Through an examination of the roles of relief and relocation in response to welfare and other perceived problems and the federal government's overall goal of assimilating the Inuit into the dominant Canadian culture, this book questions the seeming benevolence of the post-Second World War Canadian welfare state. The authors have made extensive use of archival documents, many of which have not been available to researchers before. The early chapters cover the first wave of government expansion in the north, the policy debate that resulted in the decision to relocate Inuit, and the actual movement of people and materials. The second half of the book focuses on conditions following relocation and addresses the second wave of state expansion in the late fifties and the emergence of a new dynamic of intervention.

Frank Tester is a geographer, social worker and Professor Emeritus, University of British Columbia. He is co-author of two books dealing with the social history of Inuit in the eastern Arctic and papers and reports dealing with contemporary social issues affecting Inuit. He has travelled and worked throughout Nunavut Territory and brings to his work a commitment to social justice and human rights. Frank received the Gustavus Myers Award for his research on Inuit rights, history and his contributions to the study and promotion of human rights in North America. He is also a recipient of the 1995 Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin Prize for his co-authored book, Tammarniit (Mistakes): Inuit Relocation in the Eastern Arctic, 1939-62 (1994, UBC Press).

Frank Tester's profile page

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.

Peter Kulchyski's profile page

• Winner, Outstanding Book, Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America

Treads the fine line of compassionate analysis and understanding. The authors avoid righteous condemnation, examing instead the complex ways in which decent, well-meaning officials fashioned a legacy of suffering from their own insensitivity, ignorance, and self-deception ... Like it or not, Canada is about to be transformed by the emerging powers of its aboriginal nations ... How Canada responds to these challenges will define the future shape of Confederation itself.  In that sense, this book is both timely and significant.

Vancouver Sun

In this important book, Tester and Kulchyski skillfully weave the episodes of Inuit relocations into the fabric of general postdepression Canadian history. The authors do an excellent job of revealing the complex relations between the government, the missionaries, the fur companies, and the Inuit. It is another excellent case study of the detrimental effects of governmental paternalism.

American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Tammarniit (Mistakes) makes an important contribution to our understandings of the recent history of the relationships between the Inuit of the eastern arctic and the Canadian state (in its various and complex manifestations).

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