Nunavut mourns Bobby Kadlun, land claims negotiator

Bobby Kadlun, pictured here in this undated file photo, died this past weekend at 61. (FILE PHOTO)

Bobby Kadlun, one of Nunavut’s most tenacious land claim negotiators, has died.

Kadlun died this past weekend in his hometown, the western Nunavut community of Kugluktuk. He was 61.

In an Aug. 4 statement, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. called Kadlun’s commitment to Inuit rights “fearless.”

“From his beginnings with the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada and the guiding role he played in the formation and leadership of the Tungavik Federation of Nunavut, Bobby had a reputation as being a negotiator who got what he wanted,” said NTI president Cathy Towtongie.

“He was my personal friend and I often thought about his negotiating skills,” she said. “His efforts ensured that Inuit have a territory to call home.”

Kadlun left a job on oil drilling rigs in the mid-1970s to work for Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, which at the time had started land claims negotiations with the federal government.

He was only 24 when he began working as a negotiator at the regional level, in the Kitikmeot, where he later went on to serve as president of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association.

By 1982, Kadlun and his colleagues went on to form the Tunngavik Federation of Nunavut — the forerunner to Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. — whose sole mandate was to negotiate the Nunavut land claims agreement.

As part of NTI’s oral history project, interviewer Holly Dobbins spoke to Kadlun in 2004, asking him about that time in his career.

‘When we started TFN, do you know what it stood for?” Kadlun asked his interviewer. “Tough F*ckin’ Negotiators.”

Kadlun, known for his humour and determination, said he learned his negotiating skilling “on the job.”

In an introduction to her transcribed interview, Dobbins notes that “one thing that a simple transcript cannot capture is the mischievousness that exudes from the man, that and humour,” she wrote.

“His wit is dry, and he’s a master storyteller who uses his hands, face and body to tell a story as much as he uses his words.”

During the 2004 interview, Dobbins described Kadlun as thin from illness: a suicide attempt in the 1990s had weakened him and forced him to pull away from his work.

But Kadlun made clear his love of politics and the land he grew up in.

“To get a good deal you’ve got to encourage political changes as well, right, especially if the [federal government] wants extinguishment [of rights],” he said in the 2004 interview.

“I was totally, totally opposed to extinguishment. If you want extinguishment, then we’ve got to change it. And basically, that’s the deal right. It kind of happened in that way.”

“So, signing it, did you think you had done a good deal?” asked his interviewer.

“Yeah,” he replied. “We got Nunavut, eh?”

“What do you want people to remember the most about you?” Dobbins asked later on in the interview.

“I’ve never thought about it,” Kadlun replied.

“Shall I tell you what other people have told me about you? ‘One of the most steady guys,’ ‘Sharp as a tack’ or ‘probably one of the smartest negotiators,’” she said.

“Sounds pretty good,” Kadlun said.

A funeral service for Kadlun was to be held in Kugluktuk Aug. 5.