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ID tag stories wanted Master's student searching for Kivalliq voices
to piece together Inuit history
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, September 11, 2013
WHALE COVE/EDMONTON
An adult university student with ties to the Kivalliq region is asking Inuit to speak to her about life in the days of the federal government's Eskimo Identification Canada system.
Norma Dunning, 54, is a Nunavut beneficiary attending the University of Alberta in Edmonton.
She's currently a second year master's degree arts student in native studies at the university, and wants to use the information she gathers as part of her thesis on the system, which is looked upon by many as a dark era in Canadian history.
Dunning said her two older brothers and two older sisters were born in Churchill, Man.
She said she was queried about the identification tags while applying for beneficiary status.
"There wasn't anything about Eskimo Identification Canada on the form, but it was one of the questions I was asked over the phone," said Dunning of the system. "It's a topic that's not written about enough and decided to pursue it."
Dunning's connection to Whale Cove is through her mother, Theresa Marie Dunning, nee Harris and other people relocated there in the late 1950s.
Norma's aunt, Francis Voisey, was married to Johnny Voisey and lived most of her life in Churchill.
Norma said the era of the Eskimo identification system is not placed into the grand narrative of Canadian history.
She said her research is showing, as time marches on, government publications about the system print smaller and smaller amounts of information on it.
"I had done the Eskimo Identification Canada system as an undergrad honours project at the University of Alberta," she said. "I decided to move it into my (master's) research and expand upon it with the true hope of giving Inuit a voice in all of this.
"The information I've read does not often include or indicate an Inuit voice."
Norma said government documents on the topic now are very slim, and that she'd really like to hear what Inuit have to say about their experiences as a disk holder.
In addition to being a full-time student, Norma is also a research assistant for two professors and a teaching assistant.
Her accomplishments and recognitions are impressive since beginning her university education at the age of 51.
Already the holder of a bachelor of arts in native studies, Norma has been awarded numerous scholarships, such as the Nuna Logistics MA Graduate Scholarship, the Nunasi Scholarship and the Nunavut Beneficiaries Scholarship.
She has also claimed the Stephen Kapalka Memorial Prize for Creative Prose and the James Patrick Follinsbee Prize for Creative Prose, among other distinctions.
Norma said she hopes, in her heart, to have 20 Inuit contact her.
She said that's the number she submitted to the university's ethics board and the number of stories she'd like to hear.
"We have to go through an ethics process and gain approval before the university will allow us to go forward with any of the research," Norma said of her application, which was approved July 15.
The process will see Norma ask a set of 12 questions to each respondent.
Norma has to be prepared for her dissertation in March of next year, with her thesis having to be completed and approved by the faculty of grad studies by the end of the following month.
She gave her permission to the Kivalliq News to publish her phone number (780-918-3777) and e-mail address (dunningl@ualberta.ca) for Inuit to use to contact her for her research.
Anyone agreeing to be interviewed for the project would have to sign a consent form from the university, and Norma could conduct the interview over the telephone and/or by e-mail.
She would need any unilingual elder wanting to be interviewed to have a translator present when phoning her.
Norma said she would be truly honoured by anyone in the Kivalliq agreeing to tell her their story.
Those interested in contacting her would not be obligated to answer the entire 12 questions on her interview list, she said.
"My research will focus on the Kivalliq region because that's home territory and I'd like to keep it there," she said. "I'm really hoping people from Whale Cove and the area will come forward, if they want to."
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