Arctic Cotton and the Stratified Identity of an Inuk Educational Leader

Maggie Kuniliusie

Maggie Kuniliusie explores her “stratified identity” in this auto-ethnographic study. She reflects on her experiences and interviews her mother, tracing the erosion of traditional ways of collaboration and sharing while celebrating her family’s versatility. Her grandfather, who could bring in a boat full of walrus meat, became a Special Constable who spearheaded the establishment of the RCMP detachments in the Arctic region. Her father, a fine hunter, made a living as a government mechanic. Her mother, who “could magically turn any ordinary animal skin into beautiful clothing with vibrant patterns and designs,” was a teacher. Maggie has experienced settlement life and change, public schooling and undergraduate and graduate education, and a wide range of positions, which have helped her to achieve her present position and educational standing. “As a result of my parents’ strong cultural identity and versatile personalities,” she writes, she has succeeded in living, “between two cultures and between two worlds.”