Johnny Cash and the Nunavut Agreement: Paul Quassa takes the Proust Questionnaire

In many ways, Paul Quassa’s life mirrors the history of Inuit over the past seven decades.

He was born in an igloo in 1952 in Manitok, a hunting camp about 20 kilometres north of Igloolik.

Growing up, he wore sealskin boots and caribou coats and ate only the food that his father hunted. He says his family would often look at the Igloolik island across the bay and say, “There’s Canada.”

“We really felt very independent,” he said.

At the age of three, like many Inuit of the era, he had to briefly leave his homeland to undergo tuberculosis treatment. And at six years old, he was taken to a residential school in Churchill, Man.

Even though he calls himself a “survivor” of that residential school, he says the education it provided, including learning the English language, was very useful.

In many ways, he feels that without that education Inuit wouldn’t have been able to advocate for their rights moving forward.

“We were able to accomplish what our elders had dreamed of,” Quassa said.

He became one of the negotiators of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement signed in 1993, and later was elected MLA for Aggu and then became premier of a sovereign territory within Canada from 2017 to 2018.

Despite all that, he has a hard time describing himself as a “historic figure.”

“I was just very fortunate,” he said.

Quassa recently talked to Nunatsiaq News to answer the Proust Questionnaire.

What’s your idea of perfect happiness?

I think you always have to have a positive perspective in life. You have to always be able to look at the other side and understand their perspective.

That would create happiness.

What’s your greatest fear?

I don’t know. I have gone through quite a bit.

I’ve almost drowned about five times in my life, and here I am today.

If one has a positive perspective and does not have fear, they will survive.

What is your greatest achievement?

Signing the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement. It was like stepping into a new world, and look where we are now. That was a magical moment.

Which living person do you most despise?

None. If you don’t want to be despised, then don’t despise other people.

Which talent would you most like to have?

Music. I used to play guitar a lot in my younger days. I used to play quite a few instruments, actually: piano, accordion and harmonica. I loved singing.

I always wanted to improve on that, which I haven’t.

You said you loved singing. What was your favourite song?

Johnny Cash. I Walk the Line.

What is your greatest regret?

In my young days going to residential school, when I was maybe 12 years old, I’d go back home and all those other 12-year-olds who didn’t go to residential school were so much better at hunting and they knew the land.

I didn’t.

I spent the majority of the year at the residential school, where we didn’t do any hunting and didn’t learn from our fathers.

That’s something that I used to always regret. I didn’t get that opportunity in my early years.

Nunatsiaq News is borrowing the old Proust Questionnaire parlour game to get to know people who are in the news. If you know someone in your community who our readers should get to know by taking this questionnaire, let us know by email: editors@nunatsiaq.com.