecurity as a product of high prices and remoteness have naturalized high rates of food insecurity in Nunavut while bracketing out structural questions of power and inequality. The fourth objective is to describe how Nunavut Inuit communities navigate, experience, and address food (in)security at the local level through a case study in Clyde River. Community-based interviews and economic diaries affirm the ongoing burden of food insecurity on Nunavut communities, while making clear that there is much more to the food system in Nunavut than high costs and high rates of food insecurity. Food – especially country food – remains not just nutritionally but culturally important and is a source of connection and relationality. This analysis affirms the continued importance and resilience of an Inuit food system and economy that, despite profound effects of colonization and socio-economic transformation, continue to play a meaningful role in sustaining Nunavut Inuit communities. v Résumé Pendant la dernière décennie, l’insécurité alimentaire a été reconnue comme un enjeu de santé publique et de droits humains dans Inuit Nunangat, la région Inuit du Canada arctique. Le Nunavut a été caractérisé comme l’épicentre d’une crise alimentaire. Quoiqu’un nombre croissant d’études scientifiques adresse la sécurité alimentaire du Nord, ces études manquent de considération envers l’insécurité alimentaire en tant qu’enjeu politique. De plus, les liens entre les institutions coloniales, l’alimentation, et le pouvoir continuent d’être négligés dans les discussions sur la sécurité alimentaire. La thèse doctorale qui suit enquête sur les liens entre l’alimentation et la politique sociale au Nunavut en termes historiques et contemporains ; et ce, afin de répondre aux intérêts identifiés en consultation avec plusieurs organisations et membres de la communauté Inuit. L’étude est basée sur une période de recherche à Kangiqtugaapik (Clyde River), Iqaluit, et Ottawa entre 2017 et 2019. En adoptant une approche ethnographique et ethnohistorique, j’utilise une combinaison de méthodes : histoires orales, entrevues communautaires, entrevues avec informateurs clés, journaux économiques, et recherche d’archives à Bibliothèque et Archives Canada. Conceptuellement, la recherche se situe parmi les critiques des déterminants sociaux et structurels de la santé des peuples autochtones, dans l’économie sociale du système alimentaire Inuit, et dans la gouvernance nordique. La recherche se structure à travers quatre objectifs liés. Le premier est de décrire le contexte historique et politique des transformations du système alimentaire Inuit, et d’examiner le rôle de ces changements dans les problèmes d’insécurité alimentaire. En commençant par les histoires orales et les sources ethnographiques, je décris la transformation d’un système alimentaire local et d’une économie autochtone en système alimentaire et économique mixte. Ces transformations introduisent à la fois de nouvelles adaptations sociales et de nouvelles sources d’insécurité alimentaire. Le deuxième objectif est de montrer comment l’alimentation est étroitement liée à l’histoire et l’héritage de la colonisation de l’arctique canadien. La recherche d’archives révèle que la nourriture fût une source importante de contrôle colonial dans l’Arctique de l’Est pendant la période d’après-guerre (1945-1970). Je montre comment les rations alimentaires vi administrées par le programme d’allocations familiales ont été instrumentales pour inciter la centralisation et la fréquentation scolaire, ainsi que pour inculquer les normes d’alimentation euro-canadiennes de régime alimentaire, de nutrition, des pratiques de sevrage, et des rôles familiaux. Je soutiens que ces pratiques constituent la continuation des activités missionnaires : les autorités coloniales cherchaient à « améliorer » la vie et la santé des Inuit, malgré le fait qu’ils refusaient aux Inuit le droit de déterminer leurs propres vies. Je suggère que ce genre d’« orientation missionnaire- laïque » a animé la politique sociale du Nord pendant l’ère gouvernementale. J’établis que la politique sociale a joué un rôle important dans la construction du système alimentaire du Nunavut. Le troisième objectif est de caractériser les approches politiques contemporaines concernant la sécurité alimentaire au Nunavut, et d’enquêter sur les fils narratifs et les idées qui sous-tendent ces initiatives. Bien que la plupart des informateurs clés conviennent que le problème nécessite une approche collaborative, ils reconnaissent qu’un manque