Arctic Publishing House Empowers Inuit Voices

Louise Flaherty's childhood in a treeless Arctic hamlet starkly contrasted with the Eurocentric textbooks she read. Now 57, this Inuit woman co-founded Inhabit Media in Iqaluit two decades ago, revolutionizing Inuit literature. The publishing house champions Inuit authors, publishing works in English and the Inuit language, a significant development for a community with a rich oral history but no established written tradition.

Inhabit Media's growth, extending into film and television, mirrors the dramatic cultural evolution among Canada's Arctic Indigenous inhabitants over three generations. Flaherty vividly describes this transition, stating, "In the blink of an eye, we went from stone age to space age." Her grandparents were nomadic, her parents were settled by the government, and her generation has begun asserting Inuit terms in engagement with the wider world.