Narwhals for All Seasons: Representation, Evasion and Absence

Narwhals have endured and thrived in their sea-ice environment for at least the past one million years, living in familial pods and following established seasonal migration patterns within the Arctic Ocean. However, they remain a cryptic group of marine animals, avoiding contact with humans, sensitive to oceanic disturbances, with little known about the details of their social and cultural lives. In addition to scientific research, narwhals have also been subjected to Indigenous and Western cultural representation, both historically and in contemporary contexts. While these representations have contrasted markedly with biological interpretations of narwhals, they have proved to be enduring to the point that many people are unsure of the habitat, physiology or even the existence of the elusive marine mammals. Narwhals have been culturally implicated in human lives in ways that conflict with or deny their watery ontology, knowledge and perspectives, or indeed the need to protect their environment. In considering the human and nonhuman cultural relationships that narwhals are a part of, this chapter reflects on how these relationships contribute to narwhal endangerment, and thinks through ways of making space and time for narwhals and their Arctic cohabitants.