Educational Media Reviews Online

North of Quebec, Nunavik is a relatively new Canadian territory whose native population of Inuk is balancing the advantages of modern life against the traditional customs and values of their ancestral heritage. The director, Bobby Kenuajuak, is himself a native, born in the village of Puvirnituq, on the shores of Hudson Bay in 1976, when this was still northern Quebec. He captures the essence of the Inuit community by shooting his film over the course of three seasons. Storytelling and hunting trips depict the traditional values of the Inuk. The elders talk about the hardships of life before the introduction of southern civilization. The elders state that they would not want to return to the days of building igloos. The Inuk appreciate the amenities introduced into their community, such as hospitals and stores, wooden houses, electricity, indoor plumbing, grocery stores, clothing, and other consumer goods. All that is needed is money to procure these goods. The community radio station serves to connect everyone by announcing the imminent birth of a baby or telling someone to come home for dinner. It provides the means to talk to one another and share news.

In a culture where 2/3 of all food comes from the wild, the natives read their land like we read books. What seems frigid and barren to outsiders is bountiful and beautiful to them. Even though they now live in wooden houses and would not trade them for igloos, they still eat raw fish and meat and like to eat on the floor as they did before they had furniture. When the ice melts, all the men go hunting for wild geese. They admit that they like the modern technology of motorboats and CB radios. They would not choose to give them up in favor of the old ways. A tremendous sense of humor resonates throughout the Inuk people. They love games and contests and will turn anything into a type of competition such as a baby crawling race, even a water boiling contest, in order to break the long monotony of winter and to celebrate their sense of togetherness. Everyone in the village looks forward to the annual costume contest, where prizes are awarded to the best costume by a man and a woman.

For five thousand years, natives have made soapstone carvings reflective of their daily life. Today, their carvings, now based on their folklore, are highly desired by non-natives. Music and dancing introduced by outsiders is enthusiastically assimilated into their culture. A Scottish professor shares his folklore of Scottish dances and jigs, to which the locals dance to the sounds of the violin and accordion in their annual music festival. Traditional throat music exists easily alongside their renditions of rock and roll music.

Bobby Kenuajuak has captured a slice of his native life, caught as it is between the past and the future, imbued with an overarching sense of humor used in their daily life. The present is filled with an appreciation of modern conveniences which make arctic existence easier, while maintaining those cultural values which keep their community connected with its past.

The technical aspects of My Village in Nunavik are excellent and convey a highly professional quality throughout. The understated approach, which allows the locals to use their own words to tell their stories, is a highly effective approach to give outsiders an accurate view of daily life in Nunavik. Appropriate for high school to adult. Highly recommended for public libraries, school and academic libraries. Exceptionally useful for courses in Anthropology, Native American Studies, Cultural Anthropology, Sociology, and Social Studies