Kiumajut [Talking Back]: Game Management and Inuit Rights 1900-70 examines Inuit relations with the Canadian state, with a particular focus on two interrelated issues. The first is how a deeply flawed set of scientific practices for counting animal populations led policymakers to develop policies and laws intended to curtail the activities of Inuit hunters. Animal management informed by this knowledge became a justification for attempts to educate and, ultimately, to regulate Inuit hunters. The second issue is Inuit responses to the emerging regime of government intervention. The authors look closely at resulting court cases and rulings, as well as Inuit petitions. The activities of the first Inuit community council are also examined in exploring how Inuit began to “talk back” to the Canadian state.

The authors’ award-winning previous collaboration, Tammarniit [Mistakes]: Inuit Relocation in the Eastern Arctic 1939-63, focused on government responsibility, social welfare, and relocation in Inuit relations with the state. Kiumajut is not a continuation of Tammarniit, but rather an interrelated, stand-alone study that examines a separate range of issues relevant to a historical understanding of community development in Nunavut. Kiumajut draws on new material compiled from archival sources and from an archive of oral interviews conducted by the authors with Inuit elders and others between 1997 and 1999. This volume provides the reader with new and important insights for understanding this critical period in the history of Inuit in Canada.

Peter Kulchyski grew up in northern Manitoba and was one of the few non-Aboriginal students to attend a government-run residential high school. He has a PhD from York University and is a senior Canadian scholars in Native Studies. He is the co-editor of In the Words of the Elders: Aboriginal Cultures in Transition and co-author of Tammarniitt [Mistakes]: Inuit Relocation in the Eastern Arctic, which won the Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin Prize of the American Society for Ethnohistory. He is the head of the department of Native Studies at the University of Manitoba.

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FRANK TESTER is a writer, filmmaker, researcher and photographer who has worked extensively in the eastern Arctic with Inuit youth and communities. Frank has worked for the Qikiqtani Truth Commission and the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission. His books include Tammarniit (Mistakes) detailing Inuit relocations in the eastern Arctic, for which he was awarded the Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin Prize. He is also a recipient of the Gustavus Myers Award for his contribution to the study of human rights in North America and the W. Garfield Weston Foundation Trustee’s Award in recognition of his work with Inuit youth and Elders. He is currently Adjunct Professor of Native Studies, University of Winnipeg. Frank lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

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This book is a rich story, weaving together the elements of policy and people. […] The case study approach and choice of the Inuit is of particular value in that it clearly identifies the limits of “objective” science and makes the case for what is now accepted as the importance of traditional knowledge. […] Though this book is not intended as a cautionary tale for current policy makers, it will be of interest to academics, students and policymakers alike as it sheds light on the challenges and conflicts ever-present in regulating Aboriginal people.

Gabrielle Slowey, TOPIA, Issue 20