Inuit Nunangat coin does more than tell a story

Maybe this is reading something into it, but there seems to be a subtle, lasting message etched onto the new two-dollar coin commemorating Inuit Nunangat.

Most Canadians will see the coin as something that will get them a cup of coffee. But its design speaks to a belief held by most Inuit groups about who’s Inuk and who’s not.

The Royal Canadian Mint unveiled its new Inuit Nunangat coin Nov. 5 in Ottawa. The mint worked with Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the organization for all Inuit in Canada, to develop a coin that pays tribute to the Inuit homeland and to Inuit storytelling.

Its lasting impact will be to reinforce ITK’s message that there are four Inuit rights-holding organizations, one for each region of Inuit Nunangat — Nunavut, Nunavik, Inuvialuit and Nunatsiavut.

During the unveiling ceremony, ITK president Natan Obed told his audience that Inuktitut is a “very literal” language.

“Sometimes we deal with subjective things like, ‘what is Inuit Nunangat?’”

“If you’re a linguist and if you are using one of our 13 dialects, you might have an argument about the definition of the term Inuit Nunangat,” Obed said.

No kidding.

For several years, ITK has been embroiled in an argument about the definition of Inuit Nunangat, and who belongs and who doesn’t belong.

In particular, ITK has criticized the NunatuKavut Community Council, a Labrador group claiming to be Inuit. ITK has rejected that claim.

ITK insists there are four groups of Inuit — not five.

The coin’s design — with imagery and symbols of the four Inuit groups — helps cement ITK’s case that the NunatuKavut Community Council is not part of Inuit Nunangat.

Four Inuit artists collaborated on the coin’s designs. One from each region. Four. Not Five. Four.

There are four ulus depicted — not five — on the coin symbolizing each of the recognized Inuit organizations.

Artists said they began their work designing the coin about a year ago, over the summer of 2023.

That roughly coincides with the intensification of ITK’s campaign to point out that it does not consider the NunatuKavut Community Council to be Inuit.

In November 2023 — nearly a year before the launch of the coin — ITK published an open letter calling NunatuKavut “a shape-shifting non-Indigenous organization.”

Obed warned it’s part of the “alarming trend of non-Indigenous people and groups co-opting Indigenous identities” to secure financial resources and rights.

The simmering dispute boiled over this year when it became clear there wasn’t enough room for both organizations to be part of the longstanding Northern Lights trade show.

A lot of this will be lost on most Canadians. But every time someone fishes one of the new coins out of their pocket, its symbolism will not only remind them what Inuit Nunangat is … but what it isn’t.

Whether the mint and ITK intended it or not, the coin is a valuable tool in its public relations campaign — a message Canadians get for only two dollars.