When the Whalers Were Up North: Inuit Memories from the Eastern Arctic

Description

The author tells a story drawn from oral memories, a story which will soon disappear with the last Inuit generation to have seen the whalers. Illuminated by a remarkable collection of drawings, photographs, and illustrations, many in full colour, tales are told of when the whalers first appeared on the north-east coast of Baffin Island, how they set up land stations in the whale-rich waters of Cumberland Sound, and how they eventually pushed on into Hudson Bay. During this time the Inuit not only fed and clothed the whalers, they hunted with them, adding to the whalers' wealth. Our understanding of change in Inuit life is often linked to the fur traders, who arrived in the North fifty years after the arrival of the whalers. In truth it is the Inuit's close contact with the foreign world of the whalers which marked the beginning of a change in previously undisturbed Inuit culture and traditions. CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION PROLOGUE: THE ARRIVAL OF THE WHALERS 1 IN CUMBERLAND SOUND 2 IN HUDSON BAY AND THE STRAIT 3 SHAMANS AND WHALERS 4 THE CASE OF THE MISSING WHALES 5 SPICER'S HARBOUR 6 THE SIIKATSI AND THE WRECK OF THE Polar Star 7 DEATH OF THE LAST TUNIIT 8 THE Active 9 WINTERING 10 PERSONALITIES OF THE BAY 11 THE LAST VESSEL AT MARBLE ISLAND 12 THE WRECK OF THE Seduisante 13 THE Active's LAST VOYAGE, 1912–13 14 THE LAST WHALES 15 FINAL CURTAIN A NOTE ON THE TEXT A NOTE ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS INFORMANTS AND INTERPRETERS NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W