Edmund James Peck (April 15, 1850 – September 10, 1924), known in
Inuktitut as ''Uqammaq'' (one who talks well),
[''Apostle to the Inuit: The Journals and Ethnographic Notes of Edmund James Peck, The Baffin Years, 1894-1905'', edited by Frédéric Laugrand, Jarich Oosten and François Trudel. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006.](_blank)
was an
Anglican missionary in the
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
North on the Quebec coast of Hudson Bay and on
Baffin Island. He founded the first permanent mission on Baffin Island, Nunavut. He developed
Inuktitut syllabics, derived from the
Cree syllabary
Cree syllabics are the versions of Canadian Aboriginal syllabics used to write Cree dialects, including the original syllabics system created for Cree and Ojibwe. There are two main varieties of syllabics for Cree: Western Cree syllabics and ...
and the first substantial
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
-
Inuktitut dictionary.
His diaries provide an account of the daily life and work of the early missionaries in Baffin Island. Peck conducted extensive research on Inuit oral traditions and presents several detailed verbatim accounts of shamanic traditions and practices. His work contributes to the understanding of Inuit culture and history. His ethnographic data was collected at the request of famed anthropologist
Franz Boas in 1897.
Early life (1850–1876)
Edmund James Peck was born April 15, 1850 in
Rusholme, England. His mother and father died before his teen years. At fifteen, he joined the Royal Navy. By the age of 25 he had served on the
Ajax
Ajax may refer to:
Greek mythology and tragedy
* Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea
* Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris
* ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Gree ...
,
Impregnable, Caledonia, Excellent and the
Hector
In Greek mythology, Hector (; grc, Ἕκτωρ, Hektōr, label=none, ) is a character in Homer's Iliad. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. Hector led the Trojans and their allies in the defense o ...
. On the Hector, he organized prayer groups for the crew.
In 1875, he studied Greek and theology at the Reading Institute of the
Church Missionary Society
The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British mission society working with the Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as mission ...
in
Islington, England. In the Spring of the next year,
John Horden
John Horden (January 20, 1828Long, John S. (2003) ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography'', vol. 12. University of Toronto/Université Laval. Retrieved 2013-12-10. – January 12, 1893) was the first Anglican Bishop of Moosonee, Canada, who for more ...
, the Bishop of
Moose Factory
Moose Factory is a community in the Cochrane District, Ontario, Canada. It is located on Moose Factory Island, near the mouth of the Moose River, which is at the southern end of James Bay. It was the first English-speaking settlement in lands n ...
, recruited him for mission work in
Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...
.
Little Whale River (1876–1886)
Edmund Peck left England for Canada in June 1876. During the three-month trip he studied the
Inuit
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...
language of
Inuktitut. He used a Moravian Inuktitut New Testament and compared it to the English Bible. In this way he learned the meaning of Inuktitut words. He arrived at Moose Factory, James Bay, September 1, 1876. From there he traveled to the Hudson Bay Company post at the mouth of the
Little Whale River
The Little Whale River (french: Petite rivière de la Baleine; cr, Wâpamekustûss, italic=yes) is a river in Nunavik, Quebec, Canada. With an area of , it is ranked as the 35th largest river basin in Quebec.
The Cree named a segment of the L ...
in what is now Northern Quebec. He arrived there on October 24, 1876.
Syllabics
In the 1840s, Methodist missionary
James Evans, located at
Norway House, Manitoba
Norway House is a population centre of over 5,000 people, some north of Lake Winnipeg, on the bank of the eastern channel of Nelson River, in the province of Manitoba, Canada. The population centre shares the name ''Norway House'' with the north ...
, created a syllabic writing system for the Ojibwe and Cree. A few years later, in the 1850s, Anglican Bishop
John Horden
John Horden (January 20, 1828Long, John S. (2003) ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography'', vol. 12. University of Toronto/Université Laval. Retrieved 2013-12-10. – January 12, 1893) was the first Anglican Bishop of Moosonee, Canada, who for more ...
and Missionary E.A. Watkins, adapted Evans' Cree syllabic orthography to Inuktitut. Watkins' introduced the syllabic writing system to Inuit at Fort George and Little Whale River in 1855, and that same year Horden printed a small book of scripture verses in syllables on his press at Moose Factory. In 1865, Harden and Watkins met in conference in England and modified the syllabic system to allow a more precise rendering of both Inuktitut and Moose Cree.
Edmund Peck devoted his attention to the translation of scripture into Inuktitut using Horden and Watkins' orthography.
He transcribed extracts of New Testament and published them in 1878. In 1897, he published the four gospels. This was almost identical to an 1878 Labrador translation, the main difference being in the orthography. Peck translated the
1662 ''Book of Common Prayer'' in 1881. The New Testament was published in 1912 by the British and Foreign Bible Society. Psalms was published in 1917.
Peck's system was simple and easy for Inuit to learn. By the 1920s, it had spread widely among them. Mothers taught it to their children. The children, in turn, would teach each other. Most of the population could read and write it. They often wrote letters to each other and consequently pencil and pocket-books were in great demand.
The orthography of Horden, Watkins and Peck remained the Inuktitut standard for close to 100 years. In the 1970s, the Inuit Cultural Institute led in a major revision of the system.
Blacklead Island Mission (1894–1905)
In 1894 the whaling station on
Blacklead Island
Blacklead Island is a Baffin Island offshore islet located in the Arctic Archipelago in Nunavut's Qikiqtaaluk Region. It lies in Cumberland Sound, northwest of Kikiktaluk Island, approximately from Harrison Point and from Niante Harbour.
Histo ...
, in
Cumberland Sound
Cumberland Sound (french: Baie Cumberland; Inuit languages, Inuit: ''Kangiqtualuk'') is an Arctic waterway in Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is a western arm of the Labrador Sea located between Baffin Island's Hall Peninsula and the Cumbe ...
, was purchased by Mr. C. Noble and offered to Peck as an
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
mission
Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to:
Organised activities Religion
*Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity
*Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...
. His only communication with the outside world was a ship which, specially chartered, visited him once a year, brought him letters and supplies. With his colleague, Mr. Bilby, he built his own house and cooked his own meals. The settlement consisted of a church, a hospital and two dwelling-houses. The earliest church was made of seal-skin; it had to be replaced by a wooden structure, as it was devoured by the dogs.
Peck as ethnographer
While at Baffin Island's Blacklead Island mission, Peck carefully documented the lives of the Inuit.
Kenn Harper
Kenn Harper (aka ''Ilisaijikutaaq'', tall teacher) is a Canadian writer, historian and former businessman. He is the author of ''Give Me My Father's Body'', an account of Greenland Inuk Minik Wallace, had a regular column on Arctic history in ''Nun ...
observes, "Missionaries are not usually ethnographers. Most view their task as to eradicate, rather than document, the "heathen" beliefs of pre-Christian times. Peck might very well have fallen into this camp too, had it not been for the invitation of the pioneer anthropologist,
Franz Boas, to document for him the belief system of the Inuit, collect legends and write up shamanic rituals." Edmund Peck did this for Boas, but his ethnographic notes of Inuit life have sat largely untouched and unrecognized for over a century in the General Synod Archives of the
Anglican Church of Canada
The Anglican Church of Canada (ACC or ACoC) is the Ecclesiastical province#Anglican Communion, province of the Anglican Communion in Canada. The official French-language name is ''l'Église anglicane du Canada''. In 2017, the Anglican Church co ...
. They were finally published in 2006.
Ottawa (1905–1924)
In 1905, Peck and his family moved to Ottawa where he served as Superintendent of Arctic Missions. He traveled North occasionally on supply vessels in the summer.
See also
*
Bible translations into Eskimo-Aleut languages
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
*
Bible translations into Inupiat
The complete Bible has been translated into three of the dialects of Inupiat language (Greenland, Labrador and Inuktitut (East Arctic)), the New Testament in two more and portions in another.
The Ethnologue lists five major Inuit dialects: Easte ...
References
External links
*
10 September – Edmund James Peck (1850 – 1924), Priest & Missionary to the Inuit by Arthur Lewis, from
Project Canterbury Project Canterbury (sometimes abbreviated as PC) is an online archive of material related to the history of Anglicanism. It was founded by Richard Mammana, Jr. in 1999 with a grant from Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, and is ho ...
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peck, Edmund
Translators of the Bible into indigenous languages of the Americas
English Anglican missionaries
Anglican missionaries in Canada
Canadian lexicographers
1850 births
1924 deaths
Linguists from Canada
Missionary linguists
British expatriates in Canada