Red amautiit honour missing, murdered Inuit women and girls
Pauktuutit’s Red Amautiit Project on display at Nunavut’s legislative assembly until June 6
Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada’s Red Amautiit Project will be on display at the Nunavut legislative assembly until June 6. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)
Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada’s Red Amautiit Project is on full display at the Nunavut legislative assembly in Iqaluit.
The project uses five traditional Inuit women’s parkas to raise awareness about missing and murdered Inuit women and girls.
Looee Mike, Pauktuutit’s board member for Qikiqtani South, speaks at the legislative assembly Tuesday evening. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)
Each amauti was made by a different seamstress from each of the four Inuit regions in Canada: from Nunavut, Eunice Tunraluk of Arctic Bay, and Nancy Pukinaq Aupaluktuq of Baker Lake; from Nunavik, Sarah Samisack of Inukjuak; from Labrador, Heather Angnatok of Nain; and from Northwest Territories, Shirley Elias of Inuvik.
Pauktuutit held an unveiling ceremony Tuesday evening following the conclusion of the day’s legislative sitting, with most MLAs in attendance.
“The healing work must begin and end with Inuit women, girls and gender-diverse Inuit as they are experts on MMIWG, and they must have autonomy in determining the solutions to address it,” said Looee Mike, Pauktuutit’s board member for Qikiqtani South.
“Today is the first time all five amautis have been displayed, as you can see. We are honoured and pleased to share them with you in this legislative assembly.”
The Red Amautiit Project will be in Iqaluit until June 6, and appear in other places in Canada later in the year.
How is this convincing the indigenous men and women, who are responsible for almost all of the violence and murder against indigenous women and girls, to stop their violence? It’s an attention-grabbing virtue signal, it fits in with the activist drama, but what does it achieve? Indigenous men are violent, and indigenous women are not far behind. Commissioning a bunch of red amautis won’t fix that.
The roots of indigenous violence run deep, and they come from within the culture, not from outside of it. It’s so much easier to pay people to make red parkas than for anyone, especially anyone in leadership positions, to actually start speaking truth about the problem.
I’d be leery of blanket statements such as “The roots of indigenous violence run deep, and they come from within the culture, not from outside of it” and “Indigenous men are violent, and indigenous women are not far behind”. I’m an Inuk and I’ve never commited violence nor am I a violent person. Please stop being prejudiced and racist. If you happen to be an Inuk or part Inuk than I feel for your internalized self-hatred. Maybe try counselling.
It is long past time for a difficult conversation around the extremely high rates of domestic abuse in Nunavut.
What do you say, Nunatsiaq? Seems like an opportunity for an editorial.
I agree with Virtue Signals honest statement.
I believe we are manipulated by our own native leaders who want to blame RCMP and
social services for the thankless work they do, and say nothing about their own cultures.
As long as we do nothing about this manipulation, nepotism, & unaccountability we
will always have these problems.