Inuit and scientific ways of knowing and seeing the Arctic landscape

Abstract

This work explores traditional Inuit and Western scientific ways of knowing and seeing the Arctic through a number of cultural expressions of landscape. Inuit and Western perceptions of the Arctic are analysed by examining a series of thematic and cognitive 'maps', drawings and satellite imagery. The study focuses on how these forms of landscape representation and methods of navigation shape the way in whcih the Arctic is perceived. Centred on Inuit coastal villages in Nunavik (Northern Quebec), Canada, the study illustrates different and converging ways of reading the landscape through maps