The Territories
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Portuguese Presence in The Territories: #Jonathan-Sousa-Nunavut
COMBINED POPULATION OF NUNAVUT, NORTHWEST TERRITORIES, AND YUKON: 128,090
COMBINED STATISTICS FOR THE PORTUGUESE IN THE TERRITORIES:
| AS MOTHER TONGUE | AS MOST SPOKEN | KNOWLEDGE OF THE LANGUAGE | BORN IN PORTUGAL | ETHNIC ORIGIN |
| 45 0.03% of population | 5 0.001% of population | 120 0.1% of population | 10 0.008% of population | 390 0.3% of population |
STATISTICS BY TERRITORY
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
POPULATION: 45,515
STATISTICS FOR THE PORTUGUESE IN THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES:
| AS MOTHER TONGUE | AS MOST SPOKEN | KNOWLEDGE OF THE LANGUAGE | BORN IN PORTUGAL | ETHNIC ORIGIN |
| 25 0.05% of population | 5 0.01% of population | 55 0.1% of population | 0 0% of population | 205 0.4% of population |
YUKON
POPULATION: 42,986
STATISTICS FOR THE PORTUGUESE IN YUKON:
| AS MOTHER TONGUE | AS MOST SPOKEN | KNOWLEDGE OF THE LANGUAGE | BORN IN PORTUGAL | ETHNIC ORIGIN |
| 15 0.03% of population | 0 0% of population | 55 0.1% of population | 10 0.02% of population | 70 0.2% of population |
NUNAVUT
POPULATION: 39,589
STATISTICS FOR THE PORTUGUESE IN NUNAVUT:
| AS MOTHER TONGUE | AS MOST SPOKEN | KNOWLEDGE OF THE LANGUAGE | BORN IN PORTUGAL | ETHNIC ORIGIN |
| 5 0.01% of population | 0 0% of population | 10 0.02% of population | 0 0% of population | 115 0.3% of population |
A YOUNG PORTUGUESE-CANADIAN CALLS IQALUIT HOME
February, 2022
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Located in the Everett Mountains, Iqaluit (meaning ‘Place of Many Fish’) is the most northern city in Canada. Relatively unknown before the division of the Northwest Territories, it quickly became popular when it was elected the Capital of the newly formed Territory of Nunavut, in 1999. Without connecting roads and only accessible by air or water, Iqaluit, mainly inhabited by the Inuit, is not a traditional destination for those who chose Canada as their new home. However, among the nearly eight thousand people who reside here lives Jonathan Sousa, a young descendant of Portuguese who has called the Territory home for the past three years.
From an early age, Jonathan Sousa had decided that his career would be in the field of law enforcement, but he had no idea that he would become an officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). “I became an RCMP officer in 2014. I was in the military as a reserve before joining. I was looking into law enforcement. I put in applications for the Toronto Police Services, but when my application to the RCMP got accepted, I just went through all the phases, I just kept passing,” Jonathan told us during a telephone conversation in February of 2022.
His first post was in Blackfalds, a small rural community in the outskirts of Red Deer, Alberta. “I was posted there for four years and I just started getting interested in coming up north while my [children were] still young. I came up here and my family has been here ever since,” he said. His first post in Nunavut was in a community of 1,600 called Pangnirtung where he stayed for two years before relocating to Iqaluit with his wife and three children.
Working in small communities, where relationships with the locals are naturally formed, can get a little complicated but, nonetheless, Sousa has been able to make it work. “In a small community, you’re seen as the police officer and that’s the identity you take. You’re always the police officer. People would walk into my house, people would see me at the grocery store, and it’s a good thing when they trust you,” he said. However, Iqaluit is a big enough town where he is able to mingle as one of the citizens, even though his appearance is different from that of most locals.
“In Iqaluit, people don’t know I am a police officer because it’s a town of eight thousand. So, it’s quite different here. Here, there are other cultures. A lot of French people. There is a small community from East Africa. There are a lot of Filipinos too,” Jonathan informed before throwing us an unexpected surprise: “I played in a basketball league and I found another Portuguese. He’s actually a teenager who goes to school here and his family is Portuguese.”
Although Jonathan was born in Canada, Portuguese culture was a very important part of his upbringing. His father, who hails from Graciosa, and his mother, who comes from Terceira, spoke the language at home and attended Graciosa Community Centre’s weekly gatherings with family in tow. “I do feel connected to my Portuguese culture. Growing up in Toronto, it was a very small community that my parents and my family were active in. We would go to Graciosa [Community Centre] every Saturday. It was a big part of my growing up. I wasn’t in the dances and the folklore [but] I was there watching. I don’t speak Portuguese at home anymore, but I’m able to speak it and get by. I identify first and foremost as Canadian, but the topic [of my Portuguese heritage] seems to come out a lot at my work because it’s very different from most people’s background at the RCMP. It is who I am and, obviously, people are going to get interested when I meet them. So, I try to bring some of that culture, usually in regards to food. Chouriço, linguiça, queijadas or natas, and I share those with other people,” he said.
As we evolve as a community, so does our level of assimilation into the general culture. This is already having a significant impact on our own Portuguese social and cultural organizations due to the dwindling interest from the descendants of those who arrived here looking for a better life. Jonathan Sousa is an example of that reality. “As people assimilate, it shifts and you lose a piece of the culture from your ancestors. […] The kids of my generation, they just don’t go to the club anymore, they lose interest. I don’t know if there will be sustainability in those clubs even existing anymore because I don’t know if there would be any interest in them,” he somberly stated.
Jonathan Sousa’s wife is not Portuguese but, even then, he makes an effort to instill in his children parts of the heritage passed on to him by his parents. He recently visited Portugal with his family and, at home, he tries to teach the Portuguese language to his children.
He just signed on to another two-year contract to stay posted as an RCMP officer in Iqaluit. Save for the family of the teenager who plays in the local basketball league, Jonathan Sousa seems to be the sole Luso-Canadian residing in this isolated artic city. However, after an interesting revelation from Sousa at the end of our conversation, this theory still needs to be tested.
“The grocery store up here, for some reason, sells natas. I don’t know what that’s about. Maybe there is more to it than I know,” he said.
Perhaps there is. We are eager to find out.
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