Collection search - Back to Baffin

Record information – Brief

1

Back to Baffin

Item number (ISN):

154956

Hierarchical level:

Item (Accession level)

Date:

1925

Item number (ISN):

154956

Link to related resource:

Type of material:

Moving images

Found in:

Archives / Film, Video and Sound

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Record information – Details

Fonds/collection:

CANADA. NATIONAL MUSEUMS OF CANADA / MUSÉES NATIONAUX DU CANADA

Accession:

1971-0053

Media:

Film

Original title:

Back to Baffin

Part:

1 of 1

Production date:

1925

Release date:

1928

Production company:

Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau

Production credit:

photography, George H. Valiquette; editing, Richard Finnie

Country of production:

cn

Sponsor:

North West Territories and Yukon Branch, Department of the Interior

Description:

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In March 1920, the Inuk Nuqallaq (named Nookudlah in the film) shot and killed the white Newfoundland trader Robert S. Janes. Janes was notorious for his mistreatment of natives (Inuit) and this action would have been sanctioned by the Elders under native (Inuit) law if the victim were deemed a danger to the community. Nuqallaq was arrested by RCMP Staff-Sergeant A. H. Joy in the summer of 1921. In August 1923, a white court, sitting in Pond Inlet, sentenced him to ten years hard labour. This was to some extent intended to impress on the native (Inuit) the importance and power of the white man's law and at the same time reinforce Canadian sovereignty over the Arctic. After serving two years of his sentence in Stoney Mountain penitentiary in Manitoba, dying of tuberculosis, he was released. He returned to Pond Inlet with the Canadian Government Eastern Arctic Expedition aboard the CGS Arctic in the summer of 1925. None of the above is explained in the film: an intertitle reads in part "...Mr. Nookudlah, home again after a visit of many moons in the strange country of the White Man...". An earlier title mentions the Canadian Government OOMIAKSHUA, the Inuktitut word for big boat (CGS Arctic). What follows are scenes of Nuqallaq's homecoming as well as native (Inuit) life in general. Some of these scenes are certainly posed for the camera rather than purely documentary. <11mn 42s>

Language:

Silent with English intertitles

Notes:

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1. The running time is based on the measured length of the archives' master print calculated at 18 fps.~2. Edited by Richard Finnie in 1928 from 1925 Arctic Expedition footage in response to a request for a film to be shown on lecture and singing tours given by Juliette Gaulthier.~3. Finnie never mentioned this film in any filmography.~4. Crown material over 50 years - copyright expired.~5. See also ISN 331930.
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Conditions of access:

Open

Consultation copy number:

V1 8207-0040
V1 2005-09-0010

Restrictions on consultation:

Open

Donor restrictions:

No donor restrictions.

Copyright status:

Copyright expired.

Reproduction access:

To be Determined / À déterminer

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Date modified:: 2024-06-27