Politics

Until the early 1970s, no aboriginal organization existed in the north; the only body over which local people exercised some economic and administrative control was the cooperative movement. But after 1969 a new generation of young educated Inuit was able to react effectively to the challenge posed by newly emerging megaprojects, such as the Mackenzie valley pipeline or the James Bay hydroelectric development.

With financial aid and logistical support from the federal government, aboriginal asssociations were established in order to uphold Inuit rights in Canada. They included the Committee for Original Peoples Entitlement (COPE) in the Mackenzie area (1970); Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, the national organization (1971); the Northern Quebec Inuit Association (1971); the Labrador Inuit Asssociation (1973); and several other regional and/or special-interest organizations (for example, the Inuit Cultural Institute, and Pauktuutiit, the national federation of Inuit women). In 1980 many Canadian Inuit played an active part in the establishment of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, an international association formally recognized by the United Nations as the sole official representative of the Yupik and Inuit peoples. This body is busy elaborating and implementing an Arctic policy devised by Inuit from Siberia to Greenland.

One of the first concrete results of these organizations’ activities was the signature of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement in 1975. It gave the local Inuit collective ownership over a good part of Arctic Quebec, as well as financial compensation for the extinction of their aboriginal title to this territory. The agreement also provided for the establishment of a locally controlled administrative apparatus in the fields of economic development (Makivik Corporation), municipal administration (the Kativik Regional Government and village-level municipal councils), education (Kativik School Board), language and culture (Avataq Cultural Institute), health and social services, and so on. In 1989 Quebec’s Inuit organizations began evolving towards a more politically autonomous form of administration, thus fulfilling one of the wishes of the two communities (Povungnituk and Ivujivik) that do not recognize the legitimacy of the current agreement.

In the Northwest Territories, municipal governments and regional boards of health and education were also put into place during the mid-1970s, but it was not until 1985 that a land-claims settlement was signed with the Mackenzie Inuvialuit. Six years later, at the end of 1991, the Canadian government reached an agreement (signed in 1993) with the Inuit residents of the Kitikmeot, Keewatin, and Baffin regions. Besides developmental funds and ownership rights over about 10 percent of these three regions, the agreement provided for the establishment on 1 April 1999 of a new territory, Nunavut, carved out of the present-day Northwest Territories. This new political entity will have its own government, elected by all its permanent residents, and it will possess most of the prerogatives of the Canadian provinces. With an Inuit population accounting for about 80 percent of the total, it will be the only jurisdiction within Canada to have a native majority.

With the exception of Labrador, Canada’s Inuit now seem to have reached (or to be on the verge of reaching) satisfactory territorial and political agreeements with the government. They also participate actively in national politics. In contrast to Indians, they were never denied voting rights. Over the years, a few Inuit have sat in the House of Commons or, in two cases (Peter Adams and Charlie Watt), in the Canadian Senate. Moreover, several Inuit MPs belong to the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories, either as simple deputies or as ministers. The ranks of aboriginal politicians in the Arctic include a large number of women, some of whom have reached the highest positions: premier of the Northwest Territories (Nellie Cournoyea), president of Inuit Tapirisat of Canada (Rhoda Inukshuk; Rosemary Kuptana); chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (Mary Simon, now Canadian ambassador for circumpolar affairs; Rosemary Kuptana).