Climate Change 21
describing different types of activity normally associated with a particularly Inuit way of
living. Note the excerpt from the following interview with a resident of Iqaluit.
EM: So..when ummm..when do you say “on the land?” Umm what I mean is, …um who
are you talking to when you use this phrase?
AM: ((pause)) sometimes I use it when we can leave here and go hunting or sometimes
fishing.
EM: o.k. how do you say that?
AM: Well, with my common law…when we can leave, we’ll say we’re going out on the
land.
EM: umm. When you say that, what do you mean?
AM: it means that eeehh. It means that we go to a camp sometimes for a couple of
weeks. I want to go more. We need to go for longer, but I can’t.
In this excerpt, the interviewee characterizes being out on the land as a lengthy
stay away from the community of Iqaluit. Furthermore, this individual offers that this
activity is strongly desired, but that there are constraints associated with this practice.
That contrast indicates that being “on the land” is somehow different than other ways of
dwelling. Another aspect alluded to in the excerpt is what occurs when out on the land.
Specifically, these activities are hunting and fishing. This notion of what happens when
out on the land is described in the next excerpt from an interview with a resident of
Qikiqtarjuaq.
AJ: When we go out on the land..um..we hunt…like we used to.
EM: What do you mean by “like we used to?”
Convention