Photo: Happy International Inuit Day

Nov. 7 is International Inuit Day, which, in Ottawa, will be celebrated with an event at the Christ Church Cathedral where Tungasuvvingat Inuit will also celebrate its 30th anniversary with a country foods feast, throat singing and drum dancing, from 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The day also honours the memory of the Inuit Circumpolar Council’s late founding president, Eben Hopson, born on Nov. 7, 1922. International Inuit Day was first declared at the 2006 Inuit Circumpolar Council general assembly in Barrow, Alaska. In 1976, Hopson rallied Inuit leaders in Greenland, Canada, the United States and Russia to form an international organization, then called the Inuit Circumpolar Conference. “The single most important issue facing all Inuit, regardless of where they live, is the preservation of a unique culture, identity and way of life before they are destroyed by large-scale industrial development and the intrusions of southern society,” Hopson said at the time. (FILE PHOTO)