Photo: Evalik takes his leave

After many long days and weekends away from home as president of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, Charlie Evalik, seen here with his wife, Millie, plans to take a break. Evalik announced Oct. 16 that he would not seek re-election in an election for the KIA presidency to be held Dec. 8. Evalik served three terms as KIA president between 1996 and 2005, before returning to the job in 2008. He was re-elected to yet another term in 2011. The job? A lot of work — but a chance “to move the Kitikmeot forward,” Evalik said at the community feast held to mark the end of the KIA’s annual general meeting in Cambridge Bay. Evalik, who received an honorary doctor of laws from the University of Alberta in 2011, remains chairman of the Nunavut Resource Corp., which wants to partner with mining companies to offer more employment, training and business opportunities to Inuit in the Kitikmeot region. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)