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Life Among the Qallunaat
Life Among the Qallunaat | Mini Aodla Freeman
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Life Among the Qallunaat is the story of Mini Aodla Freemans experiences growing up in the Inuit communities of James Bay and her journey in the 1950s from her home to the strange land and stranger customs of the Qallunaat, those living south of the Arctic. Her extraordinary story, sometimes humourous and sometimes heartbreaking, illustrates an Inuit womans movement between worlds and ways of understanding. It also provides a clear-eyed record of the changes that swept through Inuit communities in the 1940s and 1950s. Mini Aodla Freeman was born in 1936 on Cape Hope Island in James Bay. At the age of sixteen, she began nurse's training at Ste. Therese School in Fort George, Quebec, and in 1957 she moved to Ottawa to work as a translator for the then Department of Northern Affairs and Natural Resources. Her memoir, Life Among the Qallunaat, was published in 1978 and has been translated into French, German, and Greenlandic. Life Among the Qallunaat is the third book in the First Voices, First Texts series, which publishes lost or under appreciated texts by Indigenous writers. This reissue of Mini Aodla Freemans path-breaking work includes new material, an interview with the author, and an afterword by Keavy Martin and Julie Rak, with Norma Dunning.
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xicanti
Life Among the Qallunaat | Mini Aodla Freeman
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Mini Aodla Freeman is both open and subtle as she describes her early life up north and the cultural differences she faced when she took a job in Ottawa. There isn‘t much direct criticism of Canadian policy here, but it comes through nonetheless. Especially since this book, penned in the 1970s, discusses many issues Inuit still face today. I highly recommend it—and afterwards, you should read THE RIGHT TO BE COLD by Sheila Watt-Cloutier.

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xicanti
Life Among the Qallunaat | Mini Aodla Freeman
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Tonight I had my first #audiopuzzling session in ages. This 3D crystal ship isn‘t super photogenic at this stage of completion, but it sure is fun to build.

LIFE AMONG THE QALLUNAAT is excellent, too. I‘m grateful my library licenses more Indigenous audiobooks now so I can learn important stuff AND improve my pronunciations. I always thought qallunaat was said like call-oo-naht, but it‘s actually more like hahd-loo-naht.

Butterfinger Wow! I would not have thought of an h sound for a q. 5y
britt_brooke Cool! 5y
Eggs Love this❣️ 5y
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readordierachel That is awesome 5y
xicanti @Butterfinger it took me a couple minutes to realize it was the same word. Thank goodness for audio learning! 5y
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