This short documentary serves as a quiet elegy for a way of life, which exists now only in the memories of those who experienced it. Bonnie Ammaaq and her family remember it vividly. When Bonnie was a little girl, her parents packed up their essentials, bundled her and her younger brother onto a long, fur-lined sled and left the government-manufactured community of Igloolik to live off the land, as had generations of Inuit before them.
This short documentary serves as a quiet elegy for a way of life, which exists now only in the memories of those who experienced it. Bonnie Ammaaq and her family remember it vividly. When Bonnie was a little girl, her parents packed up their essentials, bundled her and her younger brother onto a long, fur-lined sled and left the government-manufactured community of Igloolik to live off the land, as had generations of Inuit before them.
A documentary that features a family’s connection to land and resistance to government-manufactured communities. This film is ideal for generating discussion on the social conditions Inuit face in both the present and past. What was the intent of permanent government-controlled land bases (i.e., permanent settlements and reserves)? What are the short- and long-term social implications of forced relocation? What and why did Ottawa apologize for in 2019? What is forced relocation and how is it a tool of oppression and genocide? Why would a family choose to leave government-manufactured communities? Living off-grid is a new concept for some, but consider how the concept of off-grid living may have deep-rooted connotations for Indigenous people.
Nowhere Land, Rosie Bonnie Ammaaq, provided by the National Film Board of Canada