Nunavut legislature braces for Arctic Council ministerial meeting

The Arctic Council will not use the ceremonial mace, on display in the lobby of the Nunavut legislative building, which is reserved for when the legislative assembly is in session. But ministers attending the Arctic council meeting will be able to view the mace in its protective glass case. (PHOTO BY THOMAS ROHNER)

The purple saxifrage, an official Nunavut symbol, is on display as a sculpture just outside the chamber doors at the territory’s legislative assembly. (PHOTO BY THOMAS ROHNER)

The ceremonial mace of Nunavut’s Legislative Assembly is carried by three carved figures, including the man pictured above. Also carrying the mace is a woman, an elder and a child too short to help the adults out. (PHOTO BY THOMAS ROHNER)

First came the president of France, then Queen Elizabeth II, and finance ministers from seven of the richest, most powerful countries in the world.

And now, this week, the top ministers of the Arctic Council’s eight member states — Canada, the United States, Russia, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland — will arrive April 24 for a ministerial meeting.

They’ll meet inside the Legislative Assembly in Nunavut’s capital, Iqaluit, in a building that has played host to some of the world’s top leaders and dignitaries since it opened in 1999.

“We’re getting pretty good at this sort of thing,” John Quirke, the assembly’s veteran clerk, told Nunatsiaq News April 20.

Quirke remembers when Jacques Chirac, the former French president, visited the assembly in 1999; when the Queen came in 2002; and when finance ministers from the G7 countries met in the assembly in 2010.

Now Quirke is preparing to welcome ministers from around the circumpolar world.

“I think our building, and the [legislative assembly] chamber is very prestigious and well-known. And it’s a very nice place to meet,” Quirke said.

The assembly is filled with culturally symbolic and beautiful details, Quirke said.

“The chamber itself, we refer to it as the people’s igloo; when you go into it, it is shaped like an igloo,” he said.

“And the artwork we display — the sealskin, for example, that we use quite prominently — expresses what we’re all about here in Nunavut. There’s a lot of culture in this facility alone.”

When Arctic ministers enter the assembly, they’ll see prints of internationally-renowned Cape Dorset artists lining the hallway outside the chamber.

After taking a few steps into the lobby, they will be greeted by sculptures of official Nunavut bird, flower and animal — the rock ptarmigan, purple saxifrage and Inuit sled dog — sitting beneath glass cases outside the chamber doors.

But between the two entrances to the chamber lies the main artistic attraction: the official mace of the legislative assembly.

The mace, carved from the ivory tusk of a narwhal, rests on the shoulders of three carved figures under its own glass encasement, with another smaller figure — a child —reaching above his head to offer a lending hand but not quite tall enough to do so.

All details of the mace, such as the carved seals in marble, granite and lapis lazuli, and the silver crown jewelled with a diamond, amethyst and white marble, are made of materials found across Nunavut.

The mace, used to open and close sittings of the legislature, will not be used during the Arctic Council meeting, Quirke said.

Upon entering the chamber, or the “people’s igloo,” ministers will take their seats in a large circle, as MLAs do when the legislature is in session. Behind their seats, freshly hung on the wall, are tapestries from Pangnirtung.

In the middle of the wide circle sits a qamutik, a traditional sled, and a carving of a man posing with a traditional drum.

While the ministers attending the Arctic Council can enjoy the assembly’s artwork, their meeting will be closed to the public for security reasons April 24, Quirke said.

And if you want to watch it, you’ll have to go online or on the Government of Canada website.

Tours of the legislative assembly are cancelled all week, Quirke said.

And beginning this morning, preparations at the chamber will be made in advance of the ministerial meeting, although the layout of the chamber will remain the same, said Quirke.

To find out more about the Arctic Council and its April 24 meeting, you can read Nunatsiaq News’ earlier coverage of the event here.

Ministers of the Arctic Council will meet in the legislative assembly’s chamber April 24, where they will sit in a large circle. In the middle of that circle is a traditional Inuit sled — and behind the ministers, hung on the wall, are new tapestries from Pangnirtung. (PHOTO BY THOMAS ROHNER)