Kulchyski - Like the sound of a drum: Aboriginal cultural politics in Denendeh and Nunavut

LIKE THE SOUND OF A DRUM

ABORIGINAL CULTURAL POLITICS IN DENENDEH AND NUNAVUT

PETER KULCHYSKI

Peter Kulchyski, 2005

University of Manitoba Press
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3T 2N2 Canada
www.umanitoba.ca/uofmpress
Printed in Canada on acid-free paper by Friesens.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the University of Manitoba Press, or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from ACCESS COPYRIGHT (Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency), 6 Adelaide Street East, Suite 900, Toronto, Ontario M5C 1H6, www.accesscopyright.ca .

Cover Design: Doowah Design
Cover Photograph: Courtesy Peter Kulchyski
Text Design: Sharon Caseburg
Maps: Weldon Hiebert

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Kulchyski, Peter Keith, 1959
Like the sound of a drum : Aboriginal cultural politics in Denendeh and
Nunavut / Peter Kulchyski.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-88755-178-5 (bound)
ISBN 0-88755-686-8 (pbk.)

1. Tinne Indians. 2. Inuit. 3. Politics and cultureNorthwest Territories. 4. Politics and cultureNunavut. 5. Tinne IndiansGovernment relations. 6. InuitCanadaGovernment relations. 7. NunavutPolitics and government. 8. Northwest TerritoriesPolitics and government. I. Title.

E78.N79K84 2005 971.93004972 C2005-905621-5

This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

The University of Manitoba Press gratefully acknowledges the financial support for its publication program provided by the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP); the Canada Council for the Arts; the Manitoba Arts Council; and the Manitoba Department of Culture, Heritage and Tourism.

Except where otherwise indicated, all photographs courtesy Peter Kulchyski. Maps by Weldon Hiebert.

Thank you. Merci. Nia:wehn. Chi meegwetch. Masi cho. Qoyanamii paaluk. A hunter and artist of my acquaintance, Jaco Ishulutak, teaches me that what some cultures dont practise can be as revealing about their character as what they do. Traditionally, Inuit rarely said qoyanamii. They didnt have to. The occasional smile of gratitude was enough to acknowledge something that never had to be said. The formal politeness of acknowledgement, so insisted upon by Qallunaat/non-Inuit, had no place in Inuit social relations because the bonds between people were too close.

But then, I have also heard those words of gratitude used with great reverence in many different languages, including Aboriginal languages. The thanksgiving address is one of the most powerful and beautiful moments of Haudenosaunee peoples. It reminds us that giving thanks itself can be an art form. So I will begin with some words of deep gratitude to those from whom I have learned, my teachers:

My first teachers were my brothers: Tim, my first, best, and closest friend, who taught love of knowledge, reading and ethics, Greg who taught humility and the gentle way, and Wayne who taught rebellion. My mother, Gladys Simard, taught me to fight against all odds to live the good life. My sister LAnnie taught me about courage, my sister Kelly determination. My father John taught me about laughter and dignity, and showed me too clearly the path of self-destruction. All have taught me that material deprivation, however bitter its sting and enduring its scars, does not have to lead to a loss of integrity or the death of spirit.

In San Antonio School in Bissett, Manitoba, my friends Michelle Petznic and Barbara Kirten were gifted classmates. My teacher John Jack, as well as offering as many lessons as he could pack into a one-room school, taught about the value of school to the building of community.

At the government-run residential school Frontier Collegiate in Cranberry Portage, Manitoba, my friends James Kemp, Andrea Long, Rudy Subedar, and Christine Magnussen (now Bennett) were intellectual peers of the first order. I was befriended by many teachers including Sig Ericson, Peter Falk, Gwen Reimer, Jim Davies, and, especially, one of my first great mentors, now an elected politician, Gerard Jennissen.

While at the University of Winnipeg I traded ideas and enthusiasms with Lori Turner, Kim Sawchuk, Fernanda Ferreira, Anne Moore, Janine Tschuncky, K. George Godwin, and especially my extraordinary friend Janet Sarson. I studied geography with Miriam Lo-Lim and Paul Evans, history with Robert Wagner, English with Paul Swayze, sociology with Paul Stevenson, and came to love the study of politics and political theory through the inspiration provided by a second mentor, Arthur Kroker.

At York University I studied social and political theory with Ato Sekyi-Otu, Edgar Dosman, John ONeill, Neal Wood, Ellen Meiksens Wood; admittedly a mixed bunch, all of whom made important contributions to my world view and in whose shadows I have been grateful to stand. My peers there, and close friends, included Gail Faurschau, Michael Dartnell, Lorraine Gautier, Laurel Whitney, Frances Abele, Michael Kutner, Rich Wellen, Deborah Lee Simmons, Mark Fortier, and that luminous, vivacious, and generous intellect, Shannon Bell. Many of these have gone on to make outstanding intellectual contributions to Canadian academic life. In my years there I engaged in union activism from which I learned many invaluable life lessons. My sisters and brothers in the Canadian Union of Educational Workers included my dear friends Gill Teiman, Leslie Saunders, Pat Rogers, Kevin Moroney, Bruce Curtis, Larry Lyons, Brian Robinson, Charles Doyon, Margaret Little. Julia Emberley had a determinate influence on me in these years and belongs in a category of her own, in more ways than one! So, too, Elizabeth Fajber, whose help and insights impressed themselves on the best parts of my character.

In a place of her own in my heart and mind also belongs a person who transcends the categories of mentor and friend, deserving a paragraph for herself and for whom no words of praise will suffice, Himani Bannerji.

Over years of engagement as a scholar with gainful employment, I have benefited from conversation with a range of friends and brilliant colleagues in and out of Native Studies. Among those out of Native Studies, I will mention Bruce Hodgins, Jonathon Bordo, John Wadland, Julia Harrison, Joan Sangster, Robert Campbell, Deborah Berrill, as well as a courageous group of principled scholars including John Fekete, David Morrison, George Nader, Sean Kane, and the insightful inspirational intellect, Andrew Wernick, whose friendship I prize beyond measure. Michael Berrill and I once tried to prove that friendship could go beyond politics. Our experiment failed. An early draft of this work was carved in 1993-94 out of the currents that swirl around Cornell University: my colleagues in the A.D. White Society for the Humanities that year included Martin Bernal, Richard Burton, Ruth Vanita, Mark Perlman; I am grateful for the encouragement of Susan Buck-Morss, who read portions of an earlier draft of this manuscript, and Jonathon Culler. It was a singular pleasure to befriend and work with Kathryn Shandley. Finally, though he will not detect his influence as strongly in this work, the then Director of the Society, Dominick LaCapra, will find traces of his insights throughout myadmittedly meagrescholarly productions: this is the best tribute I can offer such a careful and ambitious thinker. Elizabeth Povinelli and George Wenzel provided helpful comments on an earlier draft. I have also been a grateful recipient of the friendship of Gerald Maclean and Donna Landry.