Until recently, most residents of Puvirnituq, an Inuit settlement in Northern Quebec, made their living off the land. Successful hunting, fishing, trapping and gathering, so vital to people’s survival, were underpinned by the expectation that food should be shared. As the Inuit moved into – both forced and voluntary – they have had to incorporate the workings of a monetized economy into their own notions of how to operate as a society. Quoting local residents and drawing upon academic literature, the author documents the experiences of an Inuit community as they wrestle with how to accommodate their belief in a sharing economy with the demands of market forces.

Educated in Canada, Nicole Gombay teaches Geography at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Her research has, in various ways, been linked to the experience of Indigenous people living in the context of a settler society, placing a particular emphasis on the impacts of the inclusion of Indigenous populations in the political and economic institutions associated with the state. The context for her research has been in the Arctic, with a particular emphasis on Inuit populations in Canada. Nicole is currently involved in two research projects in Nunavik, in northern Quebec. The first project is related to poaching, and the second is related to Inuit entrepreneurs.

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