On January 22, 2005, Inuit from communities throughout northern and central Labrador gathered in a school gymnasium to witness the signing of the Labrador Inuit Land Claim Agreement and to celebrate the long-awaited creation of their own regional self-government of Nunatsiavut. This historic agreement defined the Labrador Inuit settlement area, beneficiary enrollment criteria, and Inuit governance and ownership rights. Settlement, Subsistence, and Change Among the Labrador Inuit explores how these boundaries—around land, around people, and around the right to self-govern—reflect the complex history of the region, of Labrador Inuit identity, and the role of migration and settlement patterns in regional politics. Comprised of twelve essays, the book examines the way of life and cultural survival of this unique indigenous population, including: household structure, social economy of wildfood production, forced relocations and land claims, subsistence and settlement patterns, and contemporary issues around climate change, urban planning, and self-government.
Lawrence Felt is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Andrea Procter is a historical anthropologist who focuses on settler colonialism and community-driven research. She has authored several books with Inuit partners, including TautukKonik: A Portrait of Inuit Life in Northern Labrador, 1969–1986 (Memorial University Press, 2022), and A Long Journey: Residential Schools in Labrador and Newfoundland (Memorial University Press, 2020), winner of the 2021 Atlantic Book Award for Scholarly Writing, the CLIO Prize (Atlantic), and the Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award for Non-Fiction. She earned a PhD from Memorial University and lives, hikes, and kayaks in St. John’s with her family.
Ch 1: Labrador Inuit Ingenuity and Resourcefulness: Adapting to a Complex Environmental, Social, and Spiritual Environment by Susan A. Kaplan
Ch 2: Invented Places: Environmental Imaginaries and the Inuit Colonization of Labrador by Peter Whitridge
Ch 3: Southern Exposure: The Inuit of Sandwich Bay, Labrador by Lisa Rankin, Matthew Beaudoin, and Natalie Brewster
Ch 4: Abandoned and Ousted by the State: The Relocations from Nutak and Hebron, 1956–1959 by Peter Evans
Ch 5: Tracing Social Change Among the Labrador Inuit: What Does the Nutrition Literature Tell Us? by Maura Hanrahan
Ch 6: The More Things Change ... : Patterns of Country Food Harvesting by the Labrador Inuit on the North Labrador Coast by Lawrence Felt, David C. Natcher, Andrea Procter, et al.
Ch 7: The Social Organization of Wildfood Production in Postville, Nunatsiavut, by David C. Natcher, Lawrence Felt, Jill McDonald, and Rose Ford
Ch 8: Nunatsiavut Land Claims and the Politics of Inuit Wildlife Harvesting by Andrea Procter
Ch 9: Adapting to Climate Change in Hopedale, Nunatsiavut by Laura Fleming, Ruth DeSantis, Barry Smit, and Mark Andrachuk
Ch 10: Our Beautiful Land: Current Debates in Land Use Planning in Nunatsiavut by Andrea Procter and Keith Chaul
Conclusion: Going Forward, Challenges and Opportunities for Nunatsiavut Self-governance by Lawrence Felt, David C. Natcher, and Andrea Procter
