Scottie, Joan, Warren Bernauer, and Jack Hicks. 2022. I Will Live For Both Of Us: A History of Colonialism, Uranium Mining, and Inuit Resistance. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 252 pages.

Historically, conflicts between Indigenous communities and mining companies do not usually end with the community gaining the upper hand. Faced with the alarming prospect of a uranium mine in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut, Canada—a project that posed a danger to human and environmental health, threatened caribou habitat, and disrupted traditional hunting patterns—the Qamani’tuaq Baker Lake community vigorously fought back. Lead by activists including co-author Joan Scottie, this small Inuit hamlet of just over two thousand individuals, located 320 kilometres inland from Hudson Bay, has successfully challenged uranium mining and its lobbyists for the last five decades. In the 1970s, it worked closely with organizations such as Inuit Tapirisat of Canada after increased mineral exploration activity in the region. In the 1980s, Scottie and local residents formed the Baker Lake Concerned Citizens Committee and opposed efforts by the German company Urangesellschaft to build the Kiggavik mine in the hunting grounds west of Baker Lake. In 2007, she and others formed Nunavummiut Makitagunarningit, which protested the Nunavut government’s support for uranium mining in the territory. Published in the exemplary “Contemporary Studies on the North” series, I Will Live for Both of Us recounts the history of this effective and organized opposition from Scottie’s unique perspective while situating the conflict within her own family history and the broader colonialist relationship between Inuit and the government of Canada. Elder Joan Scottie is candid, unapologetic, and a fearless leader of her people. She follows in the tradition of other highly respected Canadian Indigenous women, including Sheila Watt Cloutier from Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, who advocates fiercely for Inuit rights and writes powerfully about the effects of the climate crisis on Inuit communities (Watt-Cloutier, 2015), and environmental activist Tshaukuesh Elizabeth Penashue from Sheshatshiu, Labrador (Penashue, 2019). The resistance of the Qamani’tuaq Baker Lake community in opposing uranium mining projects remains the focal point of this book. However, it is Scottie’s perspective as an Inuit woman that is critical. The book is written in the first person and Scottie states in the introduction that she also writes about courageous Inuit women who resist oppression and colonization. She unflinchingly examines the role of women in Inuit society and is frank about domestic violence and other difficult issues. The book is titled I Will Live for Both of Us after Scottie’s vow to an older sister (to whom the book is dedicated), who perished as a result of female infanticide—a historically accepted practice in Inuit communities, where males were valued over females. These deeply troubling issues are sensitively explored in the first two chapters of the book, in which Scottie also shares her upbringing on the land and the trauma she and others experienced after being sent away to residential school. But, importantly, this book documents Inuit resistance not only to colonialist practices but also to the companies, organizations, and governments that would aggressively promote a uranium mine without engaging and securing the support of the local community. It is also the act of resistance of an outspoken female activist, leader, and powerful female hunter, who in her own life defies traditional gender roles within Inuit society. As Scottie documents, traditional Inuit society is often based loosely on a complementary division of labour, based on gender roles. Scottie challenges these roles in her own life by daring to speak out publicly by confronting the formidable power bloc represented by mining companies and the national government and by becoming a skilled and respected hunter in her own territory. This book is the result of a collaborative project between Elder Joan Scottie and her two co-authors, academics Bernauer and Hicks. The authors …