LE3 .A278 2015

2015

Alexander, Cynthia

Acadia University

Bachelor of Arts

Honours

Politics

Politics

After becoming an official Canadian territory on 1 April 1999, Nunavut continues to suffer social problems including lack of housing and inadequate healthcare at levels far higher than the rest of Canada. These issues are a result of colonization, which continues to affect every Canadian both Indigenous and non-Indigenous: we are all colonial subjects. In this thesis, I explore the ways in which Inuit of Nunavut have tried to decolonize the Nunavut public sector by trying to infuse it with their traditional knowledge known as Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ). The challenges with such an undertaking are that the Nunavut public sector is already controlled by Western values and trying to infuse IQ into such a system has proven to be a struggle. The focus of Nunavut sheds some light on how colonialism can take different forms in order to stay relevant. This challenge is heightened by the distance that southern Canadians have with Inuit both geographically and cognitively. Federal citizenship is more than recognizing two different orders of government; rather it is about what we owe each other as citizens who share a vast geographical space. This thesis will argue that this sort of realization is the only way forward to realize epistemological pluralism, key to totally eliminate colonialism in Canada. We cannot rely on our political institutions to change, unless we as citizens are willing to do the same.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:1270