About

The IQQAUMAVARA project (which means I remember in Inuktitut) began after the 2009 release of the documentary feature Martha of the North. The film, which I directed and co-wrote with Martha Flaherty, tells the story of her family’s forced relocation from Inukjuak to Grise Fiord in the Extreme Arctic.

After the movie was finished, we had the chance to present it to various communities in Nunavik and Nunavut. Watching the film inspired several people to approach us and share some of their childhood memories, as well as open up about the traumatic events of their own relocation. Shaken by all those revelations, Martha and I began dreaming of gathering their stories. We wanted to offer a space where the people and families involved in the relocations of 1953 and 1955 could open up about their suffering. A space where their descendants could learn about their family’s history. A site to collectively remember this human tragedy.

Our dream took a few years to assemble the necessary funding and to become a reality, but that space of collective memory is finally here. Iqqaumavara is a website that tells the story of the relocations through moving testimonials, a site anyone can explore to gather information and to better understand this chapter of our history that still impacts many of our northern communities today.

For Martha Flaherty, Évangéline De Pas, Geneviève Thibert and myself, whom have all carried this project with our hearts for so many years, the pride and satisfaction are endless. This great human experience full of honest encounters and heartfelt exchanges has been truly remarkable. Genuine connections and relationships have been established in the process, and that is yet another important aspect of Iqqaumavara: the creation of a bridge between the North and the South.

Sincerely,
Marquise Lepage
Producer
Productions du Cerf-Volant