Twenty years later: ICC celebrates a landmark

DUNCAN ADAMS
Courtesy of the Arctic Sounder

Common threads unite. As do common threats.

The late Eben Hopson Sr. recognized more than two decades ago the necessity for a united voice among the Inuit of the circumpolar North. Hopson and others believed offshore oil development in the Beaufort Sea posed real threats to the Inuit way of life and the arctic environment ­ threats that transcended political boundaries.

The contributions of Hopson and other founders of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference were remembered last Saturday, during 20th anniversary celebrations.

The ICC was established during a meeting in Barrow, Alaska in mid-June 1977.

Ronald Brower Sr., who has been involved with the ICC since its inception and currently is an international vice president of ICC and president of ICC-Alaska, was Saturday’s master of ceremonies.

“I think it is a significant achievement that the Inuit have transcended the change from early society to the technological society and have been able to advance their interests on a global basis,” Brower said. “We’re able to sit at the table at this point with eight nations within the circumpolar north ­ the United States, Russia, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland ­ and I think that’s a significant accomplishment in itself.”

When the ICC was founded in 1977, it represented the Inuit of Alaska, Canada and Greenland. During the first three meetings of the ICC General Assembly an empty chair at a head table symbolized the absence of Inuit in the former Soviet Union.

But a delegation from Chukotka attended the 1989 General Assembly. And in 1992 Inuit in the Russian Republic were accepted as full members.

Brower said the ICC has provided a model for other indigenous peoples throughout the world who face similar threats and challenges, issues related to aboriginal and indigenous rights to lands, subsistence rights, the power of self-determination, the preservation of cultural integrity, environmental protection, and other modern struggles. In 1983, ICC was granted non-governmental status by the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

“ICC began to work with other indigenous people to bring to the attention of the United Nations the need for international legal protection of our most fundamental human rights,” Brower said.

And he said he believes ICC’s efforts have resulted in several other significant accomplishments.

In 1987, ICC submitted the Inuit Regional Conservation Strategy to the United Nations. This was the world’s first regional conservation strategy developed by an indigenous people.

In 1992, ICC published the Principles and Elements for a Comprehensive Arctic Policy, guidelines intended to ensure that the fundamental rights of Inuit “are fully considered in decision making and that management of arctic resources takes place in a manner compatible to Inuit values, priorities and aspirations.”

In addition, Brower described ongoing and future efforts of the ICC.

Currently, the ‘Mammoth Project’ is working to get Inuit artists to collaborate on an international level to create works of art which could be marketed in large communities such as New York City, Paris, London and other areas,” Brower said.

ICC is preparing a book that details Inuit subsistence whaling activities in Russia, Canada, Alaska and Greenland. “This work eventually will be submitted to the International Whaling Commission and other parties who are interested in aboriginal whaling,” Brower said.

And ICC is in the process of developing a newsletter which would circulate within the four countries, a periodical designed to provide members a better guide to the organization’s day-to-day activities.

Meanwhile, ICC continues to monitor environmental concerns in the arctic, including global warming, contamination of subsistence foods, and a host of other issues.

And, as Brower has traveled in his role with ICC he has discovered more evidence of the ties of culture and kinship that link the Inuit of the north.

“I find that we have a lot of relations unknown to us ­ family members in Canada, sometimes in Greenland, certainly in Russia. And we connect. I think that this is going to be important for Inuit, to re-establish family ties across the Arctic.

“I ran into a very interesting situation at Paulatuk, a community in Canada that’s predominantly settled by people who came from Kotzebue during the early 1800s. I find relatives in Resolute Bay. I find people in Labrador who speak the old Point Barrow dialect I used to listen to as a child. It’s amazing how many ties you find.”