The notion of spaces and exchanges, Canada

        The notion of spaces and exchanges deals with the geographical and symbolic areas where people live on one hand and the interactions between the different societies that live together on the other. The different cultural, economic, sociological and language interactions have shaped and characterize our modern-day world. I would like to illustrate this notion through the theme of the Inuit population and mainly the Inuits from Canada also known as the first people in Canada.

        With the process of globalization, people from different origins established themselves in this country and have thus contributed to create the famous multicultural aspect of Canada. Concentrations of different cultures in the northern hemisphere have inevitably changed native people's lives. How did these transformations affect Inuit’s culture as far as borders and exchanges are concerned?

        In its globality, the Inuit population has always occupied the lands of the Northern territories but its culture and territories have been exposed to a strong external influence over the past century. Indeed, native people's way of life changed after the newcomers started exploiting the natural resources with the creation of new countries on their territories. These actions generated many changes that illustrate both notions of spaces and exchanges.

        First, we notice important inequalities in the sharing of lands. Indeed, thanks to the documents studied in class, we understand that the Inuit territories are now divided between the different official countries.

        For example the document “Citizenship ?” shows that a territory of a specific tribe of Inuits, the Blackfeet, is now splited between Canada and the United States. The excerpt deals with the problem of crossing these American and Canadian borders as a Blackfoot. In the text, the narrator and his mother are from the Canadian side of the Blackfoot territory and they have to cross the border to visit the narrator’s sister, Laetitia, who lives in Salt Lake city. The problem is that, in order to cross the border, says the Canadian border guide, they have to be American or Canadian but they claim to be Blackfoot which causes them to be stuck in the no man’s land till the arrival of the medias which help them to cross the border. The excerpt shows how difficult it can be to move from one space to another, to cross a border. It also shows the very particular Inuits’ view of citizenship who do not recognize themselves in the official states.

        The document “Stop stealing our land” also shows that all the Inuit population is splited between many others countries bordering the Arctic sea such as the United States but also Russia, Denmark, Norway. Further more, it says that some Inuits population were displaced by force most often to free space to build military bases during the Cold War.

        By showing the difficulties and the issues the Inuits have with the official countries about the sharing of territories, we can conclude that these documents illustrate the notion of spaces.

        In a second time, we can see that there are also major inequalities in the sharing of resources. The different countries mentioned in the document “Stop stealing our land” are mainly mentioned for the fact that they are stealing the natural resources from Inuits traditional lands.

        For example, the document reveals that these countries organized a gathering to thrash out competing territorial claims of the Inuits populations for natural resources such as oil or gas. These actions undertaken are particularly appalling to the Inuit population that has its very own view of  ownership. For the Inuits, the land doesn’t belong to somebody, it's collectively shared by everyone.

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