The world is listening, but are we speaking in unity?

by Zoe Ho

The International Polar Year and expanding the Inuvialuit’s global perspective

IPY, International Polar Year is celebrating its 125th anniversary, and Canada is eager to participate. Our government has pledged $150 million in funding over 6 years to the polar research project. The IPY builds on the expertise of about 50,000 people and scientists from over 40 countries, and is the biggest scale study of its kind to date.

There will also be an emphasis on social aspects in the study. Canada’s key targeted project in the IPY hopes to provide insight into the most crucial challenges for the Canadian north - climate change impacts and adaptation, and the health and well being of northern communities.

A CBC news report said aboriginal delegates at the Arctic Leader Summit in Hay River expressed concern about sharing traditional knowledge with others. They also feared that their contributions to the IPY would be unrecognized.

Duane Smith, IPY committee member and executive member of 7 organizations representing Inuvialuit and Inuit concerns, sees the IPY in a different light.

He said by participating in the International Polar Year 20072008, Inuvialuit could help themselves and the Inuit by being a unified voice on the global stage.

Northern Challenges

Like the years before, IPY research in the North will again focus on the Inuvialuit region. The rest of the world now sees the circumpolar north as a unique ecosystem that acts as a barometer of Earth’s health.

The IPY’s goal is to gather information about land, water, planet, atmosphere and life, to make the public “realize just how much the cold ends of the sphere really do influence us”.

Duane Smith

Climate change due to global warming is evident especially in the Polar Regions. According to reports, within the lifetime of a child born today, there will be no more ice in the polar oceans during the summer months. The Inuit have also found contaminants such as DDT and PCBs in our environment and country food. The pollutants did not originate from the arctic but were brought in by sea and wind currents.

Changes like these impact the Inuit’s traditional way of life, especially on those who depend on harvesting animals and food from the land for survival.

Statistics reveal that aboriginals in the North also live below national standards in terms of employment, education and living conditions.

To rectify these issues, Duane says the Inuvialuit need to adopt a broader perspective beyond what happens within our communities, to “Get involved and be proactive, have patience and ask questions”. “What happens in the circumpolar regions obviously affects the rest of the world and vice versa.”

There will be increased research related activity for the IPY 20072008 as early as this summer, especially in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. Due to the shipping seasons, a lot of researchers will store their equipment for ice-monitoring and helicopter fuel in the region, so they can be ready in Spring 2007.

There will be benefits such as increased employment opportunities, and Northern communities will be part of research, education, and hands on training activities.

“When people see ice monitoring outside of Tuk or Sach’s Harbour, they might think it’s just for somebody out of Winnipeg, Ottawa or Halifax,” said Duane, but supporting these studies will help us get “a bigger picture from the circumpolar perspective”, and help us speak for our peoples and land.

Working Together

Duane feels the Inuvialuit should meet and discuss how we want to move forward as a people, to promote our voice internationally.

He was not always as knowledgeable about what happened in the rest of the world. When he was about 12, his non-native school friends came back from Disneyland. He did not know where it was. “You know, where Mickey Mouse is!” said his friends. At that moment, it dawned on him that not everybody spent their summertime out on the land, enjoying whaling and nature. His worldview expanded further after he got his education in Natural Resources, and as he took on positions in renewable resources and then the Inuvialuit Game Council, where he had the privilege to work under Andy Carpenter.

Over time, Duane accumulated the experience and knowledge he needed in his current positions as Chair of the Inuvik Community Corporation, Vice President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), and President of Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC Canada). He is also on the boards of directors of the IRC (Inuvialuit Regional Corporation) , Arcticnet and the Aboriginal Pipeline Group. These organizations work together to provide conduits for the voices of the Inuvialuit and Inuit to reach national and international audiences. Duane travels frequently on behalf of all Inuvialuit and Inuit.

The IRC and community corporations collect the opinions of Inuvialuit communities from regional representatives, developing policies and programs in response to the communities’ needs. These proposals then go to the national level of the ITK, which represents the 4 Inuit regions in Canada. The ITK lobbies the government to ensure there is adequate federal support and funding to implement the programs. In the same way, organizations such as ICC Canada and Arcticnet provide platforms for Canadians to lobby their issues at the international level.

Moving forward as a people

On the home front, land claims are continually under debate between the government and the regional land claim groups. Under the IFA signed June 5th 1984, the 3 levels of government (federal, territorial and Inuvialuit) have an obligation to engage the Inuvialuit in meaningful participation in the Northern and national economy. Duane says currently our socio-economic progress is slower than before the signing of the IFA, and it is an ongoing process to work with the 3 governments to improve the quality of life.

over this long and dragged out process of getting our needs as Inuit recognized. A youth has posted a blog on the ITK forum, saying that his “life as a young Inuk” is one where he “won’t succeed”, because he is controlled by those who have “exploited” the Inuit way of life through bureaucracy. Duane suggests that youth who want to make a difference to take action. There are groups they can join, such as the National and International Inuit Youth council (www.niyc.ca). There are also exchange programs for eager, outgoing motivated youth to areas within Canada, Greenland and Denmark to have hands on experience in activism.

“Our strength lies in our solidarity,” said Duane. There is encouraging headway being made for recognition of Inuit rights as we step into the international arena. Notably, ICC Canada under Sheila Watt-Coultier in 1998 achieved putting Inuit health firmly on the world agenda. The Stockholm convention was established to eliminate POPs (persistent organic pollutants) from further distribution globally.

ICC Canada has also spent the past year working in South Africa to raise global awareness on the Arctic as an indicator of Earth’s health; it stood up in Beijing at the Global Environment Facility Executive Council meeting, for Indigenous issues to be recognized as distinct from other stakeholders, and voiced our concern to ensure Inuit traditional knowledge is valued at the World Intellectual Property Office in Geneva.

At the national level, organizations like the IFA ICC (Inuvialuit Final Agreement Implementation Committee – made up of the federal, Yukon, GNWT and Inuvialuit government) gather to resolve outstanding issues. Inuvialuit contractors finally got the go ahead to clean up the abandoned metal depot at the area bordering Kittigaryuit about 2 years ago. The IFA ICC persisted for over 30 years to get the government to recognize sites of Inuvialuit cultural significance.

30 years is a long time, but these accumulations of progress are the ones that Duane believes we have to build on to pull us through to success in getting our issues recognized.

However, apathy and frustration can grow in young Inuit