Red Pedersen was a soldier for the Nunavut cause

Dennis Patterson

Another old soldier in the Nunavut cause has fallen.

Asger ‘Red’ Pedersen, an Order of Canada and Order of Nunavut holder, honorary Inuk and lifetime member of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, died in his beloved home community of Kugluktuk in May at the age of 89 after more than 70 years in the Arctic.

Red was a soldier for the Nunavut cause because he fought the forces that would have hived off the Kitikmeot Region to remain in the Western Territory. Red understood very well that the people of his region were connected in history and geography to Yellowknife and Edmonton.

With his lifelong home community of Kugluktuk just 55 kilometres from the N.W.T. boundary, 601 kilometres from Yellowknife and a daunting, expensive two days away by plane from Iqaluit, which was to become the capital of the new territory, many Kugluktuk residents and those in other western communities feared being forgotten as the distant rump of the proposed new territory in the Eastern Arctic.

But Red Pedersen had a long-term vision of a homeland for Inuit that would make the Inuit language and culture strong and give his beloved Inuit control over their lands and resources.

He was so successful in persuading Kitikmeot residents to set aside their doubts and support Nunavut that in the second plebiscite to affirm the Nunavut boundary in 1992, 78 per cent of Kugluktuk residents and 70 per cent of Cambridge Bay residents voted Yes to a boundary proposal which would see their communities remain in the Nunavut territory.

To understand the change of sentiment in favour of Nunavut that Red’s leadership encouraged — in the 1982 plebiscite asking should the N.W.T. be divided, Kugluktuk was split with a dismal 25 per cent turnout and 51 per cent voting No. Cambridge Bay voted 58 per cent No.

While we can now look back on the creation of Nunavut as a result of a unified march toward self-determination where all three regions were united in common cause, the Kitikmeot could have been the weak link.

Cambridge Bay vied to be chosen as the capital in the public vote of 1995, and later threw its support behind Rankin Inlet as an alternate to a distant capital in Iqaluit. Leaders like Charlie Lyall, president of Kitikmeot Corp., once famously said the Kitikmeot was better off under the N.W.T.: “I’ve always maintained that Iqaluit people think the western boundary of Nunavut is the airport runway in Iqaluit!”

The challenge of ensuring the far western region of the Kitikmeot is not forgotten exists to this day. Red Pedersen himself acknowledged that challenge only 18 months after the creation of Nunavut, famously telling CBC North: “At the extreme tip of the tail of any good prime white fox, there are always two or three black hairs. We sometimes think of ourselves as the two or three black hairs at the very tip of the white fox; sometimes we feel very little wagging!”

But Red Pedersen nonetheless always strongly supported Nunavut.

He earned the respect of the people he was twice elected to represent in the N.W.T. legislature. They knew Red as the loyal worker who came to Canada from Denmark at the tender age of 17 to work for Angulalik, the unilingual, legendary Inuk business tycoon who owned the trading post at Parry River and traded up to 2,000 valuable prime white fox furs in a season.

This was where Red learned Inuktitut and became a mentor and lifelong friend of his mentor Angulalik and pioneering Inuit leaders like Norman Evalik.

They knew Red as a devoted, lifelong community member who was instrumental in forming the first settlement council, the Kitikmeot Inuit Association. He was also a Canadian Ranger (a tradition carried on inter-generationally in his family), and a pioneer businessman (taxi and hotel and outfitting).

They knew Red as a strong supporter of youth, who once said we need to be more supportive of the younger generation: “There’s only 14 inches between a kick in the ass and a pat on the back!”

It was the respect Red Pedersen earned among his people that persuaded them to set aside their doubts and overlook their historic ties to the N.W.T. and instead vote twice, in 1982 and 1993 (and increasingly in favour) for the creation of a new territory for Inuit that followed the treeline boundary all the way to the Arctic Coast and even included the farthest west community — Red’s hometown of Kugluktuk.

Red is one of those exceptional people who won the esteem of his peers by being a modest, gentle giant whose devotion to community marked his reason for being.

His impact on his community and our territory revealed itself in many ways, large and small. He dismantled and moved houses from outpost camps on the land into Kugluktuk to form the basis for a now-thriving community which he later served as acclaimed mayor.

He was also was a champion for Inuit during his political career.

When Red was a cabinet minister, he persuaded the N.W.T. government to appoint Helen Klengenberg as the first woman and first Inuk as regional director, recognizing her stellar leadership and later achievement as the first Inuk to earn an MBA.

Recently, at a public event held to honour Kugluktukmiut who earned university degrees where Helen was recognized for her two degrees, Red surprised Helen by presenting her with a caribou antler carving made by her late mother, Lily Angnakak, in 1965. He said he thought it was time the carving was returned to Lily’s family. She was surprised and overwhelmed, since that precious caribou antler carving is the only memento she has from her mother.

As the government’s minister of renewable resources, as a native Dane with credibility in Europe where the animal rights movement festered, Red Pedersen and his late deputy minister Jim Bourque led the drive in Canada to switch to humane trapping. Red pitched himself with vigour against the animal rights movement in Europe, which threatened to decimate Canada’s fur industry.

As the minister of culture and communications, he insisted traditional knowledge must be given as much weight in the N.W.T. government as modern science. That stance presaged the recognition of Inuit Qaujimajaqtuqangit, which is now embedded in the Nunavut regulatory processes. His daily diary entries are a treasure of the history of his beloved region and home community.

And, he was elected unanimously by his peers in the N.W.T. legislature to be its Speaker after also being acclaimed as MLA for Kugluktuk in the election of 1987.

As Speaker, Red elevated the position in many ways. He scrapped the formal robes of the British colonial era, insisting on wearing a traditionally designed Speaker’s robe reflecting his pedigree as an honorary Inuk. Red even persuaded the assembly to resurrect a venerable Cadillac limousine out of mothballs for ceremonial occasions and visits by dignitaries, and established the Speaker’s residence in the penthouse suite of Yellowknife’s first high-rise apartment building, Fraser Tower.

For all these reasons, I say this Danish-born giant of a man who married a Greenlander and leaves behind 108 descendants at last count — “family was everything to my Dad,” his son Baba said.

He was a soldier in the Nunavut cause, a champion of Inuit self-determination and the exemplar of a devoted community resident.

Gone, but never forgotten.

The Hon. Dennis Patterson represented Nunavut in the Senate from 2008 to 2023. He was premier of the Northwest Territories from 1987 to 1991, and played a key role in the Nunavut land claim agreement.