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Kuujjuaq welcomes the circumpolar world

Delegates discuss self-determination for indigenous peoples during week-long ICC conference

DWANE WILKIN

KUUJJUAQ - They began to trickle in on Sunday. A plane carrying Alaskans and a dozen Russians touched down on the Kuujjuaq tarmac in the morning. They were serenaded in the airport by local troubadour Charlie Adams and shuttled in a school bus to their lodgings.

The Greenland contingent arrived late in the afternoon after a leisurely flight of just under two hours - less time that it takes to fly from Montreal. It was a vivid reminder that geography as well as culture closely binds the Arctic world.

As hundreds of delegates and observers gathered this week for the ninth general assembly of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC), anxiety melted into excitement. Work crews scrambled in the bright summer sun to fasten a giant metal caribou to the outer wall of Nunavik's new $9-million convention centre, while laughing throat singers and a local choir inside gave their lungs a stretch.

And among the Canadian hosts, no smile was wider than the one beaming from Johnny Adams' face.

The chairman of the Kativik Regional Government (KRG), which spent nearly two years organizing this year's summit, praised residents of Nunavik's largest community for their generosity.

"Everybody's done their part to make sure we have enough space," Adams said. "Some families have even vacated their house for the week and gone to stay in their cabins."

Fewer Russian delegates than expected were able to make the trip, though Alaskans showed in full force, many with children in tow. Organizers had hoped 35 Inuit delegates from Russia's Chukotka region would attend, but only 12 managed to make the trip across the Arctic.

Speaking to reporters upon his arrival in Kuujjuaq, ICC president Aqqaluq Lynge blamed the poor Russian showing on bungled communications between Moscow and Washington that held up transit visas.

"I'm sure that if we had an effective office in Chukotka itself, those problems that we ran into would have been avoided," Lynge said, barely able to hide his disappointment.

The desire to achieve greater self-determination for indigenous peoples was a theme that reverberated throughout the week, whether talks centred on the environment, social issues or human rights.

Greenlanders, who took their first steps toward independence from Denmark in the 1970s, also looked to fellow ICC delegates for support in their ongoing struggle to gain more power over international relations.

"Denmark shouldn't negotiate on behalf of Greenland all the time," said Helen Kristensen, a former member of the Danish parliament and a goodwill ambassador with the Greenlandic delegation. "I think the solution will be in the future that Greenland get more equality so that they can take responsibility for their own foreign-affairs policy."

Lynge, who steps down as leader of the world Inuit organization this week to make way for a Canadian president, urged Inuit to confront the many social ills that plague Arctic communities, but downplayed suggestions that the ICC could do more at the local level to improve the lives of Inuit.

"We have been through a historic period where our identities have been undermined by colonizers, by missionaries," Lynge said. "We are only now building our communities strong."
In comments that would foreshadow debate over economic development in traditional Inuit homelands, Lynge stressed the need for greater self-reliance.

"While we are struggling to understand how we change our societies, we also have to understand that we cannot build any Arctic or indigenous communities in the world while depending on others all the time," Lynge said.

Arlo Davis, a young Inupiaq Eskimo from the village of Selauvik in Alaska, suggested that traditional culture offers the best antidote to drug abuse, alcoholism and suicide in the Arctic.

"I think if we could be more unified with other youth that are more involved with cultural activities, like the youth in Canada and Greenland, if we could get more involved in cultural activities," said Davis, a member of the Alaskan delegation's youth wing," I think we'd see some of these problems start going away."

Pita Aatami, president of Makivik Corporation, a major sponsor of this week's summit, challenged delegates to explore ways of increasing economic cooperation among circumpolar regions, but he also warned against ignoring the destruction that drug and alcohol abuse continue to wreak in Arctic communities.

"It's hard to handle this, but we have to face it," Aatami urged. "If we're going to develop, we have to look at ourselves."

The Kuujjuaq Youth Singers entertained delegates and observers during Monday's opening ceremony, offering renditions of O Canada and We are the World in English and Inuktitut. The morning's pageantry included throat singing and a drum dance.

Providing food for the more than 700 visitors in Kuujjuaq this week for the world Inuit summit and the Akpiq Jam music festival presented a formidable logistical challenge for local retailers.
"It's meant pretty much doubling up on all the orders," said Eric Pearson, manager of the Northern Store.

Pearson breathed a sigh of relief when three special refrigeration containers were unloaded in the harbour last week. The refrigeration units, leased by ICC from a supplier in the United States, were shipped free of charge on a regular sealift from Montreal by Transports Desgagné.

They'll be used to store about 15,000 kilograms of perishable and non-perishable food flown in last week on a regular food-mail flight from Dorval.

"We don't really have the infrastructure for a meeting of this size," Pearson said, "but I guess everything has worked out."

Anticipating the demand for liquid refreshment during the conference, Pearson said he tripled stocks of Gatorade and bottled water. "I expect to be all out of that before the next sealift comes in," he said.

In his opening remarks, Kuujjuaq mayor Michael Gordon applauded the ICC's decision to hold the assembly in the Nunavik village.

"All Inuit used to live in small communities, so I'm glad we were able to meet in what you'd call a small centre," Gordon said.

While delegates to the Inuit summit spent much of the week airing shared concerns, they relied spectacularly on the rare talents of two dozen simultaneous interpreters and translators to do so.

"It's not as hectic or as frustrating as translating at the Nunavut Legislature," commented Mary Nasuk, a translator with the Canadian delegation. The Kuujjuaq meeting resembled sessions of the United Nations at times, with speeches shape-shifting from one language to another. Translators call it the ripple system.

In addition to Inuktitut, languages spoken at the summit included Inuvialuktun, Greenlandic, Yupik, Danish, English, French and Russian.

"The common language we have is English," explained Harriet Keleutak, one of two trilingual interpreter-translators with the Canadian delegation.

Organizers put the final cost of holding the ICC assembly in Kuujjuaq at $1.2 million, with First Air, Air Inuit and their parent company Makivik Corp. chipping in for a combined total of $475,000, or nearly half.

The Kativik Regional Government (KRG) and the Municipality of Kuujjuaq were also major contributors, as were the governments of Quebec and Canada and Hydro Quebec.

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