This is our home, our paradise, our oasis

With Nunavut Day coming up, Nunatsiaq News asked readers to share what makes their corner of the territory special to them.

What the land means to the people of Nunavut, and many others who’ve been up here or have family up here.

I’m an Inuk. This is what Nunavut means to me. My pops, 85, grew up in the igloo, saw many changes and some things yes actually stayed the same.

Most communities have grown up by a very small population, for being so remote. Social media has taken its digital roots to the North. This has made some better and, in some sense, not so much.

I would imagine back in the day when they did snail mail and correspondence with the local radio about the creation of Nunavut, how that was, it may have been slower but again at the time that was the technology. That was the pace of the game.

It’s not everyone’s cup of tea up here, with long cold days and nights. But this is our home, our paradise, our oasis.

With climate change going on we have more and more newcomers and they are welcomed. It’s just Inuit were nomadic people who love the great outdoors by themselves out there over the hills and glaciers, maybe following the caribou, where the chars are or the migratory birds nest.

That DNA is still embedded; we still need to recharge out there on the land where horizon meets the land.

I believe the land will change, but it will still carry that source to recharge the people here that will enable them to live here and strive.

Peter Autut lives in Iqaluit but is originally from Chesterfield Inlet.