Inuit national leader to environmentalists: don’t put Inuit into a bind

ITK president Terry Audla speaking April 22 at an Earth Day event held at Ottawa City Hall. (PHOTO BY JIM BELL)

OTTAWA — Terry Audla, the president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, used an Earth Day event in Ottawa April 22 to remind environmentalists and researchers that misinformed Arctic environmental campaigns have inflicted serious damage on Inuit.

“Those unfamiliar with the Arctic may not be aware that Inuit have long faced the challenge of the impacts of misinformed and at times romanticized visions and views of the Arctic and of Inuit,” Audla said.

He made those remarks at a morning discussion forum held April 22 inside Jean Piggot Place at Ottawa City Hall, organized by the Canadian Climate Forum, the WWF Global Arctic Program and a U.S. group called Arctic 21.

Audla took the theme of that event — The Unravelling of the Arctic — and turned it on its head.

He said he wanted to talk not only about the impacts of human-induced climate change on Inuit but also “the very large burden and distressing bind for Inuit of the well-intentioned — but misinformed — damaging impacts of Arctic environmental campaigns.”

“I want to unravel that bind for you today,” Audla said.

To that end, he pointed out that Inuit have suffered attacks on their hunting activities, inflicted by animal rights campaigners, for many decades.

And he shared childhood memories of growing up in Resolute Bay when the market for seal pelts collapsed.

“You need to remember that while the world may be worried about oil and gas development in the Arctic and impact by oil companies, it was organizations such as Greenpeace who impacted us negatively, and we still recall this,” Audla said.

He also said Inuit across the Canadian Arctic have used constitutionally-protected land claims agreements to decolonize their traditional territories.

“These rights have included our foundational right to self-determination and, including the right to participate in decision-making on matters that affect the lands and marine areas, including the ice and water, we have traditionally used and occupied,” Audla said.

And that constitutional protection also applies to the co-management boards that are responsible for managing wildlife and resource development across the Canadian Arctic.

To that end he said not only governments, but the research and scientific community, and environmentalists must acknowledge the legal primacy of these land-claim based co-management regimes.

And he said Inuit want co-operative relationships with informed partners — but that can’t happen if their culture and way of life comes under attack.

“More extreme Arctic campaigning vilifies Inuit rights to self-determination by unfairly criticizing or undermining our co-operative partnership in wildlife and resource management, refusing to acknowledge that Inuit subsistence activities are tied to market economics, or outright condemning a hunting way of life,” he said.

He said Inuit are not “anti-development,” because Inuit want jobs, income security, training, education, better health, better housing and other benefits that are severely lacking in the Arctic.

But Inuit do not support development at all costs, especially if the costs include damage to wildlife and the environment, he said.

He also criticized the theme of the Earth Day event: “The Unravelling of the Arctic.”

“While the phrase is understandably designed to attract attention, it also feeds into the communications burden for Inuit that I hope I have ‘unravelled’ through my presentation,” he said.

“If there is an assumption that the Arctic is falling apart, one can misconstrue that Inuit are being irresponsible by hunting iconic animals that it is unconscionable to contemplate any kind of industrial activity in the Arctic in order to save the world’s last ‘pristine wilderness.’”

He pointed out that Canadian Inuit have consistently called for action on climate change for years, through the annual conferences of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and by contributing knowledge to the UN’s Arctic Climate Impact Assessment.

And he said climate change has already affected wildlife, traditional Inuit travel routes food consumption patterns, food storage and led to damaged infrastructure in communities.

Because of all this, he said that a dialogue that brings attention to the climate change impacts on Inuit, as well as on Inuit efforts to build resilient and sustainable communities, is “sorely needed.”

Audla’s audience included Bruce Heymann, the United States ambassador to Canada, Green Party leader Elizabeth May, and Dr. Risa Smith, the international chair of the Arctic Council’s Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna working group, along with numerous scientists, environmental activists and other members of the public who filled Jean Piggot Place to full capacity.