Planting dreams where we are told all hope is gone…

MARY SIMON
President, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami

On Sunday, Jan. 14 this year I arrived in Goose Bay to begin a week-long visit of Inuit communities in Nunatsiavut and Nunavik. My travelling companions were Roberta Jamieson, president and CEO of the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, and Dr. Paulette Tremblay, Director of Post-Secondary Education at NAAF.

The purpose of our journey – in speaking to Inuit students in nine schools, weather permitting – was to plant some dreams about their future. Both Roberta and I know from experience that dreams need to be fostered and tended.

In the airplane on the way up we all read a front page article in the Saturday Globe and Mail relating the statistics in Nunavut on the high rates of youth suicide, drug abuse, and the rates of homicide. The story was about a triple murder in Cambridge Bay. Three young men were murdered. The story itself was tragic, and one we have witnessed too many times in the Arctic. But the subtext to the story was that the situation is hopeless.

Our first meeting was with officials from the newly elected Nunatsiavut Government. The government leader, William Andersen III, was there to greet us, as was the minister of education, Ben Ponniuk. We were pleased that Josh Pamak, the President of the Rising Youth Council was there too. He was brimming with optimism about the meetings his youth group was organizing in Goose Bay and coastal communities in Nunatsiavut.

The dinner conversation that night was about the challenges of setting up a brand new government, and managing the hopes of the 9,000 people living in the half-dozen Inuit communities in the northern reaches of Labrador that make up Nunatsiavut.

The social issues that plague Nunavut are no stranger to the Inuit communities in Nunatsiavut. Inuit across the Arctic face numerous social challenges. But our conversation that night was lightened by listening to young Josh’s experience in the Antarctic as part of a Student’s On Ice expedition.

Our trip progressed to communities big and small. We would be led to a class room, and set up a projector and laptop and DVD. We spoke about our own lives – our experiences as young people overcoming colonialism – and moving on to obtain higher education, and achieve things we had never dreamed were possible.

Roberta spoke about being a waitress on the Six Nations Reserve, and serving the Indian agent. With passion, she conveyed how she was galvanized by an experience like that to change the power dynamic for her people. Roberta went to McGill University and obtained a law degree. She eventually became the Ontario Ombudsperson for 10 years, chief of the Six Nations Reserve, and now the president and CEO of NAAF.

I watched as the classrooms of young Inuit listened to Roberta, and I spoke about growing up in Kangiqsualujjuaq (George River at the time) in northern Quebec, eventually becoming the president of Makivik, Inuit Circumpolar Council, the first ambassador to the Arctic, and then ambassador to Denmark.

Our point was not that everyone had to become a politician, or a president, or an ambassador. It was that the youth could be what they wanted to be. As long as they worked hard, there would be many people and organizations willing to help.

Getting back to our offices in Ottawa, I read again in the Globe, in a column by Gordon Gibson on Feb. 1, a reflection on the Arctic and the situation in Nunavut, choosing words such as, “No Hope, No Education, No Jobs”.

I am not denying the statistics. They are sadly accurate, and worthy of reporting. But there is tremendous hope among many of our young people.

I do not believe criticizing governments or selectively reporting on the social conditions of Inuit from an ideological right or left point of view is helpful, nor will it fix the problems of Inuit in Nunavut and indeed throughout the Arctic.

A greater understanding on the part of Canadians about Inuit culture and societies together with a genuine partnership of governments and Inuit to improve social economic and health conditions in the Arctic, might however get us some progress.

Nor do I share the reflections of recent editorials that explicitly or implicitly criticize the Government of Nunavut for inaction regarding Inuit social problems. Your readers should understand that it is not much more than a century since first contact occurred between Inuit and the white man. As late as the 1950s some Inuit were living a nomadic way of life, living in igloos and subsisting off the land.

The Government of Nunavut is less than 10 years old. Much progress has been made. Admittedly more progress remains to be accomplished. Canadians, the Government of Canada and Inuit demonstrated vision and courage in establishing a fully public territorial government run by and for Inuit. Give it time to mature. Support it! Canada will be justly proud.

The time has come for Canada to join Inuit in shining a spotlight on the Arctic and its peoples. We have been there for thousands of years. We do not intend to leave. If we do not prosper, Canada will not reach its full potential.

Canadians have expressed through their governments and as individuals that they are concerned about global warming and they are concerned about our sovereignty. It is the Arctic that is most impacted by global warming. It is in the Arctic – our Inuit homeland – where Canadian sovereignty is most at risk. It is the Arctic that is the next frontier for enriching and expanding our economy.

I urge the prime minister and the minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development to develop in partnership with Inuit an Inuit Action Plan that will address in concrete terms actions that are specific to improving the lives of Inuit and by extension ensure that all peoples, governments and institutions in the Arctic prosper. A good starting point would be a commitment to such a plan in the next federal budget.

Let us together address the problems of Inuit in a coherent and constructive manner. Let us together end the criticism and defeatism. There is indeed hope!