If Red Bay Counts in Spain, It Should Count in Labrador

What does reconciliation mean if we are prepared to call for it across an ocean, but not here at home, among our own families and communities?

That was the question I was left with after hearing comments from Johannes Lampe, President of Nunatsiavut, during CBC’s coverage of the replica of the 16th-century Basque ship San Juan in Pasaia, Spain.

The San Juan has a deep connection to Labrador. It was a 16th-century Basque whaling ship that sank in Red Bay, in southern Labrador. Its discovery helped tell a broader story about the Basque whaling presence along the Strait of Belle Isle, and about the long and complicated history of European activity in Labrador.

During the CBC coverage, President Lampe spoke about the presence of Basque whalers in southern Labrador, specifically Red Bay. He said he believed there was “evidence enough” for Europeans, the Basque, and the Spanish to discuss an apology to Indigenous groups in Canada, and “most certainly the Labrador Inuit.” He also said reconciliation is difficult, but that “we have to start somewhere.”

I agree with him on that point.

We do have to start somewhere.

But surely that somewhere should include Labrador.

Red Bay is in southern Labrador. The Basque whaling presence there is part of the history of that place. It is also part of the history President Lampe pointed to while in Spain as evidence of harm to Labrador Inuit.

That is important because, here at home, Nunatsiavut has repeatedly taken positions that many Southern Inuit experience as challenges to our identity, history and rights. Southern Labrador has also been described as outside Inuit Nunangat.

So the question is fair.

If the history of Red Bay is evidence of harm to Labrador Inuit when speaking in Spain, why is Inuit presence in southern Labrador treated so differently when NunatuKavut speaks of our own history, families and land?

It cannot be both ways.

Either Inuit history in southern Labrador forms part of this story, or it does not. Either Red Bay helps tell the story of Labrador Inuit, or it does not. It should not count only when it supports a demand for reconciliation from Europe, and then be questioned or dismissed when Southern Inuit ask for recognition and respect here at home.

I say this as a member of NunatuKavut.

My family is from central and southern Labrador. My family still holds land in Natsitok (Sandwich Bay), land we have fished, hunted, and gathered from for generations. Across the way from our family land are Inuit stone houses that remind us our presence is not new, not invented, and not something that can be erased by politics.

For my family, and for many Southern Inuit families, these are not abstract debates. They are not just about maps, titles, governments or political statements. They are about grandparents and great-grandparents. They are about land use, memory, kinship, food, language, place names, family stories, and the quiet knowledge passed down through generations.

They are about belonging.

That is why the lack of reconciliation with NunatuKavut is so painful. It has harmed relationships between people who should be able to see each other as relatives. It has created division where there should be respect. It leaves many Southern Inuit feeling as though our identity is acknowledged in one context and questioned in another.

I do not write this to attack President Lampe or Nunatsiavut. I write it because I believe reconciliation among Inuit in Labrador is necessary, overdue, and possible.

There is enough pain in our shared history without adding more to it. There is enough outside pressure on Indigenous peoples without us turning that pressure inward on one another. Labrador is large enough, and our history is deep enough, to hold more than one Inuit story.

If President Lampe truly believes reconciliation must begin somewhere, then I hope he will consider beginning here, with the Southern Inuit of Labrador.

An apology from Europe may be worth discussing. The history of Basque whaling in Labrador is significant and should be better understood. But reconciliation in Labrador cannot be pursued only overseas. It cannot be something we ask of others while avoiding the harder work among ourselves.

It must also happen here, at home.

It must happen between people who share family connections, ancestral ties, history, land, and memory.

It must happen between Nunatsiavut and NunatuKavut.

We deserve to be respected. We deserve to be self-determining. We deserve to have our history acknowledged.

Most of all, we deserve peace and reconciliation with our Inuit brothers and sisters here at home.