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October 15, 1975

In the fall of 1975, a young man named John Amagoalik left the GNWT's Department of Information to take a new job at the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada as land claims officer for the NWT. His first task was to build on the Nunavut land claims work begun by ITC's first president, Tagak Curley and Curley's successor, James Arvaluk.

Amagoalik new ITC land claims director

Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — John Amagoalik, a Frobisher Bay resident, has been appointed land claims officer in the NWT to take up one of ITC's most vital positions November 17.
He will co-ordinate the efforts of 12 staff members, including field workers and a legal advisor, in preparing the Inuit land claims proposal.

When the proposal is ready, he will chair a negotiating committee of two representatives of each region of the NWT.

Mr. Amagoalik said, "There is no more exciting and challenging thing I could do right now. The future of Inuit people rests very heavily on land claims."

He hopes land claims will "accomplish the securing of land, not money." I hope we can secure enough land to enable any Eskimo person to live the way we lived in the past if he chooses, and is able to."

He thinks things are looking well, and thinks it is likely that the Minister of Northern Affairs will agree at least to certain parts of the proposal.

A tentative version of the Inuit land claims proposal will be presented to delegates from all NWT settlements at an October 27 conference in Pond Inlet.

Delegates may make changes, or may want to go back to their settlements to further discuss the proposal. The proposal will then be taken back to ITC headquarters in Ottawa for rewriting, amendments, or additions. It will then be presented to the Minister of Northern Affairs as a basis for negotiations. "How long negotiations take is up to the minister," said Mr. Amagoalik.

Much of the background work on the land claims proposal was done by Tagak Curley, both as ITC's first president and then as Land Claims Director.

Since Curley's resignation last August, president James Arvaluk has been acting Land Claims Director.

Mr. Amagoalik is now on leave of absence from the territorial government to write a book. He will go back to work at the Department of Information for about a week, before leaving with his wife Evie and small son Kevin.

Mr. Amagoalik's only regret in taking this new job is that he must leave the North. He hopes he won't stay in Ottawa too long.

Mr. Amagoalik is 27 and was born in Port Harrison (Inoucjouac), Quebec. He moved to Resolute Bay at the age of five, and lived there for 19 years. He came to Frobisher Bay to attend school and has worked for the government in Frobisher Bay for three years.

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