Million-dollar project to document Inuit leadership

“Inuit culture, language and history are critical components to Nunavut’s governance.”

By GABRIEL ZARATE

Gary Goodyear, federal Minister of State of Science and Technology, announced Aug. 30 that Ottawa will spend $1 million over 6 years to help Arctic College and Laval University research and document the history of Inuit leadership in Nunavut and Nunavik. (PHOTO BY GABRIEL ZARATE)


Gary Goodyear, federal Minister of State of Science and Technology, announced Aug. 30 that Ottawa will spend $1 million over 6 years to help Arctic College and Laval University research and document the history of Inuit leadership in Nunavut and Nunavik. (PHOTO BY GABRIEL ZARATE)

The federal government is putting $1 million into documenting the history of leadership among Inuit communities.

Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for Science and Technology, made the announcement at Nunavut Arctic College’s Nunatta Campus in Iqaluit on Aug. 30.

“As has been demonstrated over the past eleven years since the territory was created, Inuit culture, language and history are critical components to Nunavut’s governance,” Goodyear said.

The six-year research project, entitled “Northern Communities: Towards Social and Economic Prosperity,” will continue Arctic College’s series of biographical books of important Inuit leaders.

Goodyear said the project would “build a body of knowledge on Canadian Inuit leaders and will be used to educate and inspire young Inuit across the North.”

Previous subjects of such work included John Amagoalik, Peter Ittinuar, Paul Okalik and Paul Quassa, among others.

The next such book will be called Inuit Women in Leadership and Governance, to be released in mid-September, said Nunavut Arctic College president Dan Vandermeulen.

“I expect to see more of the kind of volumes you can already buy at Arctic Ventures,” Vandermeulen said.

Such books, he explained, often quickly become part of the reading materials used in Arctic College classes.

The project will also document traditional strategies of governance in Inuit communities, researched through interviews with elders in Nunavut and Nunavik.

The project is a collaboration between Laval University and Nunavut Arctic College.

Another aspect of the project is to employ young Inuit as researchers, which creates a local capacity for research, said Louis McComber, a Laval University professor, in a video message.

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