My conversations...
Last semester did not give me much time to learn about my classmates'
experiences but in this semester I am absolutely enthralled to hear the
diverse set of experiences that these people have. Today, Catherine, who
is a pediatrician from Canada, told me about group of natives of Arctic
region of Canada - Inuits of Nunavik (or eskimos). How in early 1900s
there were only 3000 left due to outbreak of TB (brought in by white
invaders), how the temperatures there are usually -40 to -5 F, how there
are no roads and the only means of transport are husky pulled sledges,
and about green northern lights, igloo life - myths, blizzards reducing
visibility to half a foot. She also talked about Inuksuk - large
humanoid pillars made from stones - an Inuksuk may aid navigation,
indicate a good hunting or fishing location, warn of danger, show a food
cache, assist in a caribou hunt or commemorate a significant event.
These are spread all throughout Canadian arctic.
I learnt that Eskimos in North America and American Indians actually
migrated from Siberia - to enter North (and South) America. Their diet
is totally non vegetarian - uncooked meat and the only source of
vegetables is those found in the stomach of fish they eat or occasional
shrubs in summer. Delicacy is fermented meat. Since the only source of
Calcium is fish bones, when artificial diets were supplied to them by
Canadian govt - sometime after late 1960s, they started developing
kidney stones since their intestines have amazing capacity to extract
all calcium. Catherine was interviewing an old lady who told her that in
the 1920s there was a famine with major casualties. This mother of this
old lady told the old lady and her two sisters that she would kill
herself and they should eat her to survive, which they did. And survived.
The children are taken care of by community and are frequently given for
adoption. There are major public health issues to be grappled which I
think have been brought by so called modern civilization destroying
their natural ecosystem. I was trying to draw parallels with aborigines
of Andaman islands.
Another interesting discussion was that some of the populations in the
arctic regions are so different - with separate customs, language,
culture that they have been given independant reserves. The dilemma
faced by these is that if these natives leave the reserve and move to
cities for education or employment, they'd lose their identity and
culture - since most of them have less than 5,000 people in total. So
they stay in isolation - so that they can preserve their identity.
For how long and what cost - no one wants to answer.
