Cultural change, and the disappearance of many aspects of people’s lives, is something that affects societies the world over. But it is not enough to simply say “the old ways were the best” and blame others for the loss of culture while doing nothing about it. What is really at stake is finding ways to keep those aspects of culture which give a people their identity and their values while adapting to inevitable change – for all change is not bad.

Most people, no matter where they live, obviously do not stubbornly cling to all aspects of their old ways when new ways of doing things appear. Why would someone continue to do something an old way when, for example, a new technology makes doing it easier? Inuit quickly threw away their bows and arrows and lances when firearms became available. They speedily accepted the freighter canoe in preference to the qajaq. Snowmobiles replaced dog teams; wooden houses replaced snowhouses, and so on. Every one of those changes made a difference to Inuit life, or Inuit culture, as we often call it.

Most people are sad about the passing of ‘the good old days’. We forget about the bad parts of those days, and tend to remember only the good things. We may remember happy days of strong family ties, for example, and choose not to think so much about times of great hardship. This happened in the Arctic, too. For awhile, especially in the 1950s and 1960s, the older people were too busy coping with the changes that were taking place to worry about what they were giving up. For a time, their children did not want to hear about the old days. They were interested only in the new ways of life and the new material things that their parents never had.

These days many people are beginning to think differently, as the stories in this issue show. Inuit today are working together, in many cases with qablunaat, to try to keep Inuit culture alive. More and more young people are becoming interested in what life was like in the past. Last summer, some young people from Arviat went to the site of an old Ihalmiut camp at Ennadai Lake in the barrens. There they got things ready so that Elders could visit – for two weeks – the area that had been their home 30 years ago.

We hope that, in the years to come, there will be a strengthening of ties between today’s generation and their Elders. We hope they can work together to record in books, art and music what is rediscovered about the culture and values of the past. In that ways, no matter how much Inuit culture changes (as all cultures must), the Inuit will know what their roots are and, at the same time, can build for the future.

This is an excerpt from David Webster’s editorial. You can read the rest of his editorial and more about the return to Ennadai Lake in “Inuktitut” #62, Winter 1985.