Inuit Shamanism and Christianity: Transitions and Transformations in the Twentieth Century (Volume 58) (McGill-Queen's Native and Northern Series)

488 Pages·2010·6.008 MB·English

by  Frédéric B. Laugrand, Jarich G. Oosten

Inuit Shamanism and Christianity
McGill-Queen’s Native and Northern Series
(In memory of Bruce G. Trigger)
Sarah Carter and Arthur J. Ray, Editors
 When the Whalers Were Up North 5 This Distant and Unsurveyed Country
Inuit Memories from the Eastern Arctic A Woman’s Winter at Baffin Island, 857–858
Dorothy Harley Eber W. Gillies Ross
2 The Challenge of Arctic Shipping 6 Images of Justice
Science, Environmental Assessment, Dorothy Harley Eber
and Human Values
7 Capturing Women
Edited by David L. VanderZwaag and
The Manipulation of Cultural Imagery in
Cynthia Lamson
Canada’s Prairie West
3 Lost Harvests Sarah A. Carter
Prairie Indian Reserve Farmers and
8 Social and Environmental Impacts of the James
Government Policy
Bay Hydroelectric Project
Sarah Carter
Edited by James F. Hornig
4 Native Liberty, Crown Sovereignty
9 Saqiyuq
The Existing Aboriginal Right of
Stories from the Lives of Three Inuit Women
Self-Government in Canada
Nancy Wachowich in collaboration with Apphia
Bruce Clark
Agalakti Awa, Rhoda Kaukjak Katsak, and
5 Unravelling the Franklin Mystery Sandra Pikujak Katsak
Inuit Testimony
20 Justice in Paradise
David C. Woodman
Bruce Clark
6 Otter Skins, Boston Ships, and China Goods
2 Aboriginal Rights and Self-Government
The Maritime Fur Trade of the
The Canadian and Mexican Experience
Northwest Coast, 785–84
in North American Perspective
James R. Gibson
Edited by Curtis Cook and Juan D. Lindau
7 From Wooden Ploughs to Welfare
22 Harvest of Souls
The Story of the Western Reserves
The Jesuit Missions and Colonialism in
Helen Buckley
North America, 632–650
8 In Business for Ourselves Carole Blackburn
Northern Entrepreneurs
23 Bounty and Benevolence
Wanda A. Wuttunee
A History of Saskatchewan Treaties
9 For an Amerindian Autohistory Arthur J. Ray, Jim Miller, and Frank Tough
An Essay on the Foundations of a Social Ethic
24 The People of Denendeh
Georges E. Sioui
Ethnohistory of the Indians of Canada’s
0 Strangers Among Us Northwest Territories
David Woodman June Helm
 When the North Was Red 25 The Marshall Decision and Native Rights
Aboriginal Education in Soviet Siberia Ken Coates
Dennis A. Bartels and Alice L. Bartels
26 The Flying Tiger
2 From Talking Chiefs to a Native Corporate Elite Women Shamans and Storytellers of the Amur
The Birth of Class and Nationalism among Kira Van Deusen
Canadian Inuit
27 Alone in Silence
Marybelle Mitchell
European Women in the Canadian North
3 Cold Comfort before 940
My Love Affair with the Arctic Barbara E. Kelcey
Graham W. Rowley
28 The Arctic Voyages of Martin Frobisher
4 The True Spirit and Original Intent of Treaty 7 An Elizabethan Adventure
Treaty 7 Elders and Tribal Council with Robert McGhee
Walter Hildebrandt, Dorothy First Rider, and
Sarah Carter
29 Northern Experience and the Myths 45 Robert and Francis Flaherty
of Canadian Culture A Documentary Life, 883–922
Renée Hulan Robert J. Christopher
30 The White Man’s Gonna Getcha 46 Talking in Context
The Colonial Challenge to the Crees in Quebec Language and Identity in Kwakwaka’wakw
Toby Morantz Society
Anne Marie Goodfellow
3 The Heavens Are Changing
Nineteenth-Century Protestant Missions 47 Tecumseh’s Bones
and Tsimshian Christianity Guy St-Denis
Susan Neylan
48 Constructing Colonial Discourse
32 Arctic Migrants/Arctic Villagers Captain Cook at Nootka Sound
The Transformation of Inuit Settlement Noel Elizabeth Currie
in the Central Arctic
49 The Hollow Tree
David Damas
Fighting Addiction with Traditional Healing
33 Arctic Justice Herb Nabigon
On Trial for Murder – Pond Inlet, 923
50 The Return of Caribou to Ungava
Shelagh D. Grant
A.T. Bergerud, Stuart Luttich, and
34 Eighteenth-Century Naturalists of Hudson Bay Lodewijk Camps
Stuart Houston, Tim Ball, and Mary Houston
5 Firekeepers of the Twenty-First Century
35 The American Empire and the Fourth World First Nations Women Chiefs
Anthony J. Hall Cora J. Voyageur
36 Uqalurait 52 Isuma
An Oral History of Nunavut Inuit Video Art
Compiled and edited by John Bennett Michael Robert Evans
and Susan Rowley
53 Outside Looking In
37 Living Rhythms Viewing First Nations Peoples in Canadian
Lessons in Aboriginal Economic Resilience Dramatic Television Series
and Vision Mary Jane Miller
Wanda Wuttunee
54 Kiviuq
38 The Making of an Explorer An Inuit Hero and His Siberian Cousins
George Hubert Wilkins and the Canadian Kira Van Deusen
Arctic Expedition, 93–96
55 Native Peoples and Water Rights
Stuart E. Jenness
Irrigation, Dams, and the Law in
39 Chee Chee Western Canada
A Study of Aboriginal Suicide Kenichi Matsui
Alvin Evans
56 The Rediscovered Self
40 Strange Things Done Indigenous Identity and Cultural Justice
Murder in Yukon History Ronald Niezen
Ken S. Coates and William R. Morrison
57 As affecting the fate of my absent husband
4 Healing through Art Selected Letters of Lady Franklin Concerning
Ritualized Space and Cree Identity the Search for the Lost Franklin Expedition,
Nadia Ferrara 848–860
Edited by Erika Behrisch Elce
42 Coyote and Raven Go Canoeing
Coming Home to the Village 58 The Language of the Inuit
Peter Cole Syntax, Semantics, and Society in the Arctic
Louis-Jacques Dorais
43 Something New in the Air
The Story of First Peoples Television 59 Inuit Shamanism and Christianity
Broadcasting in Canada Transitions and Transformations in
Lorna Roth the Twentieth Century
Frédéric B. Laugrand and Jarich G. Oosten
44 Listening to Old Woman Speak
Natives and Alternatives in Canadian Literature
Laura Smyth Groening

Inuit Shamanism and Christianity
Transitions and Transformations in the Twentieth Century
FRÉDÉRIC B. LAUGRAND AND JARICH G. OOSTEN
McGill-Queen’s University Press
Montreal & Kingston | London | Ithaca
© McGill-Queen’s University Press 200
isbn 978-0-7735-3589-3 (cloth)
isbn 978-0-7735-3590-9 (paper)
Legal deposit first quarter 200
Bibliothèque nationale du Québec
Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 00% ancient forest free
(00% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the
Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through
the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by
the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
McGill-Queen’s University Press acknowledges the support of the
Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We also
acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada
through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (bpidp)
for our publishing activities.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Laugrand, Frédéric
Inuit shamanism and Christianity : transitions and transformations in
the twentieth century / Frédéric B. Laugrand and Jarich G. Oosten.
(McGill-Queen’s native and northern series ; 59)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-7735-3589-3 (bnd)
isbn 978-0-7735-3590-9 (pbk)
. Inuit – Religion. 2. Inuit – Social life and customs. 3. Inuit
mythology. 4. Inuit – Missions. 5. Shamanism – Canada, Northern
– History – 20th century. 6. Christianity – Canada, Northern –
History – 20th century. I. Oosten, Jarich II. Title. III. Series:
McGill-Queen’s native and northern series 59
e99.e7l3895 200 299.7’82 c2009-904078-6
Frontispiece: Marble Island by Ruth Annaqtuusi Tulurialik. Linocut and
stencil on mulberry paper. Winnipeg Art Gallery Collection. Courtesy
Inuit Art Foundation.
Set in 0.2/2.5 Minion Pro with Myriad Pro
Book design & typesetting by Garet Markvoort, zijn digital
We dedicate this book to the elders who shared their knowledge with us
in our workshops, especially those elders who passed away before
this project could be completed: Gino Akkaq, Luke Anautalik,
George Kappianaq, Felix Kupak, Luke Nuliajuk, and Felix Pisuk.
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Contents
Illustrations xi
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction xvii
Part One | Angakkuuniq and Christianity
 Continuity and Decline 3
2 Missionaries and Angakkuit 37
3 Inuit Winter Feasts 69
Part Two | Animals, Owners, and Non-human Beings
4 Hunters and Prey 03
5 The Owners of the Sky, the Land, and the Sea 33
6 Inuunngittut, Non-human Beings from the Land and the Sea 68
Part Three | Encounters, Healing, and Power
7 Initiation, Visions, and Dreams 20
8 Healing as a Socio-cosmic Process 242
9 Powerful Objects and Words 272