ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the history of the illu, a communal family house structure common to the Inuit of the Eastern Arctic, and its transformation among Kalaallit (Greenlandic Inuit) in the midst of changing colonial structures of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Once a seasonal winter home, the illu slowly became a site of permanent year-round habitation as Kalaallit families survived the colonization of their homelands by the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway (since 1721) and the imposition of Lutheran Christianity. As imperial demands shifted their exploitation of Indigenous labor from whaling to sealing, colonizers also attempted to transform the energies of the Kalaallit home from blubber to coal. We explore how the Kalaallit expressed varied responses to the transformation of their built environment, from subtle resistance to complex compliance. In doing so, we emphasize that the Inuit were always active agents of their homes and communities despite the dictates of colonialism and the agendas of missionaries.
