Kenn Harper - In Those Days: Shamans, Spirits, and Faith in the Inuit North

The cover of the book shows a black and white photo of Reverend Edmund Peck, a white man, and five Inuit. On the left is an Inuit man, taller than Peck, wearing a dark jacket. He has short, dark hair, and is holding a hat and a piece of white paper. Beside him is Peck, wearing a dark jacket, with white hair and beard, and also holding a white piece of paper. To the right of them are two Inuit standing at a table. They are looking down at the papers and books on the table. The male is wearing a dark jacket, and is wearing a wedding ring. The female is wearing a plaid top, and the two are holding hands. The text at the top reads Kenn Harper. In Those Days. Shamans, Spirits, and Faith in the Inuit North. The bottom of the page reads Collected Writings on Arctic History. Book 4.

Collected Writings on Arctic History

Book 4
Shamans, Spirits, and Faith in the Inuit North

by KENN HARPER

INHABIT MEDIA

A black and white map of Canada. The Arctic Ocean is seen at the top, with the Beaufort Sea underneath it (including Herschel Island), and the state of Alaska is at the top left corner of the land. In the top right corner of the frame is the large island of Greenland/Denmark (including Etah, Wolstenholme Sound, Cape York/Melville Bay, Devil's Thumb, Disko Bay, Christianshaab/Qasiannguit, Godthaab/Nuuk, Frederikshaab/Paamiut, and Qaqortoq). The territories along the top of the country are Yukon (including Whitehorse near the bottom), Northwest Territories (including Fort McPherson near the top), and Nunavut. Above the landmass of Nunavit is Ellesmere Island, and below it is Baffin Island. From the top of Nunavut heading south are the following places: Melville Island, Craig Harbour, Devon Island, Resolute, Lancaster Sound, Arctic Bay, Bylot Island Prince Regent Inlet, Moffet Inlet, Pond Inlet, Kitikmeot Region, King William Island, Clyde River, Kugaaruk, Igloolik, Hall Beach, Foxe Basin, Cape Hooper, Qikiqtarjuaq, Durban Island, Padloping Island, Pangnirtung, Qimmiqsut, Cumerland Sound, Repulse Bay/Naujaat, Blackhead Island, Lake Hikuligjuaaq, Kazan River, Kivalliq Region, Chesterfield Inlet, Southampton Island, Coral Harbour, Cape Dorset, Iqaluit, Frobisher Bay, Lake Harbour/Kimmirut, Kodlunarn Island, and Nueltin Lake. Along the bottom of the map are the provinces British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba (with Brochet, Churchill, and York Factory near the top), Ontario (with Moose Factory at the bottom-right), Quebec (with the Belcher Islands, Nastapoka Islands, Richmond Gulf, Little Whale River, Great Whale River/Kuukkuarapik, and Fort Geroge/Chisasibi), and Labrador (with Nain at the top). Above Labrador is the Labrador Sea, and below it is the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Hudson Bay is surrounded by Nunavut, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec. Baffin Bay is above Baffin Island, below it is the Davis Straight, and below that is the Labrador Sea.

Published by Inhabit Media Inc.

www.inhabitmedia.com

Inhabit Media Inc. (Iqaluit) P.O. Box 11125, Iqaluit, Nunavut, X0A 1H0 (Toronto) 191 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 310, Toronto, Ontario, M4P 1K1

Design and layout copyright 2019 Inhabit Media Inc.

Text copyright 2019 by Kenn Harper

Images copyright as indicated

Edited by Neil Christopher and Jessie Hale

Cover image The General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada

Interior images copyright as indicated.

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrievable system, without written consent of the publisher, is an infringement of copyright law.

This project was made possible in part by the Government of Canada.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program.

Printed in Canada.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Shamans, spirits, and faith in the Inuit North / by Kenn Harper.

Names: Harper, Kenn, author.

Description: Series statement: In those days : collected writings on Arctic history ; book 4

Identifiers: Canadiana 20190144858 | ISBN 9781772272543 (softcover)

Subjects: LCSH: InuitReligionAnecdotes. | LCSH: Canada, NorthernReligionAnecdotes. | LCSH:

ChristianityCanada, NorthernAnecdotes. | LCSH: Canada, NorthernHistoryAnecdotes.

Classification: LCC E99.E7 H37 2019 | DDC 204/.408997120719dc23

This is the fourth volume to result from a series of articles that I wrote over a decade and a half under the title Taissumani for the Northern newspaper Nunatsiaq News. This volume presents beliefs, traditions, and histories, most of them from the Canadian Arctic and a few from Greenland. They are stories about Inuit, about Qallunaat (white people), and often about the interactions between these two very different cultures. For some chapters there is an extensive paper trail; for others it is scanty. Inuit maintain some of these stories as part of their vibrant oral histories. We need to know these stories for a better understanding of the North today, and the events that made it what it is. They enhance our understanding of Northern people and contribute to our evolving appreciation of our shared history.

I lived in the Arctic for fifty years. My career has been varied; Ive been a teacher, businessman, consultant, and municipal affairs officer. I moved to the Arctic as a young man and worked for many years in small communities in the Qikiqtaaluk (then Baffin) regionone village where I lived had a population of only thirty-four. I also lived for two years in Qaanaaq, a community of five hundred in the remotest part of northern Greenland. Wherever I went, and whatever the job, I immersed myself in Inuktitut, the language of Inuit.

In those wonderful days before television became a staple of Northern life, I visited the elders of the communities. I listened to their stories, talked with them, and heard their perspectives on a way of life that was quickly passing.

I was also a voracious reader on all subjects Northern, and learned the standard histories of the Arctic from the usual sources. But I also sought out the lesser-known books and articles that informed me about Northern people and their stories. In the process I became an avid book collector and writer.

All the stories collected in this volume originally appeared in my column, Taissumani, in Nunatsiaq News. Taissumani means long ago. In colloquial English it might be glossed as in those days, which is the title of this series. The columns appeared online as well as in the print edition of the paper. Because of this, it came as a surprise to me to learn that I had an international readership. I know this because of the comments that readers sent me. I say it was a surprise because I initially thought of the columns as being stories for Northerners. No one was writing popular history for a Northern audience, be it Indigenous or non-Indigenous. I had decided that I would write stories that would appeal to, and inform, Northern people. Because of where I have lived and learned, and my knowledge of Inuktitut, these stories would usually (but not always) be about the Inuit North. The fact that readers elsewhere in the world show an interest in these stories is not only personally gratifying to me, but should be satisfying to Northerners as wellthe world is interested in the Arctic.