The Inuit of Labrador/Nunatsiavut, the Moravian Brethren, and Connections with French-Speaking Switzerland

• Published in: Journal of the North Atlantic 2010-12, Vol.3 (1), p.24-30
• Main Authors: Demarée, Gaston R, Ogilvie, Astrid E.J, Csonka, Yvon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: s
• ISSN: 1935-1933; 1935-1984; 1935-1933
• DOI: 10.3721/037.003.0106

In this paper, contacts between the Moravian Brethren of French-speaking Switzerland, the Moravian missionaries, and the Inuit Christian converts in Labrador are described. The role of the missionary journals, the annual collection of gifts for the missions, and, more specifically, the role of Jean-Louis Micheli, philanthropist and member of Eglise évangélique de Genève are considered. It will be shown that interactions between these varied elements have been instrumental in the development of a number of scientific fields, in particular: meteorology, climatology, and phenology, as well as ethnography, and that important contributions to these fields resulted. The Labrador origin of certain items in the collection of the Musée d'Ethnographie in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, whose provenance has appeared unclear, is suggested on the basis of these historical and cultural interactions between Labrador/Nunatsiavut, the missionaries, and the Moravian Brethren in French-speaking Switzerland.