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Infrastructural Sovereignty: IsumaTV at the 2019 Venice Art Biennale
"Infrastructural Sovereignty: IsumaTV at the 2019 Venice Art Biennale" by Malini Guha. Mediapolis: A Journal of Cities and Culture. October 12, 2019.
ᖁᔭᓐᓇᒦᒃ ᐅᓂᒃᑳᕈᓐᓇᕐᑎᑕᐅᒐᒪ
ᒪᐃᐊ ᐅᐃᑦᓱᕙ
ᓯᕗᓪᓕᕐᐹᕆᓚᐅᕐᑕᕋ ᐃᒡᓗᓕᒃᒧᐊᕐᖢᖓ, ᐅᑭᐅᕐᑕᕐᑐᒧᓪᓗ, ᑕᑯᔭᕆᐅᓕᕐᖢᖓᓗ ᑕᑯᓚᐅᕐᓯᒪᖏᑕᓐᓂᒃ. ᑕᐃᓱᒪᓂᐅᑎᓪᓗᒍ ᓄᓇᖑᐊᖅ ᐅᔾᔨᕆᓪᓚᕆᓚᐅᕐᑕᕋ. ᐃᒧᓪᓗᖃᐅᕐᑐᖅ, ᑎᒃᑯᐊᕐᑕᐅᖃᑦᑕᕐᑐᖅ ᓂᐱᐅᓯᕐᓱᕐᓯᒪᓪᓗᓂᓗ, 12ᖑᓗᑎᒃ ᑲᑎᖓᐅᕐᑐᑦ ᕿᑐᑦᑐᒐᐅᔭᒃᑯᕕᒃᒧᑦ. ᐊᑐᕐᑕᐅᖃᑦᑕᕐᓯᒪᓪᓚᕆᒃᑐᖅ. ᓄᓇᖑᐊᒥ ᓴᖃᓕᐊᓯᐅᑉ ᐊᑖᑕᖓ, ᐃᓅᑭ ᑎᑎᕋᕐᑐᕕᓂᖅ ᓄᓇᖑᐊᒃᑯᑦ ᐃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ ᓄᓇᐃᑦ ᐊᑎᖏᓐᓂᒃ, ᐊᖑᓇᓱᒃᕕᐅᖃᑦᑕᕐᓯᒪᔪᓂᒃ, ᐊᓯᖏᓐᓂᓗ ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔭᕐᒥᓂᒃ ᐃᒡᓗᓕᐅᑉ ᖃᓂᒋᔭᖓᓃᑦᑐᓂᒃ. ᓄᓇᖑᐊᖅ ᑎᑎᕋᕐᕕᒋᓯᒪᐅᕐᖢᓂ ᐅᖃᓕᒫᕈᓐᓇᖏᑕᓐᓂᒃ ᑭᓯᐊᓂ ᑐᑭᓯᓇᕐᓂᕐᓴᐅᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᖃᓪᓗᓈᑎᑐᖓᔪᓂᒃ ᓇᕈᑎᐅᓚᐅᕐᑐᑦ, ᐊᖓᔪᖃᕐᔪᐊᓪᓗ ᑯᐃᓪᓗ ᐊᑎᖏᓐᓂᑦ. ᓴᓇᐅᒐᓕᕆᔨᐅᓪᓗᖓ ᓄᓇᖑᐊᓂᒃ ᐱᐅᒃᓴᐃᓐᓇᖃᑦᑕᕐᓯᒪᒐᒪ ᑕᑯᒃᓴᐅᔪᓂᒃ ᐊᒃᑐᐊᓂᖏᓐᓂᒃ ᓄᓇᒧᑦ, ᑕᕙᓃᓕᕐᐳᖓ ᐅᒃᑑᑎᑦᑎᐊᕙᐅᔪᒥᒃ − ᓄᓇᖑᐊᖅ ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔭᐅᔪᓂᒃ ᑎᑎᕋᕐᕕᒋᓯᒪᓪᓗᓂ ᐃᓅᑭᐅᑉ, ᓯᕗᓕᖏᑕ ᓄᓇᒋᕙᓚᐅᕐᑕᖏᓐᓂᒃ ᑕᐅᓴᓂᒃ ᐊᕐᕌᒍᓄᑦ. [...]
ᐃᓱᒻᒥᕐᑕᐅᓂᖅ ᐃᓱᒪᒃᑯᑦ ᑐᓐᓂᕆᔭᐅᓂᖅ
ᑯᕆᔅᑕ ᐅᓗᔪᒃ ᔭᕗᐊᑦᓯᑭ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᔾᕋ ᐊᓐᑕᓐ ᒍᕇᓐ
ᐱᕈᕐᓴᓚᐅᕐᐳᖓ ᐃᒡᓗᓕᒑᕐᔪᖕᒥ, ᐊᑭᓐᓇᖓᓂ ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᑦ, ᓄᓇᓕᖕᓂ ᓈᓚᐅᑎᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐅᖄᓚᐅᑎᕋᓛᑦ ᓂᐱᒃᑯᑦ ᑐᓴᕐᓇᕈᑎᒋᓚᐅᕐᑕᕗᑦ ᐱᕈᕐᓴᓪᓗᖓ, ᓄᑕᕋᐅᓪᓗᖓ. ᓈᓚᐅᑎᒃᑯᑦ ᓄᓇᓕᖕᓂ, ᐃᒃᓄᒃᑎᑐᑦ ᐃᖏᕐᑐᑦ ᐊᓂᑕ ᐄᓴᓗᒃ, ᓵᓕ ᐸᓂᒍᓂᐊᖅ, ᓵᓕ ᐊᑎᒻᔅ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓴᐃᒪᓐ ᓯᒃᔭᕆᐊᖅ ᓂᓪᓕᐊᑎᑕᐅᖃᑦᑕᓚᐅᕐᑐᑦ ᑐᓴᒐᒃᓴᐃᓪᓗ ᓄᓇᓕᒃᓂ. ᐊᑐᓂ ᐃᒃᓗᖃᕐᑎᐅᔪᑦ ᐅᖄᓚᐅᑎᕋᓚᖃᓚᐅᕐᒥᔪᑦ ᑐᓴᐅᒪᖃᑦᑕᐅᑎᔾᔪᑕᐅᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᐃᒃᓗᕋᓛᖃᐅᕐᑐᓪᓗ, ᐅᒥᐊᕐᑐᕐᑐᓪᓗ ᐃᒃᓗᓕᒑᔪᒃᒧᖓᐅᔪᓄᑦ ᐅᕙᓘᓐᓃᑦ ᓯᒃᔭᖓᒎᕐᑐᑦ ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᑉ ᐊᖑᓇᓱᒃᑐᓄᑦ. [...]
Isummiqtauniq: Thought Gift
by Krista Ulujuk Zawadski and Ezra Anton Greene, October 2019
Growing up in Igluligaarjuk, on the western shore of Hudson Bay, local radio broadcasts and citizen band (CB) radio provided the soundscapes of my childhood. On the community radio, the Inuktitut music of Anita Issaluk, Charlie Panigoniak, Charlie Adams, and Simon Sigjariaq was interspersed with town announcements and messages between locals. Each household also had a CB radio that helped community members communicate with each other. They were used to communicate between houses and nearby cabins, or with boaters traveling up Chesterfield Inlet, or along the Hudson Bay coastlines for hunting trips. [...]
Thank You For Letting Me Tell These Stories
By Maia Iotzova, October 2019
It was a cold and sunny Sunday afternoon in April 2016 when Zacharias Kunuk and Michelline Ammaq sat in the shack turned into an office, telling stories of camping, hunting, travelling, getting lost on the land – while pointing to an old map. This was my first visit to Igloolik and the Arctic, and I was looking at everything with fresh eyes. It was during that time that the map caught my attention. The crinkled paper map they were pointing to had rips, and had been glued together from 12 different topographic pieces with packing tape. It had been well used. On the map, Zach’s father, Enuki Kunuk, had written in syllabics the names of places, the areas where hunting was good, and all other things he knew about the Igloolik area. The map was covered in writing I could not read but made much more sense than the sparse English names referring to explorers, princes and queens. [...]
The Inuit Elegiac: One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk
By Russell J.A. Kilbourn, Wilfrid Laurier University, June 2019
In his January 2017 National Post review, Chris Knight remarked that if John Ford’s “The Searchers was a western, [the] Inuit film Maliglutit is a northern” (n.p.). Following this line, one might say that Zacharias Kunuk’s latest feature, One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk, is the Inuit High Noon. As the latest ‘northern,’ however, One Day is not a remake, re-telling or adaptation of Fred Zinneman’s 1952 western in the same way that Maliglutit (2016), beginning with its title, translates the basic story of The Searchers (1956) into a thoroughly northern, Arctic, Inuit context. High Noon is recalled in the new film in a fundamental structural sense, in the formally and thematically central confrontation between two men—gender is no accident here—at the high point of this typical Arctic spring day (the same time of year as the actual occurrence on which the film is based): the long central scene of a showdown between two men, one of whom ends up getting the better of the other, but only in the short term. [...]
Isuma Is a Cumulative Effort
by asinnajaq ᐊᓯᓐᓇᐃᔭᖅ, May 2019
In the 1970s Igloolik was the last town in its region to get a cable television connection. The town voted, twice, against having cable TV brought into their homes. It might seem that access to cable TV is an easy choice, and one could even ask, Why bother fighting it, the “idiot box”? But the residents of Igloolik, and all over Inuit Nunangat, were experiencing huge shifts in their ways of living. They were constantly learning to live differently, and these cumulative changes made their day-to-day human experience much different than ever before. With very not-Inuk stories on cable TV, why should Inuit have been expected to accept it with open hands? How well would children who grew up with television be able to connect to Inuit culture?
- [FORTHCOMING]
Isuma South (English)
by Gabriela Gámez, July 2019
-- Coming July 2019 --
- [FORTHCOMING]
He still can’t speak Inuktitut for himself: translations and mistranslations in One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk (English)
by Candice Hopkins, July 2019
- [FORTHCOMING]
Isuma’s Practice and the Concept of Time (English)
By Josée Drouin-Brisebois, July 2019
--- Coming July 2019
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Infrastructural Sovereignty: IsumaTV at the 2019 Venice Art Biennale
"Infrastructural Sovereignty: IsumaTV at the 2019 Venice Art Biennale" by Malini Guha. Mediapolis: A Journal of Cities and Culture. October 12, 2019.
"Rather than viewing Isuma’s exhibition in cinematic terms, it is perhaps more productive to consider their infrastructural nature and more precisely, to consider the
ways in which the digital life of this exhibition gives rise to the notion of an infrastructural sovereignty, thus constituting a second component of Isuma’s decolonial practice. Problems of an infrastructural nature plague
Nunavut more broadly, as is the case across Indigenous territories in Canada."
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