High Arctic Relocation of 1953 Becoming High Arctic Restoration of 2010

On May 25, 2008, this blog introduced a post entitled "An Integrated Arctic Strategy" in which an advocacy was made for an apology from the federal government for the High Arctic Relocation policy of 1953. The article can be found here. On August 18, 2010, that apology was finally made by the new Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, the Hon. John Duncan, on behalf of the federal government of Canada.

The story of the High Arctic Relocation is also the story of Canada's two most northern communities--Grise Fiord, Nunavut, on Ellesmere Island, and Resolute Bay, Nunavut, on Cornwallis Island.


















In August of 1953, the Canadian government convinced some 35 Inuit from Inukjuaq, Nunavik, to "temporarily" relocate to the northernmost, arctic archipelago (group of islands) to establish a Canadian presence and Canadian sovereignty there, and to push the Greenlandic Inuit out of these islands in the High Arctic that they had been using for hunting and fishing. The group was promised that there would be plenty of caribou, and also that the group would not be split up, and that they could return to family and friends in Nunavik (northern Quebec) again in two years if they so desired. These promises were made only to be broken.

In 1994, the National Film Board of Canada documented the broken promises of the Canadian government in their video release, Broken Promises, The High Arctic Relocation.

Some 35 Inuit left from Port Harrison (present-day Inukjuaq) in Nunavik in mid-August of 1953 on the C. D. Howe ship, and started heading for the High Arctic.

Only after the ship had passed the northernmost part of Baffin Island in Pond Inlet were they told that the group would be split up--one group would be dropped off at Resolute Bay on Cornwallis Island, and the other group would be dropped off at Grise Fiord on Ellesmere Island.

Further, they were now told that they could only kill one caribou per family per year. Even if a caribou came right up to them, they were not to shoot it if it was over the quota.

At Craig Harbour, an RCMP post about 20 miles east of this location, those destined for Grise Fiord were dropped off, and were transferred from the C. D. Howe ship to an RCMP boat. As the police boat came closer to this desolate, landlocked spot as their first site to set up camp to spend the winter, Larry Audlaluk's father Isa began to panic. As they came closer to the mountain, and as it moved ever closer to land, it became clear that there was really very little space here to set up camp, and there was no place to travel by land anywhere, except by boat. "Where are they taking us?" he panicked. "Where are they dropping us off?"

This was it! They were dropped off, and felt abandonment at this site for the first two years, which were the hardest. They lived in tents in this harsh climate from 1953 to 1955, and after two years were told that they would not be going back home to Port Harrison (present-day Inukjuaq) in Nunavik, because the government needed permanent residents in this region. Forty years later, the memory is still painful for Larry Audlaluk, and Allie and Susan Salluviniq, pictured above in September of 2005.

After two years, they moved away to a location a few kilometers away, and started living in sod houses, such as you see here with Larry Audlaluk at age 5, and later they lived in shacks. Sometimes, the ship that was to bring in supplies did not make it, and the Inuit had to live for long periods on walrus and seal, two very strong forms of meat for a steady diet.

Here is Larry Audlaluk at the time of the relocation with his father and mother. Larry was then only three years of age.

Within eight months of having been dropped off at this site, Larry's father Isa died of a broken heart. He kept repeating, "If only I had known that it would be like this, I would never have agreed to come here!" Here is Larry in September of 2005 with his son standing beside the grave of Isa, their father and grandfather, who was buried right at this original landing site.

For the next number of years, Larry's mother was living more or less out of a box as they moved from place to place, and from site to site. They would move to one area, and then move again to a different area, hoping it would be better, only to find, after a short while, that they would again set up camp elsewhere in this difficult region with a harsh and challenging climate.

Here are some of the Greenlandic Inuit (in polar bear pants) that the Canadian Inuit were supposed to keep away from Canadian territory. The fellow in black pants is an Canadian Inuit (a brother-in-law to Larry Audlaluk) who also died prematurely. Larry is the young boy on the left. The relocatees often found that the Greenlandic Inuit were more helpful in finding fresh water, fish and other food sources than even the Canadian government.

Eventually this community grew into what is today Grise Fiord on Ellesmere Island, Canada's northernmost community consisting of some 180 people. Homes started to be built, but the community not only did not see the sun for much of the year. It also became a place of gross spiritual darkness with rampant alcoholism and sexual abuse as a means of coping with the emotional pain from the past.

Meanwhile, back in 1953, the relocatees that were taken to Resolute Bay were dropped off, and also felt abandonment on this spot on Cornwallis Island where this memorial of the original landing site was erected fifty years later in 2003.

After their arrival here in late August of 1953, the days began to shorten, and the winter ice set in right at this spot where they were dropped off. Right during the ceremony to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the relocation which took place in 2003 at the very spot where the relocatees were dropped off, even the polar bears came to join us!

50 years earlier in 1953, this is how the relocatees remembered the original settlement. This picture of the original settlement at Resolute Bay was taken in that year.

Here is the Salluviniq family just before the relocation. Allie was five years old at the time, and his sister Louisa was one and one-half years. Allie and Louisa are on the far left of this picture.

Resolute Bay had a military base nearby, so this provided some resources for the relocatees, even though often it meant looking in the garbage dump for food. Some of their worst memories of violence and abuse are at the bar on this picture. The Inuit used to frequent this place to alleviate their pain, only to increase it.

Like with the relocatees at Grise Fiord, the earliest days after the relocation to Resolute Bay were the hardest. The emotional wounds from having been separated from family and loved ones went unhealed. The long winter months of darkness exemplified the spiritual darkness. Game was scarce. Yet the population of the hamlet increased as the government continued to send in more relocatees. Eventually they built homes, but offered nothing for the healing of hearts that were broken and separated from family.

Some of the relocatees nursed bitterness against the government for many years for abandoning them on this seemingly "God forsaken land." It seemed barren and worthless, and some even dubbed the community as "Desolate Bay" rather than "Resolute Bay."

In 2003, during the 50th anniversary celebration of the relocation, Roger Armbruster presented a leaf to Allie Salluviniq, one of the original relocatees of Resolute, reminding him that the leaves of the tree of life mentioned in Revelation 22:2 are "for the healing of the nations (ethnos)," and that the original residents of Resolute now had a spiritual authority to bring healing to this land.

On August 10, 2007, Allie and Susan Salluviniq (Susan was then the mayor of Resolute) met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper for 20 minutes when he was in their community on one of his first Arctic tours. They told him about the High Arctic Relocation, and Allie referred him to Revelation 22:2, saying that Canada is the only nation-state in the world with a leaf on its flag, and that Canada's calling is to bring healing to the nations, and that the healing of Canada must begin with the First and the Original Peoples of Canada!

The word for "nations" here in the original greek language is "ethnos," from which we get our word "ethnicity," or a people group who share a common language, culture and way of life. This suggests that the nations of the earth can only be healed when they can be who God created them to be ethnically, but still reconciled and connected to the other nations, or ethnic and language groups.

Simeonie Amagoalik, the oldest living relocatee (he was 21 in 1953) was also at the meeting on August 10, 2007, with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He told the Prime Minister that something in Canada's history back in 1953 needed correction.

Previously, in 2003, during the occasion of the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the High Arctic Relocation, Simeonie confessed his faith in Jesus Christ, and that he had come to see that God had created this part of the earth as well, and that He created it good, and that He had placed him and the other relocatees here to bring healing to this part of the earth, and to fill it with His Presence.

Also, during the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the High Arctic Relocation at Resolute in 2003, Louisa Gillespie, Allie Salluviniq and Simeonie Amagoalik (the three original relocatees now living in Resolute) released forgiveness to the Canadian government, even (at that point) without an apology on the very spot that they were dropped off and abandoned.

After onsite repentance was made by both white and Inuit representatives on behalf of the sins of their fathers, the blood of Jesus was applied, and the relocatees led in taking communion with the land to bring cleansing to the defilements and pain.

Communion was also taken with the land just adjacent to the bar on the military base that was the scene of so many painful memories, and so much defilement for the Inuit (the people) and for the land.

In 2005, Allie's wife Susan Salluviniq had become the mayor of Resolute Bay, and she began to use her spiritual authority to welcome the Holy Spirit into the community, and to cleanse the land of its defilements. Here, she and Allie are praying over the ancient Thule settlement right next to Resolute, an ancient settlement where defiling practices had taken place.

At that time, a change started coming to the atmosphere of Resolute Bay. The heavens were opening, and youth started responding to the gospel message.

Love is flowing like a river as the people forgive one another for past offences and past abuses. People began to feel peace here. They said that they felt the Presence of the Lord in Resolute Bay.

Resolute Bay Youth are here responding to the Word of God in 2005.

In the meantime, by the summer of 2005, just when the Canadian government was set to pass a law through Parliament restricting the hunting of the Peary Caribou because they feared its extinction, the Inuit hunters like Nathaniel Kalluk from Resolute Bay started to notice that the caribou were coming back, and that every caribou cow was having at least one, and often two or three calves.

At that time, even the narwhales were starting to come by the bay at Resolute. In former days, this was rare. During the summer of 2006, there were 18 narwhales that were harvested by the residents of Resolute Bay, a far cry from the early days.

The beluga whales also started passing through Resolute Bay in 2007 during the summer, and in greater numbers. More and more whales come coming for three to four hours at a time!

One of the ladies who has a cabin near the tip of the Resolute Bay said that she went to bed when the belugas were passing by, and when she woke up in the morning, there were still more whales passing through en route further South. Whales like this passed through Resolute quite a few times. Even the plant life is becoming larger and more diverse.

In the meantime, Grise Fiord today looks like this in winter.

In September of 2005, believers in Grise Fiord wanted to bring a cleansing to their land with original inhabitants like Larry and Annie Audlaluk leading the prayer walk. They went to all of the institutions and public buildings of Grise Fiord, and to sites where suicides and defilements had taken place, praying onsite with insight.

Here Meeka Kigutak, then the deputy mayor of Grise Fiord, is pouring out water from a healed creek in Nuku, Fiji, right in front of the Grise Fiord Municipal Hamlet Office as a sign of her official identification and connection of the North with the South in the vision of the healing of the land.

Here, at the post of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Grise Fiord, some of the original relocatees released forgiveness for the role that the RCMP played in enforcing Canadian government policy that kept the original relocatees away from family, relatives and loved ones for so many years.

Here, Mayor Lisa Ningiuk of Grise Fiord is praying for one of the young people that is being restored.

Larry Audlaluk is seen here with his sister Minnie Kiliktee in September of 2005. Minnie was thirteen at the time of the relocation, and here she is with a joy on hr face after having received prayer.

"The people (of Grise Fiord) who walked in darkness have begun to see a great light; and on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned" (Isaiah 9:2).

This picture of the rising sun over Grise Fiord reminds us of the promise that "for you who revere My Name, the Sun of righteousness will rise with healing in His wings" (Malachi 4:2). Can you see the Son rising?

Here, Larry Audlaluk is sharing with an audience in Israel, what God is doing in his community where he is from near the North Pole, at "the ends of the earth." God has a plan for these people living on the distant and remote islands where they, like the Jewish people, have had to rise up above a spirit of rejection, abandonment and exile.

Here, in the year 2000, Larry Audlaluk of Grise Fiord is presenting an Inuit polar bear carving to the then President of Israel, Moshe Katsav. The Inuit later sang to him in his booth during the Feast of Tabernacles.

Here, High Arctic relocatees, like Larry Audlaluk from Grise Fiord on Ellesmere Island, and Allie Salluviniq from Resolute Bay on Cornwallis Island, have come from "the ends of the earth" back to Jerusalem to pray at the Western Wall for the peace of Israel, and for all humankind. Now, let's fast forward to the year 2010.

On August 18, 2010, suddenly this headline came out as reported by the CBC News. The Hon. John Duncan, who had just been appointed as the new Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, came to Inukjuaq, Nunavik, to officially apologize on behalf of the Canadian government to the Inuit for the High Arctic Relocation of 1953!

Amid unrestrained emotion and much weeping, the Minister tearfully apologized, "The Government of Canada deeply regrets the mistakes and broken promises of this dark chapter of our history, and apologizes for the High Arctic Relocation having taken place."

Suddenly, a focus on the Canadian Arctic seemed to be front page headlines in the news. The Globe and Mail, on August 20, 2010, had two headlines right on the front page that focused on the Inuit and on the Arctic. The eyes of the nation are increasingly on northern issues.

On August 25, 2010, the Prime Minister's five-day northern tour took him to Resolute Bay in time for a demonstration of Canada's military strength in the North. With the Coastguard ship in the background, Prime Minister Harper is making Canada's sovereignty in the North a major theme of his administration.

In Resolute, the Prime Minister came to rally troops taking part in Operation Nanook. This annual sovereignty exercise in the Eastern and High Arctic has become a show piece of Canada's northern prowess.

This newspaper story on the Prime Minister's 2010 Arctic Tour mentions that in Resolute, Nunavut, the Prime Minister "met privately with with Inuit elders to repeat the apology made earlier by Indian and Northern Affairs Minister John Duncan for the federal government's forced relocation of eastern Arctic Inuit." Larry Audlaluk, Allie Salluviniq and Louisa Gillespie were there. It was a powerful moment for them to hear this directly from the Prime Minister's own mouth.

In November of 2o10, Canada Awakening Ministries is booking a Kenn Borek Charter to facilitate the vision of Larry and Annie Audlaluk, along with Allie and Susan Salluviniq, and Louisa Gillespie, who will go to Qaanaaq, Greenland to apologize to the Greenlandic Inuit that they displaced from the Canadian High Arctic in the 1950's.

Qaanaaq, Greenland, is the second most northern community in the world. It has experienced the same isolationism and sense of abandonment that the communities of the Canadian High Arctic have experienced, and there is strong evidence that it is sin-sick, and ripe for transformation.

The Canadian Inuit, who were relocated to the High Arctic want to go to Qaanaaq to apologize to their fellow Inuit in Greenland, as both sides have suffered pain due to the poorly planned Canadian government policy. Maturity and healing comes with the acceptance of responsibility for the role that one has played in causing pain in the lives of others.

Canada Awakening Ministries will be chartering a Kenn Borek Aviation aircraft from Grise Fiord, Nunavut, to Qaanaaq, Greenland, on November 4, 2010, to facilitate this outreach of reconciliation, reconnection, and restoration of relationship between November 4 and 11. Government policies have divided Canadian and Greenlandic Inuit, but the Holy Spirit is now restoring them, and bringing them back together as family.

We fully expect the light of the knowledge of the glory of God to spread from the Canadian High Arctic to the northernmost coasts of Greenland where others like Clare Schnupps and Errol Martens have planted good seeds already. May God's Kingdom come, and may His will be done on earth as it is in heaven!