Introduction:The Pre-Media Era in the Arctic
The Canadian Arctic, encompassing the Northwest Territories, Nunavut,
Nunavik (Arctic Quebec) and the Labrador coast, is delimited by the Arctic Ocean and
the Tree Line. The landscape is one of treeless tundra with sparse vegetation, bogs,
ponds, glaciated mountains, boulders and gravel. Throughout the lengthy winters (nine
months or more), temperatures drop to extremes and the polar night lasts for weeks.
The barren land is covered with snow and swept by howling winds while the sea and
lakes are frozen solid.
The inhabitants of this hostile region are the Inuit. They belong to a linguistic
group termed Eskimo-Aleut for its two major branches, the Aleuts (from the Aleutian
Islands in Alaska) and the Eskimos. The Eskimos are also divided into two groups:
- the Yupik, in eastern Siberia and Alaska, and
- the Inuit (meaning "people"; the singular is Inuk) scattered over huge territories from Alaska to Greenland, including all of Arctic Canada.
Throughout the Arctic, the Inuit and their predecessors (the Pre-Dorset, the
Dorset and the Thulé) survived on whatever resources were available. Their culture
(and self-reliant economy) was based on fishing and hunting land and sea mammals.
The sea was the most important resource: hunters would harpoon big sea
mammals such as walruses, narwhals, belugas and whales from their kayaks or umiaks
(large, open, hide-covered boats used for transporting goods and people) as well as
seals at their breathing holes. Their techniques and technology (e.g. the harpoon) were
quite elaborated. Seals provided food for the humans and the dogs , oil (to heat homes
and cook food) and hides that could be made into light summer clothing, boots and
tents.
On the land, caribou and musk-oxen, hunted with bows and arrows, would
provide hides for warm winter clothing and sinew for thread. The komatik (a sled
pulled by dogs) was an essential means of transport for both hunting and travel. The
Inuit were a nomadic people and travel over long distances was possible during winter,
when the land was covered with snow and the lakes frozen.
The Inuit had a very rich cultural life. During the relatively inactive winter
period, various types of recreation would bring together the members of the
community to enjoy each other's company in large sealskin tents or igloos. As the
blizzard raged outside their homes, they passed the long dark days with games (the
most popular of them was very similar to our French bilboquet), songs (women would
perform "throat singing") and stories. The Inuit were great story tellers, captivating
their audience with tales that ranged from recent hunting adventures to old legends
explaining the creation of the world such as the story of Sedna, the sea goddess.
There was no formal leadership to speak of. The most experienced and most
respected elder and the angakok (shaman) would be consulted for important matters.
Being a very peaceful people, they had developed social control methods. Conflicts
were usually resolved by voluntary exile or "song duels": two opponents would publicly
ridicule each other's behaviour through carefully composed songs and each was
expected to accept this rebuke with good grace.
Contacts between the Inuit and the Indians or the Qablunait ("thick eyebrows",
the Inuit word for white man, spelled variously including Qallunat, Qablunaq and
Kabloona) were sporadic before the 19th century and the search for the Northwest
Passage. Explorers such as William Parry and George Lyon (1821) were peacefully
received by western Hudson Bay Inuit. The late 19th century also brought American
whalers who employed Inuit as crew on their boats and paid them with typical trade
goods such as guns, iron tools, woolen clothing, tobacco and alcohol ...
As firearms had made it easier for Inuit to hunt seals, fur-trade began to boom
and the Hudson's Bay Company (which was incorporated in May 1670 and is still
Canada's largest department stores chain today) opened new Northern trading posts.
This was the beginning of the Qablunait presence in the North. With the growth of the
fur-trade came Catholic and Anglican missionaries who brought major cultural changes
(practices such as polygamy and infanticide were forbidden) and introduced literacy
(e.g. the Inuit syllabary) and medical assistance (small pox, measles, syphilis and
alcoholism were devastating communities which were in contact with the Qablunait).
Gradually, federal services appeared in the Arctic during the 20th century. In
1903, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police opened its first post in the Arctic at Fullerton
Harbour, a wintering station for the whalers in the Hudson's Bay. However, the
greatest changes came with World War II and the Cold War. First, the mining industry
was booming in the Canadian North and second, the Artic was a strategic position.
Mining developments, roads, airfields, radar stations (the DEW line), and hangars were
created and workers (both Inuit and Qablunait) flocked into new settlements.
By the 1950s, the federal government decided to take a more active role in the
administration of the Arctic. It encouraged the Inuit to abandon their hunting camps
and settle in permanent communities with post-offices, schools, hospitals and other
amenities. Soon a "caste system" developed between the Inuit and the Qablunait living
in those settlements who usually held the positions of authority and enjoyed far better
living conditions. Status differences, unemployment due to a mining crisis, difficulties to
adjust to a new lifestyle and alcoholism led to violent conflicts and suicides.
Within the space of one or two decades, the Inuit culture had been mutilated
to a large extent. The Inuit had given up their nomadic lifestyle to move into
prefabricated homes and the snowmobile had replaced the traditional dog sled.
However, they had managed to retain their language, Inuktitut, and elements of their
traditional way of life. Unfortunately, in 1973, satellite communication systems bringing
southern television programs to Northern homes dealt a nasty blow to Inuit civilisation.
This essay, based on a review of the literature and electronic documents
connected with broadcasting in the North as well as personal conversations, will
investigate twenty-five years of relationship between the Inuit and television. The first
section looks at the birth of radio-television in the Northwest Territories from the first
radio signals to live satellite television in 1973. The second section considers the effects
of television on Inuit culture (including language) and the resulting adaptation to
western homogeneous culture. Finally, the third portion shows how indigenous
broadcasting has evolved as a successful response to help counteract the cultural
hegemony imposed by southern television networks.