Makivik candidate wants to help Nunavimmiut youth, communities

Robbie Watt is running to serve as president to Makivik Corp. Jan. 15, a role he wants to use to advance the well-being and education of Nunavimmiut, starting with its youth. (HANDOUT PHOTO)

Robbie Watt, who seeks the presidency of Nunavik’s Makivik Corp., says he wants to relieve poverty and promote the welfare and education of Nunavik’s Inuit, especially youth.

And Watt hopes Nunavimmiut share these same goals — enough to elect him to lead Nunavik’s Inuit birthright organization.

Nunavimmiut will vote Jan. 15 for Makivik’s next president, and it’s a three-way race between Watt, incumbent president Jobie Tukkiapik, and former Makivik treasurer Jobie Epoo.

The Kuujjuaq-raised, Montreal-based Watt, 47, quit his job as executive assistant to Makivik’s corporate secretary Andy Moorhouse this past fall to run for the organization’s top job.

“Growing up, two phrases I always heard from elders around me is ‘to never stand idle’ and that there is ‘timing’ for everything,” Watt said. “Based on those two teachings, I felt it was ‘time’ to vie for such an elected position.”

Watt has pledged, if elected, to create a youth governing body in Nunavik which would ensure young people are taking part in the region’s affairs.

That’s vital, he said, given over 65 per cent of beneficiaries in Nunavik are younger than 34 years old.

As Makivik president, Watt says he would host a regional symposium to look at the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement and the 40 years that have lapsed since this landmark land claims agreement was signed.

The event, which would feature workshops and panel discussions focused on topics such as land and water management, would help to clarify the rights of Inuit beneficiaries, he said.

Watt said he also wants to help Nunavik communities to move forward with their own local social and economic projects, be these elders homes, community kitchens, tourism or greenhouses.

“I plan to spend a great deal of my time in each of the 15 communities, working closely with the local leaders, meet and have discussions with beneficiaries,” Watt said.

Those visits will help him take “full inventory” of the state of his fellow Nunavimmiut, he said.

Watt calls himself a good listener and a “go-getter” someone with the leadership and communication skills to serve the vast region — Watt has a lengthy resume to prove this.

Watt, who was raised in Kuujjuaq, is the second eldest child of Ida (Epoo) Watt and Senator Charlie Watt, a signatory to the JBNQA and former president of Makivik.

Watt earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology and Zoology at the University of Manitoba, and later studied health management at McGill University in Montreal.

He’s since led a number of regional organizations and initiatives, from his time working in adult education for the Kativik School Board, as vice president of the Fédération des coopératives du Nouveau-Québec, and as president of the Avataq Cultural Institute.

In 2010, Watt was named as co-director of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Inuit sub-commission, which collected more than 800 statements from Inuit residential school survivors.

“On a personal level, hearing Inuit from across Canada speak of their many daily issues, their hurts from the past and their dreams for the future, has increased my own sense of history and identity,” he said.

More recently, Watt has become an advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people in the Arctic, speaking out against Inuit who have discriminated against that community.

Over the last few years, Makivik’s executive has seen a dramatic turnover as executives who held their positions for more than a decade have either lost elections or resigned their seats, making way for new blood.

In 2012, Jobie Tukkiapik was elected as the organization’s first new president in 14 years, winning a narrow lead of 23 votes over long-time president Pita Aatami.

Nunavimmiut seeking more information about the election and how to vote can contact Jeannie May, Makivik’s chief returning officer for the election, at (819) 964-2925.

Watch Nunatsiaqonline.ca for more profiles on candidates for the Makivik presidency.