Across Time and Tundra: The Inuvialuit of the Canadian Arctic

2003-2005: Special Exhibitions Gallery D

Inuit living in the western Canadian Arctic call themselves "Inuvialuit", meaning "real human beings", and have long considered themselves distinct from other Canadian Inuit. Today this distinct identity has a political dimension; the Inuvialuit chose not to join Nunavut (the new Inuit territory in the eastern Arctic), but to remain in the Northwest Territories under their own land claim agreement. The exhibition "Inuvialuit" explores the history of this unique Arctic people, from their first arrival in the Canadian Arctic from Alaska about a thousand years ago to the modern era. The exhibition highlights material collected by fur trader Roderick MacFarlane in the 1860s, and the photographic resources of the Anglican Archives, dating from the 1890s.