Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk

1931 - 30 April 2007

Mitiarjuk Attasie Nappaaluk (also known as Salome Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk) (Martin) was born in 1931 near Kangiqsujuaq, in Nunavik, northern Quebec. She was the eldest child. She had no formal schooling, but was educated by her mother and elder female relatives in traditional female occupations and, unusually, by her father as well. Having no sons, her father instructed her in the secrets of hunting and other typically male tasks, and she often hunted on her own.  In his account, Bernard Saladin d’Anglure describes her as occupying a distinctive social role that enabled her to act as a mediator across genders and generations (d’Anglure vii).

At age sixteen, Nappaaluk, known for her skill and capability, was courted by many young men. She chose the youngest suitor who agreed to move in with her family and assume a primary provider role. This arrangement was unusual, as most Inuit women moved to their husbands’ families following marriage. She devoted several years to raising children and caring for her family. In her early twenties, renowned for her creativity and knowledge, she was asked to assist Catholic missionaries interested in studying the Inuit language. She became an invaluable collaborator, initially helping Father Lucien Schneider develop an Inuit–French dictionary. In return, she learned to write in syllabics, a system created by Wesleyan missionaries and later adopted by other missionaries because of its accessibility (d’Anglure vii).

Later, Father Robert Lechat asked her to write down as many words and phrases as she could think of to support his language learning. After recording daily expressions, she became bored with the exercise and turned to storytelling. Using syllabics, and developing her own narrative approach, she began writing the story of a female protagonist, Sanaaq, and a small group of Inuit families, describing events set in the 1920s (Martin). She wrote the first part of this novel in the early 1950s, then paused for several years due to extended hospitalization and Father Lechat’s transfer to another area.

In 1961, she met the French anthropologist Bernard Saladin d’Anglure, who encouraged her to return to the manuscript. The project became central to his scholarly work. He returned to Kangiqsujuaq in 1965 to begin translating Sanaaq from Inuktitut into French. Nappaaluk assisted with punctuation, clarified difficult passages, and helped identify plants and animals. Over the next several years, she completed the work and wrote a sequel, which is still in the process of translation (d’Anglure x).

In 1977, she was featured in the television series Femmes d’aujourd’hui as a writer and an informant on Inuit culture and language. Sanaaq was published in 1984 in syllabics, fully illustrated, with funding from Quebec’s Ministère des affaires culturelles. This edition was distributed to Inuit schools across Northern Canada and is now out of print. Nappaaluk kept fifty copies to share with her descendants. A French translation appeared in 2002, followed by an English version in 2014, bringing her work to a much wider audience.

Nappaaluk was also a member of the Inuktitut Language Commission of Nunavik. She authored 22 educational texts, contributed to curriculum development for the Kativik School Board, created an Inuktitut encyclopedia of traditional knowledge, and translated Catholic prayer books into Inuktitut.

Over her lifetime, Nappaaluk received significant recognition for her literary and cultural contributions. In 1999, the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation presented her with a National Award for Excellence. She was honoured for her work in advancing the teaching of Nunavik’s language and culture and received an honourary doctorate from McGill University (d’Anglure vii). UNESCO also recognized her literary work at an international conference of Indigenous writers in Paris in 2001. On 14 May 2004, she was appointed to the Order of Canada.

A respected Elder, Nappaaluk’s writings provide a precise and detailed account of Inuit life, offering a distinctive insider perspective from an Inuit woman, an invaluable contribution to Inuit literature and to broader Canadian literary history.

Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk passed away at her home in Kangiqsujuaq on 30 April 2007 after a long illness. She was 78.

Selected Readings:
Nappaaluk, Mitiarjuk. Qimminuulingajut ilumiutartangit. Montreal: Kativik School Board, n.d.

---. Sanaaq: An Inuit Novel. Transliterated and translated from Inuktitut to French by Bernard Saladin D'Anglure, Translated from French into English by Peter Frost. U of Manitoba P. 2014.

---. Qupirruit. Montreal: Kativik School Board, 1987.

---. Sanaakkut Piusiviningita unikkausinnguangat. Edited by Bernard Saladin d’Anglure. Inuksiutiit Katimajiit, 1984.

---. Tarrkii piniarningillu. Montreal: Kativik School Board, 1997.

---. Tininnimiutaait. Montreal: Kativik School Board, n.d.

---. Silaup piusingit inuit nunangani. Montreal Kativik School Board, n.d.

Works Cited:
D’Anglure, Bernard Saladin. Foreword. Sanaaq: An Inuit Novel.  By Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk. 2014.

Martin, Keavy. "Arctic Solitude: Mitiarjuk’s Sanaaq and the Politics of Translation in Inuit Literature." Studies in Canadian Literature / Études en littérature canadienne [online], vol. 35, no. 2, 2010, n. pag. Web. 17 Apr. 2018.

The Office of the Secretary to the Governor General. “The Governor General of Canada.” The Governor General of Canada > Find a Recipient, 6 July 2012, www.gg.ca/honour.aspx?id=469&t=12&ln=Nappaaluk.

Additional Resources:
For an analysis of current trends in Inuit writing, see:
Henitiuk, Valerie. “‘Memory Is so Different Now’: The Translation and Circulation of Inuit-Canadian Literature in English and French.” Contemporary Approaches to Translation Theory and Practice, Routledge, London, 2020. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429402029-5/memory-different-translation-circulation-inuit-canadian-literature-english-french-valerie-henitiuk

Abstract
Inuit, even more marginalized than the First Nations or Métis, settled along what is now northern Canada some 4000-6000 years ago. They have a centuries-long history of orature (legends, myths, songs, etc.), although literacy is a more recent arrival. Interest in this traditionally nomadic, socially complex, and richly imaginative culture has been increasing rapidly in the past few years, with the emergence of prize-winning films by Zacharias Kunuk and others; the second edition of Life Among the Qallunaat (the autobiography of Mini Freeman, a quadrilingual Inuk who worked as a translator in Ottawa for some 20 years); and the publication in 2013 of an English version of what has been called the first Inuktitut novel, first begun by a woman in the 1950s. This paper will examine a few recent developments in the present-day circulation of the traditions of one Canada’s no-longer-quite-so-invisible ‘invisible minorities,’ with a particular focus on Sanaaq by Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk, who has been referred to as ‘the accidental Inuit novelist.’ (Martin, 2014)

For a discussion of the relationship between Indigenous and settlers when translating Indigenous texts, see:
Henitiuk, Valerie, and Marc-Antoine Mahieu. “‘who will write for the Inuit?’” Tusaaji: A Translation Review, vol. 8, no. 1, 3 June 2022, https://doi.org/10.25071/1925-5624.40422.

Abstract
This article examines the circumstances surrounding the first publication of an Indigenous novel in Canada, namely Uumajursiutik unaatuinnamut by Markoosie Patsauq, in 1969-70 It describes the context of the federal
government’s cultural policy, in particular within the then Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, and how this impacted relations with Inuit generally speaking, but also how it set the stage for bureaucratic
involvement in the production of an English adaptation of Patsauq’s text, widely known today as Harpoon of the Hunter. Finally, we present our own rigorous new translations, titled Hunter with Harpoon/Chasseur au harpon,
done in collaboration with the author and based on his original Inuktitut manuscript, suggesting some more ethical practices for working with Indigenous source texts.

For a study of the effects of economic pressures on Inuit hunters, see:
Hillemann, Friederike, et al. “Socio-economic predictors of Inuit hunting choices and their implications for climate change adaptation.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 378, no. 1889, 18 Sept. 2023,
https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0395.

Abstract
In the Arctic, seasonal variation in the accessibility of the land, sea ice and open waters influences which resources can be harvested safely and efficiently. Climate stressors are also increasingly affecting access to subsistence resources. Within Inuit communities, people differ in their involvement with subsistence activities, but little is known about how engagement in the cash economy (time and money available) and other socio-economic factors shape the food production choices of Inuit harvesters, and their ability to adapt to rapid ecological change. We analyse 281 foraging trips involving 23 Inuit harvesters from Kangiqsujuaq, Nunavik, Canada using a Bayesian approach modelling both patch choice and within-patch success. Gender and income predict Inuit harvest strategies: while men, especially men from low-income households, often visit patches with a relatively low success probability, women and high-income hunters generally have a higher propensity to choose low-risk patches. Inland hunting, marine hunting and fishing differ in the required equipment and effort, and hunters may have to shift their subsistence activities if certain patches become less profitable or less safe owing to high costs of transportation or climate change (e.g. navigate larger areas inland instead of targeting seals on the sea ice). Our finding that household income predicts patch choice suggests that the capacity to maintain access to country foods depends on engagement with the cash economy.

For an analysis of relationships between Indigenous Peoples and urban environments, see:
Marceau, Stéphane Guimont, et al. “Settler urbanization and indigenous resistance: Uncovering an ongoing palimpsest in Montreal’s Cabot Square.” Urban History Review, vol. 51, no. 2, 1 Sept. 2023, pp. 310–333, https://doi.org/10.3138/uhr-2022-0035.

Abstract
This article proposes to study a public square in Montreal, Québec, Canada, to illustrate how different processes of colonization, marginalization, and resistance take place in the city. The study of Cabot Square demonstrates the layers of Indigenous displacement and reappropriation that form the palimpsest inscribed in urban spaces. The authors shed new light on the contemporary context by studying it through the scale of a place and reinserting it in the context of settler colonialism in which social, political, and economic relations in Canada are deeply interwoven. Cities play a major role in colonial dynamics and in the processes of marginalization in a colonial division of space that places certain populations outside the spaces of power. Cabot Square is inscribed in these dynamics, but it is also a site of reappropriation, since services for people experiencing houselessness, cultural activities, and social economy projects intersect there, placing this public place at the heart of daily encounters. The study of Cabot Square as a place of diverse and often contradictory relationships, stories, and practices of urban place-making and Indigenous place-keeping reveals layers of colonialism and Indigenous resistance that overlap through history and interact to form the current cityscape in the Square and beyond. With this article, the authors aim to acknowledge the tensions and complexities of place-making within a settler-colonial context where Indigenous histories and meanings of places not only have been erased by colonial power but also kept alive as much as possible by Indigenous communities through place-keeping.

For a discussion of language and translation challenges around Indigenous and settler languages, see:
Brouwer, Malou. "Indigenous Literatures at the Crossroads of Languages: Approaches and Avenues." Alternative francophone, vol. 3, no. 3, 2023, pp. 10–31.
https://doi.org/10.29173/af29492

Abstract
This article examines critical discourses and approaches for the study of Indigenous literatures across languages. On the one hand, it investigates how the French-English divide is challenged by Indigenous authors and how it has been and can be further dealt with in Indigenous literary studies (ILS). On the other hand, it pays attention to the centrality and revitalization of Indigenous languages as they challenge colonial languages, complicate the French-English divide in ILS, and center Indigenous experiences. Engaging with the question “what approaches can scholars, teachers, and students in Indigenous literary studies use for the study of Indigenous literatures at the crossroads of languages?”, I highlight multilingual work by Indigenous authors, collect resources that directly engage Indigenous literatures from a (multi)language perspective, and gather approaches that can be helpful in developing a framework for the study of the multilingual corpus of Indigenous literatures.

Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk entry by Kimberley John in September 2018. Kimberley is an alumnus of SFU, graduating with a Double Major in Health Sciences and Indigenous Studies. She worked as a research assistant for The People and the Text from 2016 to 2020.

Additional Resources by Eli Davidovici in April 2024. Eli is an alumnus of McGill University, graduating with an M.Mus. in Jazz Performance in Summer 2024.

Entry edits by Margery Fee, April 2024. Margery Fee is Professor Emerita at UBC in the Department of English.

Updated by Kayla MacInnis in November 2025. Kayla is an MA student in English Literature at Simon Fraser University and a research assistant with The People and the Text.

Please contact Deanna Reder at dhr@sfu.ca regarding any comments or corrections at dhr@sfu.ca.