Aluki Kotierk named chair of Inuit Circumpolar Council
Longtime Inuit leader acclaimed to position on July 25 at organization’s general assembly
Aluki Kotierk, right, was elected by acclamation to a four-year term as chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council on July 25. She is joined and congratulated by Herb Nakimayak, ICC Canada’s president, after ICC announced the news. (Photo courtesy of ICC Canada/Facebook)
Aluki Kotierk is the new chair of Inuit Circumpolar Council after she was selected for the four-year term July 25 in Iqaluit.
The rotating chair for the international organization that advocates for Inuit rights transitioned from Greenland to Canada this year. Kotierk was acclaimed for the role, as nobody else put their name forward.
“I am honoured and feel so grateful to have the opportunity to serve as chair of ICC,” Kotierk wrote in a news release from the organization that was published July 25.
“The expressed commitment, repeatedly, to continue to work in unity across Inuit Nunaat for the future is uplifting.”
Kotierk is the current chair of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and a former president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.
She did not respond to an interview request by press time.
Kotierk will work with the ICC executive council on the Iqaluit Declaration that ICC signed at the close of last week’s general assembly. It seeks the protection of Inuit harvesting rights, calls for governments to invest in Inuit-led research and cautions against identity fraud and illegitimate claims to Inuit land.
Greenland’s Sara Olsvig, ICC’s outgoing chair, said she’s grateful that the new leadership will have a “clear mandate.”
“The delegates give us the direction, and send ICC out into the world, where we stick to the decision-making tables,” she said in the release.
The next ICC general assembly is schedule for Nome, Alaska, in 2030.
I guess everyone was so impressed with her substantive and insightful report on Nutrition North that they all thought it best not to run against her.
Evidence the ICC has neither serious expectations nor mandate.