Greetings from Niaqunguut (Apex), just down the road from Iqaluit -- the closest capital to Nunavut. The Lonely Planet guide 'Greenland & The Arctic' (2nd ed.) describes Iqaluit as "perversely fascinating."
Please feel free to poke about, to download anything you find to be of interest, and/or to drop me a line.
Cheers,
Jack Hicks
jack@jackhicks.com
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"I am for truth, no matter who tells it. I am for justice no matter who is for or against it. I am a human being first and foremost, and as such I am for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole."
-- Malcolm X
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Most recent additions to the site
• .pdf files can now be downloaded by right-clicking on the links.
• most recent publication: "The social determinants of elevated rates of suicide among Inuit youth" Indigenous Affairs issue 2007:4 (theme: Social Suffering), 2007. pp. 30-7. [1 meg .pdf file in English; also available in Spanish]
• yearbooks from the Churchill Vocational Centre (CVC) are now in the ‘From the archives’ section.
• some favourite YouTube videos (see down the page) and links to works by the Palestinian poet and political scientist Tamim Al-Barghouti.
• updated (and additional) bibliographies to follow "soon"...
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"This obsession with programs and bureaucrats in Aboriginal social policy reaches its nadir with the response to the most glaring problem of our society: our disastrous average life expectancy. How do we respond to this most basic statistic? We develop and administer a ‘Life Promotion Program’, with not a hint of irony or self-consciousness ... The next step for the bureaucrats will be the development of a program promoting the benefits of breathing."
-- Noel Pearson
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"What gets measured gets reported and worried about; what goes unmeasured gets ignored. When you collect and make readily available good statistics, you inform the public, provide ammunition for activists and oppositions, equip bureaucrats with the data they need to develop good policy, make it possible to set targets and give governments early feedback on the success or failure of those policies."
-- Paul Gittins,
'What goes unmeasured is ignored', in the Sydney Morning Herald
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Bibliographies
These bibliographies are very much works in progress. Notification of omissions (and of typos and other errors) would be oh-so-greatly appreciated! The abstracts are those prepared by the authors. The spellings of some words have been standardized to facilitate searching by keyword.
• Greenland (1,407 references, 178 pages, last updated November 2006) -- 1.3 meg .pdf file.
• articles appearing in vols. 1-29 of the journal Études/Inuit/Studies (80 pages) -- 600K .pdf file.
• 'Arctic social sciences' theses and dissertations (1,192 references, 364 pages, last updated January 2007) -- 2.7 meg .pdf file.
• Theses and dissertations on indigenous peoples outside the Arctic (963 references, 360 pages, last updated January 2007) -- 2.9 meg .pdf file.
• coming soon: Nunavut, and who knows what else...
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"Feed your head."
-- Jefferson Airplane
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From the archives:
• In 1931 the Government of Canada wrote 'The Eskimo People' an astoundingly paternalistic letter telling them how to, well, how to be Eskimos. Here it is in English [1.3 meg .pdf file] and Inuktitut [ 600K .pdf file].
• In 1958 the same Government of Canada decided to build a domed city of Frobisher Bay. Here is the overview of the proposal [8 meg .pdf file], and the three best drawings contained in the proposal [1: 350K .pdf file, 2: 550K .pdf file and 3: 1 meg .pdf file]. The proposal was written up on the front page of The Globe and Mail on December 6, 1958 [1.1 meg .pdf file]. Thankfully it never went ahead...
• Yearbooks from the Churchill Vocational Centre, which brought together Inuit teenagers from across Nunavut and Nunavik in the late 60s and early 70s:
1966-67,
1967-68,
1968-69,
1969-70,
1970-71,
1971-72,
1972-73.
Each .pdf is between 5 and 11 megs.
My personal favourite pages are the profile of The Harpoons in the 1966-67 edition [480K .pdf file ].
• In the spring of 1990 the people of Baker Lake voted 90% against supporting a proposed open-pit uranium mine that would have been located near their community. Joan Scottie told the story to the World Uranium Hearing held in 1992... [30K .pdf file]
• In January 2003 more than 200 residents of Iqaluit demonstrated against the impending American/Anglo invasion and occupation of Iraq. It may not have been one of the largest marches that took place around that world that day, but for a town of 6,000 it was a great turnout. And it was surely one of the _coldest_ marches that took place that day... Pictures are on my Flickr site here. Here's hoping that there are especially _hot_ places in hell reserved for Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Blair and their advisors. ESPECIALLY Blair -- as without his support Bush wouldn't have been able to get away with what he did.
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"Whom will they spare? What blood will they not shed? What cruelty will they not commit, these brutal men who are hardened to seeing fields bathed in human blood, who make no distinction of sex or age, who do not spare infants at their mothers' breasts, pregnant women, the great, the lowly or even men of feeble and gray old age for whom the weight of years usually awakens reverence or mercy?"
-- Bartolomé de Las Casas (1484-1566), a contemporary of Christopher Columbus, whose writings reveal the barbarism of the European conquest of the 'New World.'
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Publications
A list of things I've written can be found here.
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"I believe neutrality is impossible, because the world is already moving in certain directions. Wars are going on. Children are starving. And to be neutral, to pretend to neutrality, to not take a stand in a situation like that is to collaborate with whatever is going on, to allow it to happen. I did not want to be a collaborator with what was happening. I wanted to enter into history. I wanted to play a role. I wanted my students to play a role. I wanted us to intercede. I wanted my history to intercede and to take a stand on behalf of peace, on behalf of a racial equality or sexual equality, and so I wanted my students to know that right from the beginning, know you can’t be neutral on a moving train."
-- Howard Zinn
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Photos
I've posted some of my favourite photos on my Flickr site.
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"The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born."
-- Gramsci
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“[The] idea of a more egalitarian system is not dead. The next world system may well be libertarian socialism -- but the act of passage, with capitalism feeding on war, terror and undisguised slavery, and engulfed in a fight to the death for energy resources, will be inscribed in tremendous grief as much as the passage from feudalism to capitalism.”
-- Pepe Escobar, 'Globalistan: How the globalized world is dissolving into liquid war'
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Some of my favourite videos on YouTube
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"And in the general hardening of outlook that set in … practices which had been long abandoned -- imprisonment without trial, the use of war prisoners as slaves, public executions, torture to extract confessions … and the deportation of whole populations -- not only became common again, but were tolerated and even defended by people who considered themselves enlightened and progressive."
-- George Orwell, 1984
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When in...
• Cairns, consider staying at the lovely art deco Floriana Guest House. Your host, Maggie, is a sweetheart.
• Cairo, consider staying at the El Hussein Hotel -- just above the venerable El-Fishawi Café, open 24 hours a day since 1773. The El-Hussein is notably lacking in amenities and wouldn't score well on any test of basic hotel cleanliness, but it has a charm all its own. If your idea of a great evening in Cairo is a walk down the Bayn al-Qasrayn (rather than, say, a trip to a generic hotel disco) then this is the place for you.
• Copenhagen, escape the beaten path by paying a visit to the Nordatlantens Brygge (North Atlantic House) at the historic Grønlands Handels Plads (Greenland Trade Square) -- for 200 years a bustling centre for trade to and from Greenland and the rest of the North Atlantic. Very nearby, the Butik Kamik sells a wide range of Greenlandic products -- including wonderful lamb from South Greenland. On your way back down Strandgade, stop for a beer and/or a meal at the 150 year-old Færge Cafeen (Ferry Café). The Danish 'country cooking' is excellent -- especially on Wednesdays, when they make stegt flæsk og persillesovs for dinner. Ægte dansk!
• Greenland, considering taking a trip up or down the coast on an Arctic Umiaq Lines ship, staying at Sømandshjemmene (Seamen's Homes) in four towns along the coast. There's no better way to see the country or meet the people.
• Igloolik, do yourself a favour and stay in the friendliest hotel in all of Nunavut -- the Tujurmivik Hotel.
• London, I can usually be found somewhere in or between Bookmarks, Stern's, and The Fryer's Delight (19 Theobald's Road, Holborn; IMHO the best fish & chips shop in central London).
• Montreal, consider heading out to the east end for dinner at my favourite neighbourhood bistro, Au Petit Extra. Bon appetit!
• Namibia, if you're planning to visit the spectacular Sossusvlei/Sesriem sand dunes (Namib Naukluft Park), consider walking in far enough in to see the petrified trees. Not many people do. Bring lots of water!
• Nuuk, I can usually be found enjoying the warm hospitality of my friends Birger, Mariekathrine and Upaluk.
• Paris recently for a conference I was very happy with the relatively inexpensive Hotel du Champ de Mars, just a few minutes' walk from the Eiffel Tower in the 7e arrondisement.
• Sisimiut, consider stopping for dinner at the oddly brilliant Chinese/Greenlandic restaurant Misigisaaq. I recommend the 'Numbingly Spicy Chongching Musk-ox'.
• Uluru, consider booking a tour through the award-winning, Aboriginal-owned Anangu Tours. Why not learn something about the traditional owners of the land you're visiting?
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Harry Tuttle: Bloody paperwork. Huh!
Sam Lowry: I suppose one has to expect a certain amount.
Harry Tuttle: Why? I came into this game for the action, the excitement. Go anywhere, travel light, get in, get out, wherever there's trouble, a man alone. Now they got the whole country sectioned off, you can't make a move without a form.
-- from the movie 'Brazil'
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Brian: Excuse me -- are you the Judean People's Front?
Reg: Fuck off! We're the People's Front of Judea.
-- Monty Python's 'Life of Brian'
Earlier ClustrMaps are
archived here.
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