How cell phones and Facebook are changing remote Nunatsiavut
Beginning in the 19th century, Inuit children were taken away from their families and forced to attend residential schools , where they were not allowed to speak their own language.
In the 1950s, thousands of Inuit in Nunatsiavut were forcibly removed from their land and stripped of their native language and customs. As a result, a generation of students that lost their culture gave birth to children who are now, themselves, searching for new ways to reclaim it.
Restoring that culture is a challenge, because many Inuit currently live in remote communities that lack roads and transportation infrastructure, leaving them isolated from each other.
About a third of these Labrador Inuit reside in Nunatsiavut, which has five major Inuit communities scattered along the coastline of Newfoundland Labrador province.
None of the communities are connected to each otheror to anywhere else for that matter by road, and they can only be reached by airplane or boat.
But Nain has a key advantage in terms of integrating into the wider Inuit world: its the only one of these communities with mobile cellular service.
Some Inuit parents have the same concerns as parents in more connected regions, such as whether their children are spending too much time online.
But some of those children are using the technology to connect with Inuit communitiesand their traditionsthat they might never experience otherwise.
After seven days of sailing and hiking without Internet access, the towns new cell service was a very welcome surprise to the mostly Canadian and American passengers on board.
Its good that theyre learning more about their culture on social media, but you cant get the same connection online as you can from actually going out on the land.Original article
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