In early August, Amy Delo, MA International Studies and Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellow in French (2017–18), was awarded a “high pass” for her thesis, “Inuit Compromise and Resurgence: The Legacies of the James Bay and Northern Québec Agreement.” Delo explores the implications of the 1975 agreement through Inuit texts, Wrestling with Colonialism on Steroids: Quebec Inuit Fight for Their Homeland (2017), a memoir by Zebedee Nungak, and Napagunnaqullusi: So That You Can Stand (2015), a documentary video by the Makivik Corporation.
Amy’s thesis is unique in its application of settler colonial theory to what occurred before, during, and after the James Bay and Northern Québec Agreement. The thesis also adds much to the literature by using two works by Inuit—the memoir and documentary film—to emphasize the importance of having Inuit perspectives on the positive and negative impacts of the agreement on the Inuit themselves. She argues that the lessons learned from the agreement are still in play today and that the Nunavimmiut have paved the way for many Indigenous relations with provincial and territorial governments in Canada.
Amy Delo was also an Arctic Fellow (2016–17), part of the Jackson School’s International Policy Institute’s program. Tony Lucero, Associate Professor in the Jackson School and Chair of Latin and Caribbean Studies, served as the chair of Amy’s committee, and Nadine Fabbi, Managing Director, Canadian Studies Center, in the Jackson School, served as a committee member.