This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Santo, A. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Nunavut

Inuit television and cultural citizenship

University of Texas at Austin, USA, avisanto{at}mail.utexas.edu

This article expands the discussion of Inuit broadcasting in northern Canada to encompass actual texts, about which little has been written. Specifically, I focus on Nunavut, a 13-part television series produced in 1994-5 by Igloolik Isuma Productions. Nunavut is considered the first dramatic series to be created entirely by Inuit. While drawing upon Ginsburg’s emphasis on the significance of ‘embedded aesthetics’ to indigenous media producers, I argue that Nunavut’s visual and narrative forms are essential to its cultural and political goals of sustaining and reviving Inuit culture, and, therefore, that any exploration of the series must not separate form from intention. I also build on John Hartley’s arguments for conceptualizing television as a teacher of cultural citizenship. Inuit media productions not only teach Inuit about their culture, but how to practice it. In this sense, Inuit media has been a significant source in mobilizing cultural citizenship. Nunavut’s aesthetic and narrative choices, which attempt to link past and present Inuit identity and forge a political future that encompasses indigenous identity, exemplify TV’s ‘love of influence’ (Hartley, 1999: 43).

Key Words: broadcast policy • Canada • cultural citizenship • embedded aesthetics • generative mechanisms • indigenous media • Inuit • mode of production • oral history • self-determination • Television

International Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol. 7, No. 4, 379-397 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/1367877904047860


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. Pietikainen Broadcasting Indigenous Voices: Sami Minority Media Production European Journal of Communication, June 1, 2008; 23(2): 173 - 191. [Abstract] [PDF]