He still can’t speak Inuktitut for himself: translations and mistranslations in One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk (English)

by Candice Hopkins, July 2019

One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk recreates an encounter between Noah and "Boss," the government agent who Noah aptly calls Isumataq, which means ‘"thinks for us," in Inuktitut. Yet the most pivotal character in the video isn't Noah or Boss, but the man positioned between them. Evaluarjuk is the government-hired translator and Piugattuk's relative, who has the untenable role of translating a tense negotiation even when each man doesn't hear what the other has to say. As a character, Evaluarjuk embodies the contradictions of colonialism and the encounter with modern Inuit self-determination.