Inuit Circumpolar Council general assembly gets underway

Inuit leaders, delegates, and performers from around the circumpolar world filled the Aqsarniit Hotel ballroom, in Iqaluit, to start the Inuit Circumpolar Council’s 15^th general assembly.

This is the first such gathering in Iqaluit since the third general assembly in 1983. ICC’s chair, Sara Olsvig of Greenland, opened the event after a qulliq lighting and invocation.

“We know that across our homelands and among those who are living beyond our homelands, many Inuit are struggling,” Olsvig said in her chair’s report. “But we also know that Inuit continue to gather to share our experiences and to hope for a brighter future.”

Gloria Uluqsi, president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., which is acting as host for this year’s meeting, spoke after Olsvig. She looked across the room at her first large gathering of international Inuit as an elected leader.

“We have partnerships that previous generations could only imagine,” Uluqsi said. “The responsibility now belongs to us … to ensure that Inuit continue to lead the future of Inuit Nunaat.”

There were opening remarks from Iqaluit Mayor Solomon Awa, Nunavut Human Resources Minister Annie Tattuinee, Greenland’s vice-premier Múte Bourup Egede, North Slope Borough (Alaska) Mayor Josiah Patkotak, and ICC Chukotka (Russia) president Irina Meshcheryakova.

Prime Minister Mark Carney was the honorary patron but could not be in Iqaluit. He sent a prerecorded address instead.

“The Arctic is your own homeland,” Carney said in the video. “You are the rights-holder. So even as the world pays closer attention to the Arctic, you will decide what happens here.”

Patkotak, who represents eight north Alaska communities, echoed the same sentiment.

“I hear a little bit of the Greenlandic struggle that was happening from my own government,” he said, in reference to the Trump administration talking about buying Greenland earlier this year.

“I think that’s one of the things that we continue to have unity on,” Patkotak continued. “Nothing happens in our specific regions, without our voices heard … There’s nothing about us without us.”

Herb Nakimayak, from the Inuvialuit region of Northwest Territories, had two extra reasons to celebrate: his election to a four-year term as the president of ICC Canada on Tuesday, and it was his birthday on Wednesday.

Nakimayak spoke after the assembly sang happy birthday for him in English, followed by the folks from Greenland singing in Kalaallisut, which moved Nakimayak to tears.

“Indigenous knowledge is key to what we do, the work that we do as ICC,” Nakimayak said. “I look forward to our shared task over the next four days at the general assembly here … as we set the direction and offer a declaration for the 2026 [to 2030] term.”

The ICC general assembly wraps up on July 25.