An invitation to consider the different facets, as well as the significance, of adoption within Inuit culture, Marie-Hélène Cousineau, in collaboration with Mary Kunuk, articulates in Unakuluk, Dear Little One her own experience with various women's stories and experiences. Following the same pattern as the connections revealed by the women's web, their words highlight the complexity and diversity of the bonds generated by the Inuit adoption process. Here, adoption is not synonymous with separation and the unspoken, it does not follow a unilateral model of motherhood, it generates new relationships, reshapes the family unit without necessarily implying its ablation. Unakuluk, Dear Little One also subtly refers us to the strength of the norms and preconceptions internalized with regard to this sometimes sensitive, even taboo subject, and to the nature of the relationships, ultimately very little questioned, that it establishes in our societies. Biological family, adoptees, adopters, these protagonists’ words, mixed with those of the filmmaker, play, through their diversity and intimacy, the role of guide and crystallize the importance of adoption in the experience and family representations of the Inuit.

Yulia Kaiava
Tënk's editorial assistant
and urban planning student