![\"black](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1777663753_875_default.jpg\")
A photo by Captain George Comer, estimated between 1897 and 1899, showing the crew on deck of a whaling schooner. Brass Lopes is believed to be in the far right of this photograph. (Mystic Seaport Museum)<\/p>\nJaelyn Jarrett remembers moving from Nain, N.L., to Ontario as an eight-year-old when she started being called a \u2018Puatugi\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
After conversations with her grandmother, Jarrett discovered that word meant Portuguese. She wondered why she \u2014 a Black-Inuk woman with Guyanese roots \u2014 was being referred to as Portuguese.<\/p>\n
That memory led the Carleton University master\u2019s student on a journey to trace the origin of the word, where she came across Canadian historian Kenn Harper\u2019s Names We Call Each Other.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The book explains many of the whalers in the Arctic were Black men from Cape Verde \u2014 islands located off the west coast of Africa once colonized by Portugal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many Cape Verdeans emigrated to the United States starting in the 1800s, particularly to coastal towns with thriving whaling ports like New Bedford, Massachusetts. From there, some Cape Verdean men joined whaling ships travelling to the Hudson\u2019s Bay and Cumberland Sound.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A photo by Captain George Comer, estimated between 1897 and 1899, showing the crew on deck of a whaling schooner. Brass Lopes is believed to be in the far right of this photograph. (Mystic Seaport Museum)<\/p>\n
Those Black whalers were then referred to by Inuit as \u2018Puatugi\u2019, which was adapted from the word Portuguese to flow better in Inuktitut.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While Black whalers did head North for economic pursuits, Jarrett believes those men had very different experiences than their white counterparts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“They were able to get opportunities to come to the North and make money, but they were still under the confines of racism and colonialism,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She thinks many people don’t realize that part of Nunavut\u2019s history, which she believes could offer answers to the racial divide that exists to this day.<\/p>\n
Racial segregation<\/p>\n
At the time, Inuit were being moved around like human flag poles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But there were also fearmongering narratives about Black men \u2014 who travelled North largely for the fur trade, military expansion, and whaling \u2014 which are documented in numerous reports.<\/p>\n
![\"woman](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1777663754_598_default.jpg\")
From left to right: Ikualak, Leopold (Leopu), and Attuat, taking a break from hunting. (Submitted by Noel Kaludjak)<\/p>\n![\"family](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1777663754_66_default.jpg\")
From left to right: Iima Arngaq as a child with her mother Pasha Arngaq, uncle Adamie Philie, grandmother Jessica Arngaq, and grandfather Pierre Philie. (Submitted by Iima Arngaq)<\/p>\n![\"family,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1777663755_565_default.jpg\")
A childhood photo of Jaelyn Jarrett’s family from left to right: Jaelyn Jarrett, mother Holly Jarrett, sister Jasmyn Jarrett Onalik as a baby, and sister Jordyn Jarrett. (Submitted by Jaelyn Jarrett)<\/p>\n