Life Among the Qallunaat is the story of Mini Aodla Freeman's experiences growing up in the Inuit communities of James Bay and her journey in the 1950s from her home to the strange land and stranger customs of the Qallunaat, those living south of the Arctic. Her extraordinary story, sometimes humourous and sometimes heartbreaking, illustrates an Inuit woman's movement between worlds and ways of understanding. It also provides a clear-eyed record of the changes that swept through Inuit communities in the 1940s and 1950s.Mini Aodla Freeman was born in 1936 on Cape Hope Island in James Bay. At the age of sixteen, she began nurse's training at Ste. Therese School in Fort George, Quebec, and in 1957 she moved to Ottawa to work as a translator for the then Department of Northern Affairs and Natural Resources. Her memoir, Life Among the Qallunaat, was published in 1978 and has been translated into French, German, and Greenlandic. Life Among the Qallunaat is the third book in the First Voices, First Texts series, which publishes lost or under appreciated texts by Indigenous writers. This reissue of Mini Aodla Freeman's path-breaking work includes new material, an interview with the author, and an afterword by Keavy Martin and Julie Rak, with Norma Dunning.
Life Among the Qallunaat is the story of Mini Aodla Freeman's experiences growing up in the Inuit communities of James Bay and her journey in the 1950s from her home to the strange land and stranger customs of the Qallunaat, those living south of the Arctic. Her extraordinary story, sometimes humourous and sometimes heartbreaking, illustrates an Inuit woman's movement between worlds and ways of understanding. It also provides a clear-eyed record of the changes that swept through Inuit communities in the 1940s and 1950s.Mini Aodla Freeman was born in 1936 on Cape Hope Island in James Bay. At the age of sixteen, she began nurse's training at Ste. Therese School in Fort George, Quebec, and in 1957 she moved to Ottawa to work as a translator for the then Department of Northern Affairs and Natural Resources. Her memoir, Life Among the Qallunaat, was published in 1978 and has been translated into French, German, and Greenlandic. Life Among the Qallunaat is the third book in the First Voices, First Texts series, which publishes lost or under appreciated texts by Indigenous writers. This reissue of Mini Aodla Freeman's path-breaking work includes new material, an interview with the author, and an afterword by Keavy Martin and Julie Rak, with Norma Dunning.
Keavy Martin is an associate professor in the
Department of English and Film Studies at the University of
Alberta.
Mini Aodla Freeman was born in 1936 on Cape Hope
Island in James Bay. At the age of sixteen, she began nurse's
training at Ste. Therese School in Fort George, Quebec, and in 1957
she moved to Ottawa to work as a translator for the then Department
of Northern Affairs and National Resources. Her memoir, Life Among
the Qallunaat, was published in 1978 and has been translated into
French, German, and Greenlandic.
"Life Among the Qallunaat is a book about Mini Aodla Freeman's
journey from her small hometown to a big city for a job. The
cultural transition from traditional Inuit lifestyle to modernized
cities was interesting, humorous, difficult and downright honest.
Her perspectives on city culture and lifestyle offers a glimpse
into where humans have devolved and progressed through the eyes of
an Inuk that knows a supernatural way of living. She tells her
story with gentleness, honesty, humour and a love common to all
people."--Tanya Roach "CBC Books"
"From out of the basement and into the hands of readers, Life Among
the Qallunaat is funny, engaging, and honest."--Carleigh Baker "The
Malahat Review"
"This revised edition of Life Among the Qallunaat make an important
contribution to the canon of Indigenous autobiography, particularly
as it consciously seeks to restore the author's agency and original
intents--with her permission and input."--Laura M. Furlan "Studies
in American Indian Literatures"
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