Black-Inuk woman traces history of Black settlers in the North in pursuit of answers to racial divisions today

Jaelyn Jarrett remembers moving from Nain, N.L., to Ontario as an eight-year-old when she started being called a ‘Puatugi’.

“I didn’t really understand what that term meant at the time, but I knew people would reference my hair, and so I figured that it meant black,” she said.

After conversations with her grandmother, Jarrett discovered that word meant Portuguese. She wondered why she — a Black-Inuk woman with Guyanese roots — was being referred to as Portuguese.

That memory led the Carleton University master’s student on a journey to trace the origin of the word, where she came across Canadian historian Kenn Harper’s Names We Call Each Other.

The book explains many of the whalers in the Arctic were Black men from Cape Verde — islands located off the west coast of Africa once colonized by Portugal.

Many Cape Verdeans emigrated to the United States starting in the 1800s, particularly to coastal towns with thriving whaling ports like New Bedford, Massachusetts. From there, some Cape Verdean men joined whaling ships travelling to the Hudson’s Bay and Cumberland Sound.

black and white photo of men on a ship — A photo by Captain George Comer, estimated between 1897 and 1899, showing the crew on deck of a whaling schooner. Brass Lopes is believed to be in the far right of this photograph. (Mystic Seaport Museum)

Those Black whalers were then referred to by Inuit as ‘Puatugi’, which was adapted from the word Portuguese to flow better in Inuktitut.

While Black whalers did head North for economic pursuits, Jarrett believes those men had very different experiences than their white counterparts.

“They were able to get opportunities to come to the North and make money, but they were still under the confines of racism and colonialism,” she said.

She thinks many people don’t realize that part of Nunavut’s history, which she believes could offer answers to the racial divide that exists to this day.

Racial segregation

At the time, Inuit were being moved around like human flag poles.

But there were also fearmongering narratives about Black men — who travelled North largely for the fur trade, military expansion, and whaling — which are documented in numerous reports.

The Qikiqtani Truth Commission quoted memories from elders in 1947, as they watched roughly 200 African-American soldiers descend upon their community around Iqaluit as part of operations by the United States Air Force (USAF).

This was an era of segregation, and the USAF moved Inuit to Ukaliqtulik, a nearby island, to keep them separate from the African-American troops. That left some Inuit feeling they had lost control of their own lives.

“It was kind of the beginning of Inuit being displaced for other people without there being understanding for why they’re being displaced. Black bodies were being used for labour while Inuit were being displaced,” Jarrett said.

woman on the left, man on the right, and child holding mug in the middle — From left to right: Ikualak, Leopold (Leopu), and Attuat, taking a break from hunting. (Submitted by Noel Kaludjak)

Her research begins earlier, and it’s centred around one particular Black man — Brass Lopes.

He met an Inuk woman and had a biological daughter who was given the nickname Ikualak, which means fire in reference to her hair.

Ikualak raised eight children by herself.

Noel Kaludjak, one of Ikualak’s descendants, grew up with many questions.

“It was kind of confusing at first… why is my dad so dark? He looks like an Inuk, but he’s so dark,” he said.

Kaludjak says he got the occasional comment about his skin colour. But he and his family still hunt and fish because they’re Inuit — and they always will be.

‘My community didn’t accept me’

To this day, Jarrett believes Black Inuit are still affected by those colonial practices.

22-year-old Iima Arngaq, from Kangiqsujuaq, Quebec, has Jamaican and Inuit ancestry.

Her Jamaican ancestors, on her father’s side, moved to New York during the slave trade. They then made the move to Canada — which was at the time considered safer —and that’s where Arngaq’s parents met.

But Arngaq says her family became targets of her community’s racism.

family pose for photo — From left to right: Iima Arngaq as a child with her mother Pasha Arngaq, uncle Adamie Philie, grandmother Jessica Arngaq, and grandfather Pierre Philie. (Submitted by Iima Arngaq)

“My community didn’t accept me,“ she said. “My mother told me that people would make racist comments like wishing ill upon me and making jokes about how, because she slept with a Black man, her baby is gonna turn out burnt and ugly.”

Argnaq says she conditioned herself to hate her Black roots and her appearance — her curly hair, thick lips and darker skin.

Creating a better future

When Arngaq was approached by Jarrett for her Black-Inuit history research, she felt seen.

“We believe if you are Inuk, you are Inuk. it doesn’t matter if you’re five per cent or if you’re 10 per cent or whatever percent the blood quantum tells us we are or we should be,” she said.

Jarrett worries about the racial tensions today, as demographics shift in the North and across Canada.

family, with mother, two children, baby, and dog stands on the tundra — A childhood photo of Jaelyn Jarrett’s family from left to right: Jaelyn Jarrett, mother Holly Jarrett, sister Jasmyn Jarrett Onalik as a baby, and sister Jordyn Jarrett. (Submitted by Jaelyn Jarrett)

But she points to the shared histories of colonization and displacement that both Black and Inuit communities face, and the socio-economic inequities rooted in racism that still exists today.

She stresses this isn’t an attack on any community, rather a call to action to better understand that part of Canada’s history.

“It’s about trying to create a better future and ensure that our youth, our Black youth and our Inuit youth, feel included,” she said.

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