Edmonton Inuit re-start local org with Christmas feast

Norma Dunning, vice president of the newly formed Inuit Edmontonmiut, says getting newcomers settled, especially post-secondary students and people visiting on medical travel, is one of the priorities of the new urban Inuit organization in Alberta’s capital. (PHOTO BY ALEX BOYD)

Special to Nunatsiaq News

EDMONTON — For Meeka Otway, moving to Edmonton was more than just coming to a new city. It meant leaving a way of life behind.

“When you’re coming from an Inuit region, you’re leaving your family who have helped you raise your children or who have helped in every which way that you can think of,” she said of her relocation to Alberta’s capital 23 years ago.

“When you move to a city, there’s no help,” Otway said.

If some transplanted Edmontonians have their way, that’s about to change.

On Dec. 19 a group of Edmonton Inuit will come together for their first Christmas feast to celebrate the season and the creation of a new group.

That group has big plans to provide a gathering place and act as a voice for the growing community. Its members are calling the group “Inuit Edmontonmiut” for now.

For Otway, Inuit Edmontonmiut was born of memories from her first few years in Edmonton — and of not knowing any other Inuit in the city.

As president of the new organization, Otway said she hopes the new group will make sure newcomers to the city don’t feel as alone and disoriented as she did.

There’s a political element as well — part of the motivation involved a chance to weigh in on the national urban Inuit strategy currently in the works, Otway said.

Among the Inuit Edmontonmiut’s first official acts was to send a delegation to the meeting of southern Inuit groups held last month by the Inuit Tungasuvvingat organization in Ottawa. Representatives from TI will also be coming to Edmonton in early January to meet with the group.

“Urban Inuit have to start having voices,” Otway said, comparing the experience of an Inuk coming south to an immigrant newly arrived in Canada.

But while new immigrants have plenty of services to draw upon, Inuit in Edmonton have no Inuit-specific services in place.

Otway said she hopes this new group — and the new strategy — will change that.

“I’m hoping as we get bigger, we get a bigger voice,” she said.

While Edmonton isn’t usually thought of as a major centre for Inuit, that has already changed.

According to Statistics Canada 1,115 Inuit lived in Edmonton as of 2011, giving this city one of the largest per capita urban Inuit populations in southern Canada.

The new board of the Edmontonmiut has only eight members, but they represent a cross-section from the Inuit community, Otway said. There are people from Nunavut, Nunavik and the Northwest Territories. There’s an elder and several university students.

“I’m the most proud of the fact that we have every Inuit region on our board,” Otway said. “I am really excited about that.”

One thing that draws Inuit to Edmonton are post-secondary institutions such as the University of Alberta which offers a transitional year so students can ease into an undergraduate program.

Norma Dunning, the new group’s vice president, was one of the those drawn south by educational opportunities. For Dunning, a PhD student specializing in Indigenous Peoples Education, the move from the tiny Nunavut hamlet of Whale Cove to a city of almost a million people was disorienting.

“I didn’t know that stores stayed open late,” Dunning said, laughing at the memory. When she arrived 25 years ago, just getting around the city was intimidating.

Dunning said she sees supporting new university students as being a priority for the new group. As well, Inuit in town for medical services often require support and translation services.

To that list of priorities, Otway adds the need for more arts and culture programming, a childcare centre and a medical centre.

“There’s a lot of things that are lacking for Inuit here,” she said.

Right now, their biggest limitation: funding, the same problem that challenged past Inuit groups in the city.

But Dunning said she is optimistic that this time is different. TI’s national strategy has highlighted the issue, technology has made it easier to connect people, and, “there’s a passion that I think will carry this group,” she said.

While they’ve got a lot to do to bring their plans to life, right now it’s enough to have a reason for urban Inuit to gather where once there wasn’t.

“It’s just being around your own, that’s all there is to it,” Dunning said. “It’s being in the presence of each other.”