2. Women's Perspectives - Christian Aboriginal Infrastructure ...

people. Right now it is very difficult. A different life that we are facing today.
[translation]
Elder Silpa Edmunds
Winnipeg, Manitoba
21 April 1992
There is agreement that women were traditionally responsible for decisions about
children, food preparation and the running of the camp. While clear divisions of labour
along gender lines existed, women's and men's work was equally valued. If a woman was
a sloppy sewer, her husband might freeze; a man who was a poor hunter would have a
hungry family. Everyone in the camp worked hard and everyone had a specific role based
on their age, gender and capabilities.
Martha Flaherty, President
Pauktuutit (Inuit Women's Association of Canada)
Ottawa, Ontario, 2 November 1993
Until 40 years ago, most Inuit lived among extended families in small camps. Hunting,
fishing and gathering provided food for the family, and furs were exchanged for tea and
other goods. During the 1950s and early '60s, Inuit were obliged, for the first time, to
send their children to school. 9 The population in newly established settlements grew as
families left the camps to join their children. 10 One Inuit woman recalls how life changed
for her and her family:
The details of our stories may be different, but a lot of the experiences are the same. My
mother talks about how it was for people on the land — I talk more about the people who
are the adults in the community right now….When I got into school, everything changed
for me all at once. My parents didn't have a say any more in the way my life went. When
I came in off the land, the people with any type of authority were Qallunaat [non-
Aboriginal]. The teachers were Qallunaat, the principals were Qallunaat, the nurses were
Qallunaat, the RCMP were Qallunaat, the administrators were Qallunaat….They acted
like our parents but they weren't our parents. It seemed to us at the time that the
administrators…and whoever else was in authority were talking above our heads, talking
about our welfare and not letting us have a say about it. They treated us like we belonged
to them, not to our parents. We didn't have a say and our parents and grandparents didn't
have a say….They taught us a new culture, a different culture from our own, they taught
us that we have to live like the white people. We had to become like the white people. 11
A research study conducted for Pauktuutit describes what happened when Inuit families
moved to the settlements and draws a connection between the breakdown of traditional
sex roles and the rise of spousal assault as a social problem:
[Inuit] females seemed to adapt more easily to the new life. Today they are more likely
than men to complete their high school education, to obtain and hold jobs — and less
likely to develop problems with alcohol, drugs and crime. Now the roles in a wageemployment
consumer economy are reversed, and the women, especially the younger
women, are more likely to be the major providers for their families. This may constitute
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