Mikak

Mikak (c. 1740 – October 1, 1795), also known as Micock, Mycock, or Mecock, was born in Labrador, Canada and died at Nain, Newfoundland and Labrador. She was one of several Inuit to travel to Europe in the 18th century and return to North America, although many Inuit who had travelled to Europe subsequently died from diseases, especially smallpox, before returning.^[1]^[2]

Mikak arrived in England with Newfoundland governor Hugh Palliser in November 1768 alongside her son and a young Inuit man called Karpik, having been captured during a skirmish with colonial seal-fur merchants in August of the previous year. Three Englishmen had been attempting to steal oil from Inuit stores, and were killed when discovered. This sparked a bloody combat, led by naval officer Francis Lucas, with twenty Inuit men being massacred that day, and four more being killed the following morning, including Mikak's husband. Mikak and her son Tutauk were captured during this latter encounter.^[3]^[4]^[5]

Whilst captured, Mikak endeared herself to Palliser, Lucas and a missionary called Jens Haven, who together realised the political and diplomatic opportunity she presented. ^[6]Their plan, in short, was to calm ongoing hostilities with local Inuit by showing her kindness, and the apparent riches and generosity on offer in England. Bringing her to England, and retuning her safely home, would (they thought) demonstrate the magnanimity of the colonial occupation in Labrador. Haven also hoped that he could preach Moravianism to her, and she could then in turn spread the religion to her fellow Inuit.

She would eventually return to Labrador alongside Haven in 1770, working as a diplomatic emissary as envisaged. She had a relationship with a second husband Tugalvina, though he quickly abandoned her for other women, including her own sister. Ultimately, she struck up a long-term relationship with one of Tugalvina's lovers' spurned husbands, a man named Pualo. In the latter decades of her life, any enmity towards the English who had captured her had faded to a such a degree that Tutauk himself had taken to using the name 'Palliser', after their captor. And though both she and Tutauk did (by Moravian accounts) profess belief in Christ, being baptised shortly before her death in 1795, she did so syncretically, never abandoning their own cultural practices and beliefs.^[7]^[8]

References

^ Whiteley, William H. (2003). "Mikak". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Retrieved January 11, 2024.
^ Stopp, M.; Mitchell, G. (December 2010). "'Our Amazing Visitors': Catherine Cartwright's Account of Labrador Inuit in England". Arctic. 63 (4): 399–413. doi:10.14430/arctic3330. JSTOR 20799621.
^ Rollman, Hans (2015). "English-Inuit hostilities at Cape Charles (Labrador) in 1767". Études/Inuit/Studies. 39 (1): 189–199.
^ Rollman, Hans (2011). ""So fond of the pleasure to shoot": The sale of firearms to Inuit on Labrador's North Coast in the Late Eighteenth Century". Newfoundland and Labrador Studies. 26 (1): 1719–1726.
^ Anonymous (1833). The Moravians in Labrador. Edinburgh: J. Ritchie. p. 75.
^ Taylor, J. Garth (Winter 1983). "The Two Worlds of Mikak". The Beaver. p. 8.
^ Lodder, Matt (2022). Painted People. London: William Collins. pp. 87–96. ISBN 9780008402105.
^ Benham, Daniel (1856). Memoirs of James Hutton. London: Hamilton, Adams Co. p. 448.