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Inherit My Heaven: Kalaallit Gender Relations

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Inherit My Heaven: Kalaallit Gender Relations Naalakkersuisut Government of Greenland INUSSUK • Arctic Research Journal 1 • 2011 Inherit My Heaven: Kalaallit Gender Relations Karla Jessen Williamson Inherit My Heaven: Kalaallit Gender Relations INUSSUK - Arctic Research Journal 1 - 2011 Copyright © Government of Greenland, Department of Education, Church, Culture and Gender Equality Layout: Nuisi Typeface: Apex Sans Publisher: Department of Education, Church, Culture and Gender Equality Print: AKA Print A/S, Århus 2. edition Print run: 200 copies ISBN 978-87-92554-14-7 ISSN 1397-7431 INUSSUK - Arctic Research Journal is published by the Department of Education, Church, Culture and Gender Equality. Permission to publish extracts, including figures, tables and quotations, is granted as long as the source is clearly given. Copies are kindly requested of all works that refer to, announce, quote or make reference to this publication. It is the purpose of this journal to disseminate results of research in Arctic regions to the population of Greenland as well as research communities in Greenland and Denmark. The journal wishes to contribute to strengthening co-operation in Arctic research, in particular within the humanities, social sciences and public health. The editorial board welcomes proposals for publications. Editors Research Coordinator Najâraq Paniula Research Coordinator Martin Oleksiewicz Government of Greenland Government of Greenland Department of Education, Church, Department of Education, Church, Culture and Gender Equality Culture and Gender Equality P.O. Box 1029 P.O. Box 1029 3900 Nuuk, Greenland 3900 Nuuk, Greenland Telephon: +299 34 50 00 Telephon: +299 34 50 00 Fax: +299 32 20 73 Fax: +299 32 20 73 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] www.nanoq.gl www.nanoq.gl Publications in the series can be ordered from: Atuagkat P.O. Box 1009 3900 Nuuk, Greenland www.atuagkat.gl Table of Contents Acknowledgements 5 Introduction 6 Chapter One The Maniitsoq Habitat and its People 17 Chapter Two The Inuit Egalitarian Principal: The Notion of Genderlessness 39 Chapter Three Kalaallit Gender Relations through Maniitsoq Eyes: Timikkut, Tarnikkut Anersaakkullu 56 Chapter Four Gender, Childhood, and Sexuality 68 Chapter Five Spheres of Men and Women in Maniitsoq Homes 87 Chapter Six Gender Division of Labour in the Workforce 120 Chapter Seven Kalaallit Women and Development 129 Chapter Eight Unataaneq annersaanerlu: Violence and Gender 142 Chapter Nine Kalaallit Ways of Knowing: Theoretical Contributions 148 References 173 Appendix A Interview with a Widow: Exploration of Where Kalaallit Women Get Their Strengths 183 3 Teemiartissaq -- an Ivik shaman trainee -- was told by her paternal aunt: Qilaga pissavat! You will inherit my heaven. (Vebæk 1996, 34) 4 Acknowledgements On an occasion like the publication of a book one feels a sense of awe. I am awed by the intensity of time spent in planning, thought, and contemplation, by the intensity of scrutiny the material requires, and by my indebtedness to people working on this material. I am greatly indebted to my immediate family, friends, and colleagues in Canada, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Greenland. I am especially grateful to my daughter Laakkuluk, now with husband Stephen and their two lovely children, Akutaq and Igimaq, and to my son Thomas, who moved from Saskatoon to Aberdeen, Calgary, and Ottawa – many thanks for nourishing me. Together with my Inuktitut-speaking Qallunaaq husband Robert, we have indeed experienced the bondedness through thick and thin, the true enjoyment of which this book is about. All this makes me feel so rich that I wrote a poem about that feeling in the year 2008 in Saskatoon, Canada. Pisoorsuaq The Very Rich Akkakka, atsakka My paternal uncles, my paternal aunts aanakka, ilakka my grandmothers, my relatives ajakka, ningaakka my maternal aunts, my uncles-in-law ukkuakkalu and my aunts-in-law ernutta, meeqqakka my grandchildren, my children uigalu and my husband qatanngutikka, illukka my siblings, my cousins ikinngutikkalu and my friends angajoqqaakka, aatakka my parents, my grandfathers atikkalu and my names soorlu tamamik pigigaannga. it sounds as if they all own me. I also want to express my appreciation for the financial support of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. The same goes for Brødrene Lyberth in Maniitsoq for their financial and moral support, especially through Piitaq. I was especially pleased to receive funding from the University of Saskatchewan’s Publication Fund and delighted also to receive financial and administrative support from the Greenland government’s Inussuk Fund. Many thanks are directed toward Janet Drysdale for her help in converting the doctoral dissertation into this wonder- fully clear version. Maniitsormiunut, tamanut qujanarsuaq – ingammik mississueqatinnut. 5 Iserit, tamassa: Introduction Starting out: Participatory Action Research in Maniitsoq, Greenland Iserit, tamassa, in the language of the Greenland Inuit (the kalaallit), means ‘do enter, it’s all there’ implying ‘help yourself to it all,’ and that is what this introduction is: an invitation to readers of this study to help themselves to its contents. The second term I wish to introduce is takanna, used in offering food. My ambition here is to invite readers to a better understanding and appreciation of other ways of knowing. In May 1998 I met with seven women from the community of Maniitsoq, Greenland, at the old Lutheran church. I had travelled a long distance from Canada to initiate a research study, but I was in fact returning home to Maniitsoq. Maniitsoq is a town with a population of about 3000 located on the southwestern coast of Greenland. It is a municipal centre in the Meqquitsoq area, situated on an island, south of Kangerlussuaq, Søndre Strøm Fjord, and Sisimiut. Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, is just south of Maniitsoq. The inhabitants of Maniitsoq are Greenland Inuit, who call themselves kalaallit (sing. kalaaleq). Through my training as an anthropologist I aimed to explore Inuit gender relations in the unique post-colonial setting of Greenland. I had chosen Maniitsoq as the location for my research because societal changes in Greenland have been great there. The hunting-based Inuit society has become a Westernized, more industrial society, with changes that arrived since the Second World War having a galvanizing effect on Greenlandic society. When cultures rapidly change, many of the actors do not get a chance to fully evaluate the cultural changes, and valuable lessons are often lost as a result. I see Maniitsoq as a typical Inuit Arctic community with a strong interaction between the inherent mixed cultural lifestyles of Inuit and non-Inuit. In such a setting, I sought to illuminate gender relations among the Inuit people of the area by looking at the roles and status of men and women. As an indigenous female immersed in a vigorously assimilative process, I felt the need to re-evaluate and reinterpret ancient values prevalent in the traditional Inuit society, and what these are in relation to the present situation. I went to Maniitsoq in the hope of engaging some women as participants in my research. Each woman was kalaaleq (plural, kalaallit), as I am; we are a people of Inuit descent whose genes incorporate those of Europeans from various countries. Inuit are the original ancestors of the kalaallit, but kalaallit have “stepped forward” 6 away from their Inuit roots to become who they are today: Inuit-originated people who enjoy a modern self-government inherited from colonial times. We got together that day at the old church, feeling somewhat constrained since we all grew up going to this same church for services. Despite the initial shy moment — since we did not know one another well enough to have an easy relationship — we had a good discussion about my thoughts on Inuit egalitarian principles. I perceive Inuit gender relations as philosophically egalitarian and in many ways genderless. While I will explain these thoughts more fully later, let me first explain how I came to be back in Maniitsoq undertaking this research project with these women. Various “participatory research activities”, research that engages and involves local participants in defining the terms of study and conducting the research, have been carried out in Canada and the United States in indigenous regions for a number of years, and related methods for field research have been established. Such types of participatory action research, which is referred to as PAR, have not taken place in Greenland among the kalaallit population. Coming from within the culture, I had a sense of wanting to share my research endeavour and longed for the active participation of my hometown. I knew that many individuals aspired to further education, but due to location their dreams were not always attainable. The Maniitsoq community did not just become “a people under study,” passively observed by the researcher. The members of the community who became my research collaborators became active, responsible co-operators. Although I am a cultural insider, I am not infallible, and my wish to give back to my community is strong in my mind. I saw this type of research as the best method for me to use to look into gender relations in this setting. I knew what method I wanted to employ to carry out my research, and I also knew why I was undertaking what could, and would, become a lengthy process. I wanted to affirm my speculations that something could be learned from the old values, and that kalaallit knowledge is something that can be shared with others around the world. At the same time I believed that collectivity mattered and invited the team to participate. Indeed, the research group’s opinions validly counted as knowledge. My aim was not to use the results to go against the power holders, but to use traditional Inuit values to evaluate present relations, and in this case to see how the present gender relations of Maniitsormiut compare to Western thoughts on gender equity.
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