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October 14, 1983

The Nunavut Constitutional Forum emerged after the April, 1982 plebiscite on division to assume responsibility for planning the creation of Nunavut.

NCF tours Baffin

JIM BELL
Nunatsiaq News

IGLOOLIK — Education, culture, women's rights and wildlife management were the chief concerns of Igloolik residents who attended a public meeting held at Attaguttaluk School when the Nunavut Constitutional Forum (NCF) visited their community Tuesday, October 11.

The visit is part of a tour that NCF is making to every Inuit community in the Northwest Territories to find out what Eastern Arctic residents would like to see included in a Nunavut constitution.

NCF's tour began in Rankin Inlet on October 4, and continued into the Baffin region on October 10 in Lake Harbour, after they had visited every community in the Keewatin.

The Nunavut Constitutional Forum is made up of six elected leaders from the Eastern Arctic; two from the Committee for Original People's Entitlement (COPE) and two from the NWT legislative assembly. The NCF has been recognized by the federal government as the organization responsible for creating a Nunavut constitution and government.

More than 100 people attended their meeting in Igloolik, with several residents making presentations prepared at community meetings held over the last two weeks.

John Illupalik, chairman of the Baffin Region Education Society, told NCF that a Nunavut constitution must ensure that Inuit language and culture are well protected, especially within the education system.

In response to Mr. Illupalik's comments, NCF chair Dennis Patterson said that a Nunavut legislature composed of Inuit would likely be more successful in negotiating with the federal government for extra funding for education than the present NWT government.

Mr. Patterson also pointed out that the NCF is already recommending that provision be made in the Nunavut constitution for a commissioner of Nunavut languages, and that Inuktitut would be made the official language of Nunavut.

In replying to comments made by John Nataq and Foxe Basin MLA Mark Evaluarjuk about the need to recognize the role of Inuit elders within a Nunavut constitution, Mr. Patterson said, "A Nunavut government should find ways of including elders in government, perhaps in a kind of senate, so that elders may retain their traditional place in society."

Elise Attaguttaluk, a home management educator in Igloolik, made a presentation on behalf of a women's group in Igloolik that has been recently formed to deal with the problems of women in that community.

She said she hoped the Nunavut constitution would allow Inuit women married to non-Inuit to retain their Inuit status, and that their children should have full Inuit status and rights.

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