Nunavut elders should be paid for IQ, says historical society

Cambridge Bay community representatives, including representatives for elders and youth, and Nunavut Impact Review Board staff sit at the NIRB hearing into the Back River project in April 2016. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Elder Amy Kamoayok makes a comment last April at the NIRB’s final hearing on the Back River gold mine project in Cambridge Bay, where, as a member of the public, she shared her traditional knowledge about the proposed mine project site. Caribou are our history, Kamoayok, who was born near Bathurst Inlet, told the hearing. Kamoayok, with her family, would walk and hunt inland where Sabina wants to build four-mine, underground and open-pit complex (which will be subject to a new review later this month.) Speaking in Inuinnaqtun, Kamoayok also recalled the words of her late grandfather who had a vision of a meeting where people would discuss the future of the area where they would see thousands of caribou from the now-dwindling Bathurst caribou herd pass by. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Elders should be paid if they share their traditional knowledge in a formal setting.

That’s the opinion of Pamela Gross, the executive director of the Kitikmeot Heritage Society in Cambridge Bay, where elders were recently contacted to attend a public hearing on a mining project.

They were offered a per diem for their input, unlike other people in the room who would be paid to be there, she suggested.

“Our Inuit knowledge holders aren’t being compensated for their knowledge,” Gross said.

The KHS pays elders for interviews and when they work on certain projects as knowledge holders, she said.

But Gross said payment to elders is an issue that Nunavut needs to look at across the territory.

“There are meetings held all the time and people [elders] do get paid sometimes, and not other times, for the knowledge being shared,” she said.

“Times are changing and I think there needs to be some regulations across the board when it comes to these issues.”

The Nunavut Impact Review Board’s executive director Ryan Barry said communities nominate their representatives to hearings.

The NIRB takes care of airfare, hotel and per diems, “but don’t provide honoraria,” he told Nunatsiaq News.

The situation would be different if a mining company wanted to have an elder sit with their consultants to provide evidence or support for their project during a NIRB hearing.

“I’d expect that they’d receive compensation like any other consultant,” Barry said.