Description
The Diary of Abraham Ultikab: Text and Context is told in multiple perspectives as this 2005 book explores ideas about the representation of Inuit as people. In 1880, a businessman convinced two Inuit families from Hebron and Nakvak, Labrador, to accompany him to Europe as examples of human ethnographic specimens at European zoos. The efforts of the Inuit to be economic self-sufficient forced them to take the offer of payment to travel to a foreign destination. They also wanted to see some of the Old World as described by Moravian missionaries. Tragedy struck as all eight men, women, and children died from smallpox in Europe the following year. The book is centred on the experiences of Abraham Ulrikab recorded in his diary. Translated into English, the diary is the earliest known Inuit autobiography. Materials such as European newspaper accounts, Moravian letters and reports, advertising, and a recent scholarly interpretation accompany the diary. The perspectives from Europeans express a range of positive and negative responses. One even blames the Inuit for their own tragic deaths. A map and photographs are included in this fascinating look at Europe from an Inuit perspective.