Utopia on trial : perceptions of Canadian government experiments with Inuit relocation
type: CreativeWork
description: In the 1950s, the Canadian government embarked on an ambitious experimental programme of resettling Inuit (Eskimos) in unoecupied regions of the Aretie, sometimes far to the north of their original homelands. In this dissertation I analyze the Canadian government's Inuit reloeation policies during the years 1950-59, by exmaining two princpal case studies. They occurred during a gradual introduction of the welfare state to the Nortli. I will argue that the government's relocation policy during the 1950s can be analyzed largely as an experiment in social reform. The dissertation is divided into four sections. Part I (Chapters 1 and 2) explores the causal factors behind the government's Inuit relocation policies. In Chapter 11 describe the symbolic representation of the Inuit hunter-trappers in Canadian and American literature and films, and the manner in which those perceptions might have influenced and reflected government attitudes and policy towards the Inuit. In particular I will demonstrate the connection between the government's actions to identify an "Eskimo Problem" in 1952 and its subsequent attempts to find remedial solutions, of which the relocation experiments played a prominent role. In Chapter 2 I examine the reason for the government's decision to target the Inuit living in the area of Port Harrison in Arctic Quebec for relocation. 1 then explore the linkage between a social reformist policy designed to use relocation as a means of shifting "surplus" Inuit populations to unoccupied areas of the High Arctic, and the government's geopolitical initiatives to colonize those areas as a demonstration of Canadian sovereignty. In Part II (Chapters 3 and 4) I explore the first case study involving the relocation in 1953-55 of a group of Inuit from Port Harrison, the Inujjuamiut, to Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord in the High Arctic. In each case, the government moved the Inuit by boat to distant "wilderness sites". While the relocations were inspired by utopian ini…
abstract: In the 1950s, the Canadian government embarked on an ambitious experimental programme of resettling Inuit (Eskimos) in unoecupied regions of the Aretie, sometimes far to the north of their original homelands. In this dissertation I analyze the Canadian government's Inuit reloeation policies during the years 1950-59, by exmaining two princpal case studies. They occurred during a gradual introduction of the welfare state to the Nortli. I will argue that the government's relocation policy during the 1950s can be analyzed largely as an experiment in social reform. The dissertation is divided into four sections. Part I (Chapters 1 and 2) explores the causal factors behind the government's Inuit relocation policies. In Chapter 11 describe the symbolic representation of the Inuit hunter-trappers in Canadian and American literature and films, and the manner in which those perceptions might have influenced and reflected government attitudes and policy towards the Inuit. In particular I will demonstrate the connection between the government's actions to identify an "Eskimo Problem" in 1952 and its subsequent attempts to find remedial solutions, of which the relocation experiments played a prominent role. In Chapter 2 I examine the reason for the government's decision to target the Inuit living in the area of Port Harrison in Arctic Quebec for relocation. 1 then explore the linkage between a social reformist policy designed to use relocation as a means of shifting "surplus" Inuit populations to unoccupied areas of the High Arctic, and the government's geopolitical initiatives to colonize those areas as a demonstration of Canadian sovereignty. In Part II (Chapters 3 and 4) I explore the first case study involving the relocation in 1953-55 of a group of Inuit from Port Harrison, the Inujjuamiut, to Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord in the High Arctic. In each case, the government moved the Inuit by boat to distant "wilderness sites". While the relocations were inspired by utopian ini…
author: Marcus, Alan Rudolph
language: eng
license: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/bcde5bce-0f17-4b5a-be08-76a6f617a710/download
license: https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/
date published: 1993-01-01
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:33:23Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.19663