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Peter Evans

Ph.D. Student

History and Public Policy (HIPP) Research Group

Biography

I am a Journalist who transformed into a Northernist while living in Nain, Labrador, in the late 1990s. My research interests occur across a wide spectrum of cultural/ environmental geography and social anthropology of the Arctic. Currently, I am exploring aboriginal resistance and response to the development narratives of missionaries, health and trading organizations, and bureaucracies in the North Atlantic Arctic region. Other research interests include human-animal relationships in subsistence and recreational hunting and fishing.

Career

Researcher, freelance writer (P/T) (1997-Present).
Editor, Eastern Woods & Waters, Associate Editor, Saltscapes Magazine, Halifax, NS (2000-2003); Assistant Editor, The Atlantic Salmon Journal (2000-2002); Columnist, Halifax Daily News (2002-2003).
Editor, kinatuinamut Ilingajuk magazine. OKalaKatiget Society, Nain, NL (1997-1999).

Qualifications

Ph.D. (in progress). Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge (2004 - Present)
MPhil. Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge (2004-2005).
BJ. University of King's College, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (1997).
BA (Hons) University of King's College, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (1996).

Research

My PhD work concerns a remarkable, and little known, forced relocation of approximately 500 Inuit from the communities of Hebron and Nutak, on the northernmost portion of the Labrador coast, in the late 1950s. The relocation was conducted by Canadian and Newfoundland bureaucrats, but widely promoted among influential British and American patron health and church agencies. Nevertheless, Labrador Inuit history, I argue, is shot through with explicit and implicit resistance to colonialism. My research sets out Inuit action and agency as a counter-point to colonial narratives. Combining ethnographic fieldwork with extensive archival sleuthing, my work argues for a new view of Inuit / Euro-Canadian relations, one which stresses Inuit resistance and resilience in the face of culture change. Documentary research was conducted at archives in Canada and Britain, and fieldwork was done in Northern Labrador throughout 2005-2006.

Support for this work has come from a number of kind sources: Cambridge Commonwealth Trust & Smuts Fund; Institute for Social and Economic Research, MUN (Strategic Research Grant) BB Roberts Fund, Scott Polar Research Institute; Canadian Centennial Scholarship Fund (Mary LeMessurier Scholar for History, 2006-2007); Arctic Institute of North America (Research Grant); Canadian Museum of Civilization (William E. Taylor Prize, 2006) .

Publications

Selected publications

Evans, P. (2006) The Diary of Abraham Ulrikab. Etudes Inuit Studies, Summer 2006 (Review).
Evans, P. (2006) Remembering Harold Horwood. St. John's Evening Telegram, April 22.
Evans, P. (2005) Relocation and Resistance: Culture and Politics of the Inuit of Hebron and Nutak. MPhil Dissertation, University of Cambridge.
Evans, P. (2003) Hebron, Labrador: The Pain of Relocation, and the Joy of Going Home. Saltscapes, Vol 4.2.
Evans, P. (2001) Kalunak: A Labrador Diary. Saltscapes, Vol. 1.2.
Evans, P., W. Jararuse. (1999) How the North Was Lost: Hebron and Nutak Remembered. Kinatuinamut Ilingajuk, Fall, 80 pp.

Conference papers

Evans, P. (2006) Easter 1959: Oral and Written Accounts of a Contested Event. 15^th Inuit Studies Conference, Paris, France.
Evans, P. (2004) Writing Science Stories. 14^th Inuit Studies Conference, Calgary, AB.

Teaching

Supervision, Tripos Part II Paper 9, Human Geography of the Arctic, Cambridge (2007 Lent).
Tutor, First Year Writing, School of Journalism, University of King's College (2003).
Writing coach, magazine trainer, OKalaKatiget Society, Nain, NL (2002 Summer).

External activities

Student Co-ordinator, Cambridge Canadian Studies Initiative (2006-2007).
Member, Arctic Institute of North America.

Scott Polar Research Institute

University of Cambridge