Project Surname

Last updated

Project Surname was a project enacted by the Northwest Territories Council and Government of Canada to assign surnames to Inuit. [1] Project Surname was also known as Operation Surname. [2] These assigned surnames eventually replaced the disc number system, where numbers were assigned and kept on discs that people were obligated to wear from the 1940s onward. [3] Family surnames were not used by Inuit until this system was introduced. [3] [4] Traditionally, children received multiple names after birth which reflected their personality, named for a dead relative or sometimes after a living relative. Names would be changed if they were not deemed to suit the child. [1] Project Surname was perceived as less offensive compared to the disk number system but was also criticized as paternalistic intervention from the Canadian government. [1]

Contents

Background

Before the disc number system was established, using fingerprints as a method of identification instead was attempted but eventually discarded. [5] [6] The disc number system replaced it and was formally known as the Eskimo Identification Tag System. Every Inuk was told to wear their disc at all times so that the federal government could keep track of them. Letters were used to indicate location: E for Eastern Arctic and W for Western Arctic. This was followed by a number for a particular region, such as E8 for someone who lived in Ungava Bay. [5] This system of identification was established because government officials found it easier to assign numbers, as they considered Inuit names to be confusing. [7] Thus a young woman who was known to her relatives as "Lutaaq", "Pilitaq", "Palluq", or "Inusiq", and had been baptized as "Annie", was under this system to become "Annie E7-121". [8] This system was not used in Labrador which had not yet joined Canada. All Labradorian Inuit who lacked modern surnames in 1893 were given surnames from the Moravian missionaries. [9]

Traditionally, children received multiple names after birth which reflected their personality or were named after a relative. [1] If named after a relative, it was typically one who was deceased, although occasionally children would be named after living ones. This namesake relationship ensured "a way of continuing people's lives", which could be intended in a literal sense through a belief in reincarnation. [10] Names would be changed if they were not deemed to suit the child. [1] This tradition continues on in the 21st century. [11] These names were considered incredibly meaningful:

In Inuit culture, names insure the continuity of the lives of individuals, families, and communities. Names are passed from one generation to the next without regard for gender. The same namesake can live through several new people, male or female. The ties are so strong that until puberty, kinship terms, dress, and behaviour often follow the namesake relationship, rather than biological sex or conventional gender identification. [12]

Polar Inuit specifically had different naming customs that involved gendered names. [13]

Abe Okpik's work

The issue of a lack of surnames and the demeaning use of disc numbers had been raised by Abe Okpik, an Inuk who was part of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories. However, it is Simonie Michael, the first elected Inuk member of the Legislative Assembly, who is credited with bringing the issue to the forefront. Michael spoke out against this system in the Legislative Assembly, explaining that his mail was sent to Simonie E7-551 rather than Simonie Michael, and protesting to the Commissioner of the Northwest Territories that his mail should be sent to his full name. [14]

The government passed a motion authorising Project Surname and Abe Okpik was chosen to lead the project. Assigning surnames was deemed more humane than disc numbers. When Okpik was chosen as a member of the council, his legal name was W3-554. He wanted the ability to choose a surname for himself. [2] Okpik knew different Inuktitut dialects and communicated directly with different communities about choosing a surname. [15] According to his son, Roy Inglangasuk, Okpik had meagre resources: "he didn't have a budget for it and he had to hitchhike on government charters to get to the communities." [2] From 1968 until 1971, Okpik visited every community, as well as many traditional campsites, in the Northwest Territories and what is now Nunavut and Nunavik in northern Quebec. [8] In total he visited 55 settlements, travelling by plane, snowmobile, boat and snowshoe. [16] Okpik's methods were criticized by others who alleged that he mainly spoke to men and that resulted in decisions about surnames being made without the input of absent relatives. [15] Okpik was later inducted as an Order of Canada member, partly due to his efforts surrounding Project Surname. [2]

Criticism

According to scholar Valerie Alia, "Project Surname marked a turning point in the history to reidentify Inuit" and that these "effects are still felt more than thirty years later". [17] Both the disc number system and Project Surname were criticized as violating Inuit naming customs for the convenience of people who did not understand them. [18] Family surnames were not used by Inuit until this system was introduced. [3] [4] Assigning surnames was perceived as less offensive compared to the disk number system but was also criticized as paternalistic intervention from the Canadian government. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iqaluit</span> Capital city of Nunavut, Canada

Iqaluit is the capital of the Canadian territory of Nunavut. It is the territory's largest community and its only city, and the northernmost city in Canada. It was known as Frobisher Bay from 1942 to 1987, after the large bay on the coast on which the city is situated. Its traditional Inuktitut name was restored in 1987.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inuit languages</span> Branch of the Eskaleut language family

The Inuit languages are a closely related group of indigenous American languages traditionally spoken across the North American Arctic and the adjacent subarctic regions as far south as Labrador. The Inuit languages are one of the two branches of the Eskimoan language family, the other being the Yupik languages, which are spoken in Alaska and the Russian Far East. Most Inuit people live in one of three countries: Greenland, a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark; Canada, specifically in Nunavut, the Inuvialuit Settlement Region of the Northwest Territories, the Nunavik region of Quebec, and the Nunatsiavut and NunatuKavut regions of Labrador; and the United States, specifically in northern and western Alaska.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pond Inlet</span> Place in Nunavut, Canada

Pond Inlet is a small, predominantly Inuit community in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada, located on northern Baffin Island. To the Inuit the name of the place "is and always has been Mittimatalik." The Scottish explorer Sir John Ross had named an arm of the sea that separates Bylot Island from Baffin Island as Pond's Bay, and the hamlet now shares that name. On 29 August 1921, the Hudson's Bay Company opened its trading post near the Inuit camp and named it Pond Inlet, marking the expansion of its trading empire into the High Arctic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rankin Inlet</span> Place in Nunavut, Canada

Rankin Inlet is an Inuit hamlet on the Kudlulik Peninsula in Nunavut, Canada. It is the largest hamlet and second-largest settlement in Nunavut after the territorial capital, Iqaluit. Rankin Inlet is the regional centre for the Kivalliq Region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inuktitut</span> Name of several Inuit languages spoken in Canada

Inuktitut, also known as Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the North American tree line, including parts of the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, to some extent in northeastern Manitoba as well as the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. It is one of the aboriginal languages written with Canadian Aboriginal syllabics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami</span> Canadian Inuit political organization

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, previously known as the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, is a nonprofit organization in Canada that represents over 65,000 Inuit across Inuit Nunangat and the rest of Canada. Their mission is to "serve as a national voice protecting and advancing the rights and interests of Inuit in Canada."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kinngait</span> Hamlet in Nunavut, Canada

Kinngait, known as Cape Dorset until 27 February 2020, is an Inuit hamlet located on Dorset Island near Foxe Peninsula at the southern tip of Baffin Island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada.

Peter Freuchen K. Ittinuar is a Canadian politician. He was the first Inuk in Canada to be elected as an MP, and represented the electoral district of Nunatsiaq in the House of Commons of Canada from 1979 to 1984.

Kenn Harper is a Canadian writer, historian and former businessman. He is the author of Give Me My Father's Body, an account of Greenland Inuk Minik Wallace, had a regular column on Arctic history in Nunatsiaq News and is a former landlord.

Lena Pedersen or Lena Pederson is a politician and social worker from Nunavut, Canada. In 1959, she moved from Greenland to the Northwest Territories and lived in Coppermine (Kugluktuk), Pangnirtung and Rae (Behchoko) before moving to Cape Dorset where she participated in the artwork sales of the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abe Okpik</span> Inuit politician and leader

Abraham "Abe" Okpik, CM was an Inuit community leader in Canada. He was instrumental in helping Inuit obtain surnames rather than disc numbers as a form of government identification. He was also the first Inuk to sit on what is now the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories and worked with Thomas Berger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disc number</span> Identifier used by the Government of Canada for Inuit

Disc numbers were used by the Government of Canada in lieu of surnames for Inuit. They were similar to dog tags.

Asger Rye "Red" Pedersen is a former territorial-level Canadian politician. In 1953, he got a job in the Canadian Arctic with the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) at Cambridge Bay, Nunavut. In the following year, he was sent to Perry River (Kuugjuak) to assist Stephen Angulalik, the Ahiarmiut Inuit owner of the trading post, with the financial records, inventory and ordering, as Angulalik spoke no English. In 1957, Angulalik sold the Perry River post to the HBC and Pedersen was appointed manager. Angulalik returned to the post after resolving legal problems and worked alongside Pedersen; they became lifelong friends. He was, at one time, married to Lena Pedersen and their grandson, Calvin Pedersen was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut in July 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inuit</span> Indigenous peoples of northern North America

Inuit are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of North America, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Yukon (traditionally), Alaska, and Chukotsky District of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia. Inuit languages are part of the Eskimo–Aleut languages, also known as Inuit-Yupik-Unangan, and also as Eskaleut. Inuit Sign Language is a critically endangered language isolate used in Nunavut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inuit culture</span> Culture of the Inuit in the Arctic and Subarctic region

The Inuit are an indigenous people of the Arctic and subarctic regions of North America. The ancestors of the present-day Inuit are culturally related to Iñupiat, and Yupik, and the Aleut who live in the Aleutian Islands of Siberia and Alaska. The term culture of the Inuit, therefore, refers primarily to these areas; however, parallels to other Eskimo groups can also be drawn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simonie Michael</span> Canadian Inuit politician (1933–2008)

Simonie Michael was a Canadian politician from the eastern Northwest Territories who was the first Inuk elected to a legislature in Canada. Before becoming involved in politics, Michael worked as a carpenter and business owner, and was one of very few translators between Inuktitut and English. He became a prominent member of the Inuit co-operative housing movement and a community activist in Iqaluit, and was appointed to a series of governing bodies, including the precursor to the Iqaluit City Council.

The Eastern Arctic was an electoral district of the Northwest Territories, Canada, created in 1966 and abolished in 1975. The district was represented by Simonie Michael from 1966 until 1970, and then by Bryan Pearson from 1970 until its dissolution in 1975. As Michael was the first elected Inuk legislator in a Canadian province or territory, the Eastern Arctic district was the first electoral district in Canada to elect an Inuk representative.

Mary Ayaq Anowtalik is an Inuk artist based in Arviat, Nunavut, Canada, known for her stone carvings.

Alexina Kublu is a Canadian linguist, educator, translator, and jurist who served as the third Languages Commissioner of Nunavut and as the first Justice of the Peace in Nunavut.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Filice, Michelle. "Project Surname". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Bell, Jim (18 July 1997). "Arctic residents say farewell to the humble name-giver". Nunatsiaq News. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 Barton, Katherine. "What's in a name? How a government project forced surnames on Inuit". CBC News. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
  4. 1 2 Arnold, Charles. "A Look Back at Project Surname". Tusaayaksat Magazine. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
  5. 1 2 Rogers, Sarah (27 May 2016). "NEWS MAY 27, 2016 – 2:00 PM EDT Exhibit puts faces, names to Canada's Eskimo ID tag system". Nunatsiaq News. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
  6. ↑ Eskimo Identification and Disc Numbers: A Brief History
  7. ↑ Rockingham, Graham (25 July 2017). "ROCKINGHAM: Inuit lives expressed through numbers". The Hamilton Spectator. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
  8. 1 2 Hanson, Ann Meekitjuk. "What's in a name?". Nunavut 99. Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada. Archived from the original on 26 April 2021. Retrieved 3 October 2009.
  9. ↑ Rollman, Hans (18 June 2011). "'For them, it's all about the name'". The Telegram. Archived from the original on 2 October 2012. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
  10. ↑ Alia 2006, p. 6.
  11. ↑ Barton, Katherine (5 October 202). "How Inuit honour the tradition of naming, and spirits who have passed on". CBC News. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  12. ↑ Alia, Valeria (1994). "Inuit Women and the Politics of Naming in Nunavut". Canadian Women Studies. 14 (4): 11.
  13. ↑ Alia 2006, p. 17.
  14. ↑ Alia 2006, p. 202.
  15. 1 2 Filice, Michelle. "Abraham Okpik". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  16. ↑ Walz, Jay (6 February 1966). "An Eskimo Joins Canadian Council: New Legislator Presses for Development of North". New York Times. p. 30.
  17. ↑ Alia 2006, p. xiii.
  18. ↑ Alia, Valerie (2008). Names And Nunavut: Culture and Identity in the Inuit Homeland. New York, NY: Berghahn Books. ISBN   978-1-84545-165-3. JSTOR   j.ctt9qd8xk.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.