I recently did a presentation at a webinar on self-determination hosted by Inuit Nunaat Fund. As these events go I felt like my answers were not as orderly and coherent as I wanted them to be. So I wanted to write out my thoughts to make sense of the topic for myself and to share them with you. Some of these thoughts were heard, but not all of them.
Context
In preparation for the webinar, as I thought about what self-determination means, I realized it is often in context of colonial forces. When reacting to something is not coming from an empowered place. It is actually antithesis to self-determining. Even though it makes sense the definitions are in context of colonialism because we did not have to think about it prior to imposition of oppressive systems because we just did it. And when I think about how we just did it as Inuit I think about how Inuit kept social order and much depended on how children were raised, socialized. To carry responsibility through their lives and this depended on having strong individuals to be collective well-being minded.
The term commonly understood for this concept through reclamation work now is Inuinnguiniq, the revitalization work to bring back how Inuit raised (raise) and socialize children fostering a capable, confident, and compassionate person who can thrive in their environment and community. Inuinnguiniq comes with an understanding that we are always striving to learn and evolve through our lives. Healthy social systems depend on socialization, to ensure social cohesion to allow for social and economic (food, clothing, shelter, tools) stability and not only needs being met but to allow thriving. Social cohesion includes the ability to deal with conflict swiftly to leave as little lasting impact as possible.
Fast forward to government times, with destruction, despair and despondency due to theft of lives, really: our names, language, land, culture, unity, our souls. Basically, the capacity to be fully ourselves. And the proposed antidote or solution by same governments is to take part in colonial systems and way of life, ending up in a vicious cycle that destroys our sense of selves because it is not our social system. Where our ‘Inuit’ lives are recreational or after thought.
Yet, we continue to dare to hope, dream and work towards a better future. To seek ways to look after ourselves on our own terms. We are where we are today, still mostly intact albeit with a lot of social baggage, because Inuit have continued to fight and evolve what it means to run our own affairs, or be self-determined. Understanding that this is a moving target.
It is in this context I wanted to explore what self-determination means. By first acknowledging Inuit have, and have had social systems to sustain and maintain our own lives, while acknowledging we are still living with destructive forces.
Definition
I have searched through different definitions of self-determination, legal, policy, academic, many are rooted in colonial systems defining it for us in ‘granting us rights or freedoms’ or negotiating it down to appease colonial systems such as our treaties which are created and interpreted through Canadian legal systems, not our own laws. The definition of self-determination I like, because I know it came from an empowered place is one that was created through a gathering of circumpolar Inuit in Qikiqtaġruk (Kotzebue) in 2023, which turned out would culminate into creating Inuit Nunaat fund. The definition created was:
“Defining our own terms and owning, taking, and occupying our own spaces is essential. Awareness of where we are collectively and emotionally, without deference to or fear of others, choosing to accommodate our needs and not those of outsiders. The genuine understanding of the “self” in self-determination, based on names and kinship as well as our traditional homelands and territory. Further more, willingness to challenge what is accepted as the norms and being determined to effectively, purposefully manifest our own collective, genuine self-determination based upon our narrative of success.”
If we’re to unpack what it means to be self-determined or determining, let’s see what it entails by looking at different elements of this definition.
Defining Our Own Terms
It is important to note the gathering of Inuit itself was very intentional in gathering a group of Inuit working on reclamation, not representing organizational interests. There was autonomy in this definition. It is not institutional or responding to one. Autonomy or sense of autonomy creates “…owning, taking, and occupying our own spaces is essential” and vice versa.
Our formal governing organizations can create or have safe spaces ‘to be freely’ Inuk, and define our own destiny. Since they are products of western systems and or responding to them, those spaces are few and far between. What we see largely is structures working against our self-determination because Canadian systems are based on crown sovereignty and resource development with policies and bureaucracy that uphold these principles. The space Indigenous people work in is exception to the above underlying proposition. It is critical then to have spaces to define our own terms, even defining what self-determination means, then how we are to achieve it.
Awareness
Awareness is to self, to our identity, the connection to our own systems and land. The Qikiqtaġruk definition also acknowledges the barriers to self-determination which are fear, coercion, or being coopted. An important aspect to reclamation is decolonization. Decolonization is the process of clearly seeing how colonial forces maintain a power hold, so that action can be taken to remove the grips through reclamation work. It is like shedding light into a situation so you can work on fixing it, it is a two-handed process.
So much of self-determination work is untraining our minds, to be free from the chains of colonialism and colonial thinking. For example the tension between mining centered economies versus a hunting centered one, when all the mines create disruption to critical habitat for our wildlife. This often creates friction in our communities as many do not see the larger power dynamics or the internalized values that are not ours. Nor do some want to see them. There can be so much privilege and power to upholding colonial structures. Unfortunately, we are pinned against choosing imperialism or coloniality versus resistance. Even if we do not see it clearly.
There are also many distractions to keep us from understanding the power dynamics or confront them. Fear is used to control the agenda, for example that our housing and food insecurity situation will not be attended to and will continue to get worse, if we do not comply with the government agenda. Our funding is always at risk it seems. Fear is used to influence the opinions, attitudes, and ultimately, the actions of a target audience toward a specific outcome or belief or to continue conformity. We are inundated with highly emotional content especially on social media which can exacerbate fear and anxiety. We are often so grateful for crumbs of funding, or programming, when our country was built on the riches of our stolen lands. No where is there a process to truly define our needs on our terms, especially as we fight for very basic human needs of food and shelter for so many of our people.
In my early work on self-determination, I remember realizing that half the battle to self-determination is BELIEVING we can. The awareness piece, to the larger picture, is critical to the process then.
The “Self”
The “self” in self-determination can be our individual selves, our family, settlement or land area affiliation, basically anyone you share values, activities or identity with. I remember when I took on a job to lead the self-determination file, that the idea is a very personal one. I went through a process of questioning whether I am leading a self-determining life if I am to help pursue the idea for Inuit in Nunavut. We pretend these concepts are external, when they are also very personal.
I also realized that Inuit identity is very diverse and complex. Not only because Inuit have always been diverse, there is the added diversity brought on by genocidal acts to destroy who we are. For example, those that speak only Inuktut language, those who don’t, those that have grown up in the south, and those that grew up entirely in a community, those that know traditional skills, those that don’t and so on. Above all, the most important work now to define the self is the identity confidence work we need to continue to do. We need people who have a strong sense of who they are, if they are to fight for it.
Our Own Narrative of Success
There are many examples of self-determination in spite of challenges or almost everything working against it happening. Where are these examples of self-determination happening? Another way of asking this question is where are the spaces where Inuit can be unapologetically themselves? Aside from out on the land, which is a given. What brings to mind is the spaces of safety to be ourselves as discussed earlier. The test to whether our organizations are allowing self-determination is whether they are working in our favor to reclaim or allow our names, language, land, culture, unity (including family, Inuit), souls, and our connections to these.
We have our own way of making decisions, raising our children, keeping social order, practicing art, beauty, expression, our own relationality expressed through our language (which has been stolen from so many). I use the term stolen, because it was a very deliberate act to remove our languages. People did not lose their language. We are in the business to grow the community of empoweredness. Staying centered in ‘care’ and ‘responsibility’ can be challenging when we face everyday challenges of opposing values.
Our own definition of success should be reclaiming our social systems, especially how children are raised and socialized. Inuit have always been ingenious and adaptable, there is a reason for that. We have had a social system that has worked since millenia. It may take a while to figure out how it can apply to now, but we have the answers. Let’s shed the shit that makes us believe otherwise.
Challenge
In reclamation work, often the barrier isn’t just to convince colonial systems to practice humanity, but rather the challenge is to convince our own people who have bought into coloniality in wholesale. We then have to create community of resisters, or support systems to keep sane or try to. Sadly though, many Inuit get lost in this quagmire of coloniality paying with their mental health and or turning to violence. Challenging involves constantly shifting, rethinking, negotiating through spaces and people who represent oppression. This, when we have had to repair, undo, or create our own family systems due to destruction of familial unions which translate to making it even more challenging to have unity as a community. Healing and well-being work is part of the process.
The spaces where self-determination is most thriving is community driven projects around language, culture, arts and hunting or Inuit economy. There are spotty examples within our institutions but these institutions are products of systems that were created to destroy us, so they are either very slow to change or still largely resistant or volatile. The community projects are working because someone or a group of someones are working hard to make them work, with a lot of fight and heart.
I love seeing everyday acts of resistance, but also ways Inuit are showing their power through their efforts. When I talk about resistance it is the refusal to comply or conform to colonial agenda. The examples I see is everything from a young woman reclaiming her language through cultural activities such as amauti making, a young man learning land and hunting skills, to Inuit well-being work, to the beautiful art and tool making that is happening. Our young Inuit are amazingly creative and feisty. We must also admit many are struggling.
I also acknowledge people working within systems to attempt to turn the massive ship that has great momentum and force. This can be lonely and dispiriting work, I’ve been there. All in all, we must work constantly on bringing unity, to stay centered in our caring way to reclaim ourselves. So that we may “purposefully manifest our own collective, genuine self-determination based upon our narrative of success”. We owe it to our children, grandchildren and those coming after us. When I found out I was going to be a grandmother, I was overwhelmed with the idea that I was not ready to be a ‘wise’ person yet. I had a mini identity crisis for a moment. Then it came to me that we just need to simply love and provide good guidance. The answer is within us when we allow ourselves to feel through our thoughts. Self-determination sits in our core.