Sheila Watt-Cloutier named “Champion of the Earth”

The United Nations Environment Program has handed a Champion of the Earth award to Sheila Watt-Cloutier, originally of Kuujjuaq and now based in Iqaluit as president of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference.

Watt-Cloutier sees the award as both a personal achievement and a collective achievement for the Inuit.

“It really puts us Inuit in the same breath as other country leaders,” Watt-Cloutier said on Monday. “In a sense it almost puts us as having a geopolitical stance or a place in the world, and that’s very good for Inuit.”

This is the first year that the U.N. has offered the award. There are seven recipients from around the world, including South African President Thabo Mbeki, the King of Bhutan, and Mexico’s minister of the environment.

Watt-Cloutier will travel to New York City to receive the award on April 19.