Interpreting Labrador

We spent Sunday afternoon driving around the area and learning a bit about land politics here in Labrador. Happy Valley-Goose Bay is the biggest town in Labrador, and it has a significant Inuit population. Most of the participants in last year’s Nain study were Inuit, a group of Inuktitut speakers who in previous stereotypes would be categorized as “Eskimo.” Many of last year’s interviewees and several people who have come to talk to us in Goose Bay have families who experienced major relocation down the coast of Labrador over the course of the 1900s. From Killiniq, the very northern tip of Labrador (near Cape Chidley on the map above), families were relocated south to Ramah, Hebron, and Okak (around Saglek Bay on this map). These towns are in and around what is now the Torngat Mountains National Park Reserve, a long expanse of land covering the majority of the northernmost part of the province. From these towns, Inuit families were later again relocated further south to places like Nain and Hopedale, and from there many came further south to Rigolet, Makkovik, and Happy Valley-Goose Bay, often in search of work. One reason HV-GB was attractive because of the military base that was already here, a huge contributor to the job market. However, a significant problem – for non-Inuit-identified people as well as for relocated Inuit – with living here is its distance from good land on which to hunt and fish, which makes obtaining “country foods” (caribou, rabbit, partridge, seal, char, rock cod, etc.) much more difficult and much less common than in the coastal towns.

Hamilton River Road, the main street in HV-GB

The Inuit in Labrador were recently given reparation money and a land claims agreements with the Canadian government. Such land claims revolve largely around mineral deposits – for example, around Nain, an enormous nickel mine opened operation under the new settlement, and a recent large uranium deposit near Rigolet is likely to soon open as well.  Without much exaggeration, one can say that it was the mineral deposites of Labrador prompted the Canadian government to come to agreements with the Inuit, largely in order to develop mining in the area.
      Much money has traded hands as well, as a result of a "Impact Benefit Agreement" signed between the Inuit and Vale-Inco, the developer of the Voisey's Bay Nickel Mine. The new Inuit government chose to invest this money in stocks, with the hope of creating a sustainable community development fund.  Their timing was bad, though, and a significant portion of the investment was lost in the recent international market crash, which has led to strain in the community. Despite this setback, HV-GB is home to numerous Inuit-focused support groups, in which central agencies help people access food and jobs as well as provide classes on traditional crafts and opportunities for people to get together to tell stories and spend time as a community.

Innu Band Council building in Sheshatshiu

Just an hour away by a beautiful car ride resides another Native group, the Innu. Innu are Cree speakers and therefore what are, in the US, typically called “Indians” – distinct from Inuit. The towns of Sheshatshiu (pronounced ‘sheh-sha-shee) and Natuashish (between Nain and Hopedale) are both populated almost entirely by Innu. There is a different sort of wealth visible in Sheshatshiu. Whereas the Inuit invested their reparation money collectively in stocks, the Innu leaders divided it among the community to give them a few thousand dollars per person per year. This has been the base of considerable change among Innu, and the source of some jealously among the ordinary Inuit. The Innu in Sheshatshiu are not lacking in contentious political issues, either: a hydroelectric dam will be built in the area, and, as with most development projects, there is not a consensus on whether this will harm or benefit the community. This dam and other such development projects will certainly have a much broader impact than just on Innu communities, potentially influencing the whole of Labrador.

The town of North West River offers the Labrador Interpretation Centre, a beautiful and beautifully situated museum depicting traditional native arts and crafts. Its trilingual displays not only allow observers to see and hear both Innu and Inuit languages but also describe the lengthy history of the region to include traditional myths as well as settler colonial perspectives provided by the history of the Hudson Bay trading and trapping developments in Labrador. The Centre is informative – albeit a bit remote and difficult to access – and was an excellent way to visualize some of the stories people have told us about traditional activities in the North.

Labrador Interpretation Centre 

Welcome to Goose Bay!

The 2011 Labrador Networks Project continues the social network research begun in Nain in 2010, expanding on the same questions about people's networks and connections to include the larger community of Goose Bay, located in southern Labrador. Goose Bay is a community of about 8,000 people and the self-proclaimed hub of Labrador. It is also the home to an Canadian Forces Base, formerly a refueling site for fighter planes on their way to Europe during World War II and currently privately owned and operated. Monday, February 14 was our first full day of interviews, and Tuesday promises to be just as full! Check back for updates on our travels around the area to Sheshatshiu and North West River.