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The party that started it all

How two Inuit men were persuaded to sign over their land to a mining giant

DENISE RIDEOUT
Nunatsiaq News

ARCTIC BAY — Twenty eight years ago, two Inuit men living in Arctic Bay signed an agreement allowing a mining company to tear up their land and build a large mine in nearby Nanisivik.

They couldn’t read English and they didn’t understand the document they were signing. They thought they were going to a party.

During a public hearing into the clean-up and restoration of the mine site held in Arctic Bay last week, Joanasie Akumalik, the mayor of Arctic Bay, accused company officials of blindsiding the two men.

Akumalik said the piece of paper the Inuit men were persuaded to sign in 1974 was the Strathcona Agreement (named for the nearby Strathcona Sound). The document set the wheels in motion for construction of the Nanisivik mine.

"I would like to begin by telling you all a story," the mayor said, speaking into a microphone set up in the school gym.

"In the middle of June 1974, two Inuit men from our community were invited to a party. One of those men was Issiah Attagutsiak. He was my uncle. The other was Levi Kudlook. He was the mayor.

"Neither of them could read or understand English. They thought they were going to a dance and to have some food. When they got to the party, they were asked to sign a paper agreeing to something. They did not know what they were agreeing to.

"The document they were agreeing to was signed by the Minister of Indian and Northern Development at that time and the president of Mineral Resources International Ltd. It created a mine called Nanisivik Mines Ltd.

"The document they agreed to is called the Strathcona Agreement.

"That minister is now the Prime Minister of Canada, the Right Honourable Jean Chrétien.

"They were told at the time that the agreement they agreed to at that long-ago party would be translated into Inuktitut and provided to them.

"Nobody in our community has ever seen a translated copy of the Strathcona Agreement.

"Today, 28 years later, we are talking about the closure of the same mine."

Tales and woes of Nanisivik

Akumalik wasn’t the only one to use the hearing as an opportunity to reflect on the past. As mine officials talked about their plans to shut down the mine, residents of Arctic Bay and political leaders shared their memories of working at the site and expressed their concerns about the upcoming closure.

The mayor’s father, Mucktar Akumalik, helped build the Nanisivik mine site. After the construction phase was over, Akumalik worked as a janitor at the site, living in Nanisivik for seven years.

"My employee number was 17," the elder recalled.

"In 1960, I was there to start construction. We carried a battery on our back. We walked three miles every day. We didn’t have rubber boots. We had sealskin boots and they wore out fast and our wives repaired them," Akumalik said, sporting a pair of black rubber boots.

Attaguttak Ipeelee, a 76-year-old Arctic Bay resident, pleaded with CanZinco Ltd., the company that owns the mine, not to demolish the houses, ice rink, church and other useful buildings at the Nanisivik mine site. She also urged the mine company to save the gravel road that leads to Kahulu Lake.

"Inuit love to do their fishing there and use it as their food source," she said.

Rebekah Uqi Williams, MLA for Nanisivik and Arctic Bay, questioned CanZinco’s plans to test the ground around the mine’s conveyor belt for contaminants.

"We don’t know what kind of tests you do. Who is going to evaluate your testing?" Williams said, pointing to the large conveyor belt that sits next to the dock. "Are you going to tell us it’s a good thing? How will we know?"

Tommy Kilabuk, a local hunter, said he worries that mining has already affected wildlife in the area. He told a story of hunting a small seal several years ago near the dock:

"The fur was full of contaminants and there were things inside the seal that were not normal."

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