Roundtrip

In 1925, four Inuit men from the central Canadian Arctic boarded a Revillon Fr?res supply ship bound for the South. Stuck in the ice-pack during the winter of 1924-25, the Jean Revillon needed repair and a crew to make it back to its hauling location at Shelburne, Nova Scotia. Some non-Inuit involved in this voyage referred to it as an 'experiment.' Since it was the first time Inuit would man a company ship on such a long journey. Lionel Angutinguaq, Athanasie Angutitaq, Louis Taapatai, and Savikataaq, having brought the ship to save harbour, spent the winter in the South and returned home the next spring. In relating their experience to people on their return they provided first-hand accounts of life in the South. In the 1990s, the story of these Inuit sailors was still a topic of discussion in the North. However, memories about it were fragmented. Archival research and fieldwork provided missing information and a relatively complete account of their round trip is now available. Their story was also adapted as teaching material for Inuit students participating in a university introductory summer program, called NunaScotia. This monograph, based on collaborative ethno-historical research and fieldwork, relates the story, the collaborative process and its outcomes, both scientific (numerous conference presentations) and pedagogical. The trip from Qamani'tuaq (Baker Lake), in contemporary Nunavut, to southern Canada documents the early relationships between Inuit and Nova Scotians. Various points-of-view contribute to the broadest possible understanding of the journey. Such diverse perspectives are expected since the Inuit sailors, the Revillon family and the people associated with the shipbuilding industry or the fur trade were involved in the trip per se to various degrees. The reasons they were all engaged in this voyage are also, to some extent, quite disparate. Still, Roundtrip is a clear example of how people from very different backgrounds collaborated in the past, when Inuit actually sailed onboard the Jean Revillon, and more recently, when the research was conducted.