New group formed to represent Inuit of southern Quebec

Annie and Tina Pisuktie at a November 2015 Tungasuvvingat Inuit consultation in Ottawa at which Inuit from urban centres across the country gathered to learn about forming urban Inuit organizations in their home cities. (FILE PHOTO)

MONTREAL—A new organization hopes to serve as the voice for Inuit living in southern Quebec, and it’s looking for help designing its new logo.

The Southern Quebec Inuit Association held its first general assembly Oct. 28. The organization came about after a two-day workshop back in August 2015, when several Inuit organizations met in Montreal to discuss the needs of the Inuit community, specifically in Montreal and the southern region of Quebec.

This grew out of Tungasuvvingat Inuit’s national urban Inuit dialogue that spanned a year and a half, starting in 2015.

Supporters formed the SQIA group in March 2017 in partnership with TI and Makivik Corp.

The new organization is holding a contest to help create its new logo. Open to all Inuit community members, the winning design should help promote the organization’s mission: “To unite southern Quebec Inuit to advocate for and assist in our development while promoting, preserving and celebrating our language, culture and traditions.”

The first-place winner will receive two airline tickets, while second-place will receive $250 and third-place will get $150.

Tina Pisuktie, SQIA’s corporate secretary, says their objectives will include promoting the cultural, social and economic development of southern Quebec Inuit, supporting the use and development of the Inuktitut language and contributing to the improvement of living conditions, health and justice.

“We want Inuit, no matter where they are, to feel connected to their community,” Pisuktie said.

Although they have big goals in the future, Pisuktie says SQIA will focus on the smaller steps first. Networking and community engagement, securing more funding, hiring staff and finding office space are at the top of the SQIA’s priorities until the end of the year.

In the meantime, the group will continue in the footsteps of the now-defunct Association of Montreal Inuit, which shares founding members with SQIA, but is a different organization.

However, there will be similar community activities such as bi-monthly feasts, sewing workshops, Inuktitut lessons and games for children.

And by November, SQIA hopes to partner with Université de Laval for a health survey on Inuit living in Montreal and southern Quebec, to collect data and better understand the community’s diverse needs.

By the beginning of 2018, SQIA also plans to set up a space to be used for bereavement, where community members can leave messages for urban Inuit who have passed away.

Pisuktie says that after five deaths among the Montreal Inuit community these last few months, it became clear this was an important need to fill.

“There needs to be a safe space to commemorate those who have died, without it being exploited by others,” Pisuktie said.

“We want to come up with our own process that makes sense for us.”

SQIA is still waiting on several funding applications, but Makivik Corp.’s treasurer, Andy Pirti, says that Makivik has allocated funds to support their projects.

“This is an amazing expression of community need,” said Jason Leblanc, president of TI.

“This will be a great early win for this organization.”

For Pisuktie, those first wins are crucial.

“We are hoping that just the act of bringing people together for feasts is going to provide comfort—to live healthier and to strive to be healthier,” Pisuktie said.

Submissions for SQIA’s logo contest will be accepted from all Inuit community members until Dec. 4, 2017, and must be emailed as a high-resolution PDF to sqiainfo@gmail.com.