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Armand Tagoona and the Arctic Christian Fellowship: The first Inuit church in Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 June 2019

Frédéric Laugrand  and
Pascale Laneuville
Frédéric Laugrand
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Université Laval, Pavillon Charles-De Koninck, Local 3417, 1030 Avenue des Sciences-Humaines, Québec G1V 0A6, Canada
Pascale Laneuville*
Affiliation:
Sentinel North Research Chair on Relations with Inuit Societies, Université Laval, Pavillon Charles-De Koninck, Local 0450-L, 1030 Avenue des Sciences-Humaines, Québec G1V 0A6, Canada
*
Author for correspondence: Pascale Laneuville, Email: pascale.laneuville@gmail.com
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Abstract

Armand Tagoona (1926–1991) was born in Naujaat (Repulse Bay, Northwest Territories) in 1926, from an Inuk mother and a German father. Born as a Roman Catholic, he converted to Anglicanism. In 1969, he founded a new independent religious group affiliated to the Anglican Church in Qamani’tuaq (Baker Lake, Northwest Territories): the Arctic Christian Fellowship (ACF). In this paper, we examine his life briefly as well as this very first “Inuit church” he created. We argue that Tagoona played the role of a mediator encompassing various religious traditions and various cultures at a time when solid boundaries separated all these institutions. In bridging them, Tagoona’s church turned to be very innovative and aimed at more religious autonomy, while being fundamentally guided by the words of God. Tagoona’s church carries conversionist, reformist and utopian aspects at the same time.

Keywords

ArcticInuitTagoonaChristianityInculturationShamanismReligious movements
Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 55 , Issue 2 , March 2019 , pp. 72 - 81
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019 

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