Course Code: HUMA 2040
Academic Year: 2024-2025
To many Canadians, national identity is inseparable from ideas of the North. It is there in "our" anthem. It is there in the rallying cry of "our" pro basketball team. It is there in story and song, fine art and fashion, in every Inukshuk and Canada Goose parka to dot our various cultural landscapes and mindscapes. But what -and who- is the North? This course uses ideas of the North to deconstruct Canadian cultural identities; to examine the rhetorical erasure of Indigenous northern peoples from "our home and native land"; and ultimately to learn about and from northern Indigenous innovators who are charting creative ways forward in an era of resurgence and reconciliation. With a focus on contemporary Inuit communities, this course invites students to explore northern Indigenous knowledge as a way to articulate and activate their own citizenship in a decolonized and sustainable Canada.