Black-Inuk woman traces history of Black settlers in the North in pursuit of answers to racial divisions today – CBC

May 01, 2026

Jaelyn Jarrett believes Black and white settlers had very different experiences in the North

Jaelyn Jarrett remembers moving from Nain, N.L., to Ontario as an eight-year-old when she started being called a ‘Puatugi’.

“I didn’t really understand what that term meant at the time, but I knew people would reference my hair, and so I figured that it meant black,” she said.

After conversations with her grandmother, Jarrett discovered that word meant Portuguese. She wondered why she — a Black-Inuk woman with Guyanese roots — was being referred to as Portuguese.

Read More: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/black-inuk-woman-whalers-history-nunavut-9.7183679