Taamusi Qumaq

Taamusi Qumaq, CM CQ (January 1, 1914 – July 13, 1993) was an Inuit historian, linguist, writer, politician and elder from Nunavik, Quebec, Canada, who contributed to the preservation of the Inuit language and traditional culture. Despite lacking any formal schooling, Qumaq published two seminal works on the Inuit culture: a 30,000-word comprehensive Inuktitut dictionary and an encyclopedia on Inuit traditional customs and knowledge. He was fluent in Inuktitut only.

He understood Canadian and Quebec institutions and worked for their integration into Inuit lifestyle for the betterment of his community. He was a founding member of the first non-governmental co-op in the Canadian Arctic, in 1956 in Povungnituk. After contributing to the establishment of Rankin Inlet in the Northwest Territories, he returned to Povungnituk in 1960 and founded its first village council and acted as its chair from 1962 to 1968.

From 1972 to 1977, he was a vocal opponent of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement and the leader of Inuit Tungavingat Nunamini, a movement opposing the signature of the land claims settlement by the Northern Quebec Inuit Association. In 1983 he took part to the Quebec commissions on Aboriginal rights and on Nouveau-Québec’s self-government.

In 2010, Presses de l'Université du Québec published his autobiography translated in French, Je veux que les Inuit soient libres de nouveau (I want Inuit to be free again). The autobiography was later re-released as a bilingual version in French and Inuktitut in 2020.^[1]