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Committee
Honoraria
Some
committees pay their members an honorarium for each meeting
attended plus expenses. For many people this income provides
a valuable supplement to their subsistence lifestyle. Also,
travelling to meetings provides Inuit with one more opportunity
for informal inter-settlement trade of regionally unique resources.
For example, Inuit from Arctic Bay are able to bring polar
bear meat and skins to trade for caribou meat from Inuit from
Lake Harbour.
"In
Pond Inlet, the Housing , Education, and Hamlet Council Committees,
including Economic Development, Tourism, Planning, and the
Nature Centre pay honorariums."
"Some
families supplement their income by attending meetings. Most
committee members receive a $50 honorarium per meeting, while
some committees pay over $100 per meeting."
"Regional
committees are formed to develop resource management strategies
for the Baffin Region. The South-East Baffin Beluga Co-management
Planning Committee includes five Inuit members who receive
$100/day for each of the 20 to 25 meetings per year. The Canada-Greenland
joint commission for conservation of beluga and narwhal, land-use
management commission for Lancaster Sound, and regional parks
committees all have paid Inuit representatives. Up until May
1993, committee members were paid $50 per meeting, recently
this rate was increased to $125/meeting for committees initiated
by government departments. This ensures that the government
committee fee structure was equal to that being offered by
other boards on Baffin Island.
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This
rate is still low when compared to the $250/meeting paid on
Inuvialuit in the Mackenzie Delta area."
"The
Library Committee does not pay an honorarium; therefore, when
another committee with honorariums becomes available, Inuit
take the position which pays rather than stay with the Library
Committee, Sports North, Cadets, Brownies, and other social
gatherings also require committees which are primarily voluntary."
Local
business also have committees and boards.
The
Pond Inlet Co-op has eight board members who meet four times
a month. The members earn $55/meeting and the chair earns
$65/meeting.
Lost
Revenues
Prior
to the early nineteen-seventies much of the cost of the hunting
gear could be covered by the sale of seal and fox skins. However,
since the collapse of the seal market in the nineteen-seventies
and the fur industry in the nineteen-eighties these sources
of revenue have been lost and have not been replaced. These
changes have restricted the informal exchange of products
relating to the fur market.
"There
are no active trappers this year because of the low fur prices
and the high cost of equipment."
"Three
years ago the Northern didn't buy any furs. Now we buy $200
worth of skins per year and are trying to increase that to
$500/year. We now pay $10 to $20 for a seal skin. In the recent
past we never saw a seal skin, now we see the odd one as they
still kill the same number of seals but just
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haven't been bringing the skins in. The hunters go for the
smaller seals now, larger ones may have brought in more money
before. The seal skins are brought in by older women.
"We
pay $15 for a fox pelt, but there are not many trapped. It
is difficult to use Conibear traps in open areas, because
they catch caribou and can break their legs, they don't work
on the tundra. The new traps will kill fox trapping.
"We buy about $16,000 to $20,000 worth of narwhal tusks
per year. For large polar bears (10' to 12' long) there is
still a good market. For bears 8' long or less the market
is weak, we pay from $300 up to $700 a skin. We buy about
seven or eight bear skins per year for about $4,500. Hunters
sell the lower jaws of the polar bears to the Renewable Resources
Officer for $20 each."
"Conibear
traps are given in exchange for leg-hold traps. Leg-hold traps
will be gone by 1996. Few people are trapping though, as there
is not much money in selling the pelts. An average fox pelt
is worth about $30 so it is not worthwhile to continue this
business. Trappers would have to be exceptionally good to
make trapping pay."
Conclusions
Generalized
reciprocity, a form of community sharing which lacks explicit
obligations and concepts of indebtedness, has been practised
by the Inuit since time immemorial. This form of sharing encompasses
all aspects of the Inuit lifestyles, including everything
from meat and tools, to children and knowledge, it is the
glue that binds the community into a cohesive whole. The sharing
is so innate among the inuit that they find it very difficult
to live in a culture where it is absent. Where this generalized
reciprocity has been broken down by southern intrusions, such
as the monetary system, the sale of meat, or the drug trade,
the community members often feel confused and frustrated.
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