Kitikmeot mourns Peter Kamingoak

CAMBRIDGE BAY — People in Kugluktuk and throughout the Kitikmeot region of Nunavut are mourning the death of Peter Kamingoak, 87, who died at his home in Kugluktuk Feb. 17.

As a young man, Kamingoak served as a guide to Anglican missionaries J.H. Webster and John Sperry, also teaching them how to run dog teams and live on the land. In the 1950s, after paddling down the Coppermine River, Canada’s future prime minister Pierre Trudeau asked Kamingoak to serve as his interpreter in Coppermine, the settlement now known as Kugluktuk.

Kamingoak said Trudeau spent three or four days in the community, which then consisted of tents and makeshift cabins.

“He said he was going to do something [to change that] and he did. Look how we are today, living like kings, in nice warm houses,” Kamingoak told News North in 2002.

Kamingoak also worked for political change in his own region. In 1966, Kamingoak complained to Stuart Hodgson, the first commissioner of the Northwest Territories about the shortfalls in procedures during territory’s first election.

Then, the deposit for candidates was fixed at $200 — at a time when the average annual income for Inuit was $426, notes the 2007 book, Nunavut: Rethinking Political Culture, by Ailsa Henderson.

Taking inflation into account, that deposit today would amount would amount to about $6,200.

But that wasn’t the only hurdle to Inuit participation in 1966, according to a story related in Nunavut: Rethinking Political Culture.

After the elections, Kamingoak wrote Hodgson a telegram, criticizing the election procedures. Kamingoak said he would have run for office, but that there was insufficient information provided.

Kamingoak said that, with the exception of one sign posted in English, there was no public information available. And that sign gave no information about how to become a candidate, he said.

There were no notices of election, no nomination papers available and the returning officer didn’t visit the community, he said.

“I protest apparent indifference in informing Eskimo and white population Coppermine and Holman Island about election which resulted in acclamation of individual unknown in this area,” Kamingoak wrote.

Hodgson forwarded the telegram to the regional administrator, saying that because Kamingoak had said that he wanted to run, “that expression of interest was likely seen as tantamount to a formal nomination.”

But the returning officer said because Kamingoak hadn’t filled papers, it looked as if he had changed his mind. The administrator said Kamingoak should have known what to do and chastised him for complaining directly to Hodgson.

“The only reason we know about this event is likely the result of Kamingoak’s ability to dictate a telegram in English,” says Nunavut: Rethinking Political Culture. “The operation of elections in the Eastern Arctic shows that an inflexible approach to the rules governing political behaviour was more exclusive to Inuit than it might have been.”

Kamingoak continued lobbying for political change throughout his life, and was later elected to positions in Inuit organizations, including Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and the Kitikmeot Inuit Asssociation.

Mary Simon, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, issued a statement Feb. 18, saying she and ITK join Inuit in grieving the loss of Kamingoak.

“Peter Kamingoak worked in the formation of Inuit Tapirisat of Canada 40 years ago. He was politically active all his adult life,” she said. “Peter will be missed by Inuit.”

Kamingoak leaves his wife, 13 children, 42 grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren.