Inuk activist Watt-Cloutier brings “The Right to Be Cold” to Iqaluit

Sheila Watt-Cloutier is bringing her story of “The Right to Be Cold” to Iqaluit May 1 and May 2. (HANDOUT PHOTO)

If you’re in Iqaluit May 1 and May 2, plan to make time for Sheila Watt-Cloutier.

Watt-Cloutier will deliver the Jane Glassco Northern Fellowship award speech May 1 at the Baffin Room of the Frobisher Inn.

It will be an opportunity to hear Watt-Cloutier, former chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, a Nobel Peace prize nominee, and a cultural, environmental and human rights advocate, speak on the “Right to be Cold” — that is, how climate change’s impact on the Arctic is a human rights issue for Inuit because it damages their ability to live the way they have always lived.

“The Right to Be Cold: One Woman’s Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic and the Whole Planet” is also the title of Watt-Cloutier’s new book.

Everyone is welcome May 2 at 2 p.m. to attend a book signing event upstairs at Arctic Ventures’ Marketplace. There you can meet Watt-Cloutier, buy the book, and have your copy personally dedicated.

Watt-Cloutier’s book, recently published, tells her story — from early life in Kuujjuaq to her most recent move to Montreal.

It starts “in a boundless landscape and a close-knit culture in which everything matters and everything is connected… like generations of Inuit I bonded with the ice and snow.”

But along the way, Watt-Cloutier lived through a cultural evolution from that childhood of ice and snow and dog teams, to miniskirts and rock and roll as a residential school student in Churchill to becoming a citizen of the world, with numerous global awards and achievements to her credit.

Watt-Cloutier, among other things, was instrumental in raising awareness of climate change in the Arctic by launching the world’s first international legal action on climate change.

Her 2005 petition, heard by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleged that the United States was violating the human rights of Inuit by refusing to limit its greenhouse gas emissions.

Her goal: to put a “human face” on climate change and the havoc caused by rising temperatures in the Arctic.

Watt-Cloutier said she hopes Inuit will sit down to read her book.

“I think it would resonate with a lot of people in our community,” she said.

“It’s all about us. It’s not just a memoir about my own personal life. It’s pretty much a collective story, and I think it’s important for us to write from our perspective, through our lens, and have our story heard.”

In her book, Watt-Cloutier tried to connect the environment to the many challenges that Inuit face.

“Because everything is interconnected,” she said. “If we can champion our own lives, then we can understand the connections between all of these things. And to stand up for our rights, we have to start to see things in a broader perspective.”

The book took her six years to write and while Watt-Cloutier maintains it will never win literary awards, she said she wrote it on her own terms, “as an Inuk woman writing a message to her people and the world at the same time.”

If you can’t be in Iqaluit to hear Watt-Cloutier, you will be able to buy copies of “The Right to Be Cold” through Arctic Co-operatives Ltd. stores or order her book through online booksellers.