Emphasis on listening should be Kivalliq Trade Show’s export across the North

There was a lot of talk about listening in Rankin Inlet this week.

Naalagit — or Listen, in English — was the theme of the Kivalliq Trade Show.

It was impressive to see how closely the speakers embraced that simple theme in their speeches.

Political and business leaders such as Sen. Nancy Karetak-Lindell, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. president Gloria Uluqsi, Kivalliq Inuit Association president Koonoo Tattuinee, and Agnico Eagle Meliadine Mine general manager Marc-Olivier Vachon all tailored their speeches to include what it means to listen.

Karetak-Lindell told delegates Wednesday that listening to communities, youth and businesses can give us all a better understanding of their goals and aspirations. Communication must go both ways — speaking and listening — to make conversations productive and to lead to action, she said.

There was also a lot of trade show talk about how much the Arctic is changing. People have questions and concerns about Arctic security, defence construction, massive projects like the Kivalliq Hydro-Fibre Link, housing and climate change.

The faster things change, the more important it becomes to listen to ideas about both the benefits and challenges of those changes.

“In order for leaders, governments at all levels, and the public to listen, there has to be people, groups, businesses, and communities speaking up, briefly and purposefully offering wisdom and direction,” Karetak-Lindell said.

The importance of listening should go without saying. But sometimes it doesn’t hurt to be reminded of the things we know to be true.

At the risk of sounding self-serving, Nunatsiaq News is also here to listen. Journalists listen on behalf of their readers, and then tell them what they heard.

Journalists listen to the legislative assembly, at the courthouse, to business leaders, as well as to regular people talking about what’s going on in their daily lives.

They do a lot of listening — to hours of the legislative assembly, for example — so you don’t have to.

Unfortunately, many organizations in Nunavut and Nunavik — governments, Inuit organizations, police, businesses — aren’t always that crazy about talking. Especially to reporters.

Perhaps things are changing. It was encouraging to hear NTI president Gloria Uluqsi tell trade show delegates, “An informed Inuk is much harder to leave out of a decision that affects them.”

When it comes to making sure that Inuit — and all readers — are informed, a newspaper can be part of the equation.

Coincidentally the message about listening landed just ahead of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30. When it became a holiday five years ago, the idea was for it to be time to reflect on harm done by Canada’s residential school system. For a lot of Canadians, it’s a time for listening.

We all want to see the benefits that come from listening — the benefits that speaker after speaker in Rankin Inlet talked about.

The Kivalliq Trade Show was largely a business conference, intended as a place for company representatives to network and make deals.

But after the emphasis on the theme Naalagit — Listen — the spirit of listening should be a byproduct of that business event that could be exported beyond Rankin Inlet to the entire Arctic.