Protect traditional Inuit lands, elders say

DENISE RIDEOUT

City planners got an earful of criticism this week when they asked longtime Iqaluit residents for their opinions on council’s 20-year vision for Iqaluit’s growth.

Many elders – some of the earliest settlers in Iqaluit – who attended a public meeting to review a draft of the city’s “General Plan” didn’t favour the way Iqaluit might grow over the next two decades.

The proposed general plan outlines where new housing units, offices, government buildings and stores should be built in the city. It also identifies areas of Iqaluit that should be designated for parks, recreation and traditional activities, such as camping. It is meant to guide the city’s growth between 2002 and 2022.

But the elders who attended the Oct. 8 meeting said they fear the plan will see Iqaluit veer away from its traditional Inuit ways and become more of an urban centre.

They didn’t like the plan’s recommendation that new housing units be built in areas outside of the downtown, including the space behind Arctic College, in Tundra Valley East and in the land around the new arena.

The areas are too far away from the water and ice, important parts of the Inuit lifestyle, they said.

“The elders have always lived on the shores and lived in the open areas and in the visibility of the shoreline,” longtime resident Mary Ekho Wilman warned.

One elder recommended the city make better use of the areas along the beach, suggesting the Visitor’s Centre and the Toonoonik Hotel could be moved to a different area of town to make way for more houses.

But one Iqaluit resident was angry the city was even making plans for developing the land – land he says it has no ownership over.
“Who gave these Inuit rights to you people?” Saila Kipanik, speaking in Inuktitut, said harshly.

The hunter and carver stood in front of the crowd gathered at the meeting and told them the general plan was another example of qallunaat taking over aboriginal land.

He said this has happened in other parts of Canada and now it’s taking place in Iqaluit.

“The aboriginals have been pushed out. Is that what we are waiting for, to be pushed out?” Kipanik said.

He told the consultants the city has hired to draft the general plan: “These areas have cultural value. This is our land. This is where we live.”

Pamela Sweet, a consultant with Fotenn Inc. of Ottawa, tried to appease the elders’ concerns.

Sweet told them the general plan is simply in draft form, and is intended to guide the city on where new houses, offices and stores should go. She said the plan isn’t aimed at taking over the land.

Some of the meeting’s participants urged the consultants to keep development away from the tundra.

Mary Ekho Wilman pointed out that the causeway area is important to Inuit, as it is a traditional camping place that’s close to the Sylvia Grinnell River. “There’s usually lots of people around the river. Have you thought about leaving it that way?” she asked.

Sweet assured her many traditional areas used by Inuit for camping, fishing and berry picking would be left alone.

“The whole idea of the plan is not only to protect the area that is the park but also the West 40 area,” she said.

The consultants met with elders, government officials and building developers throughout the week. They will incorporate the comments into the general plan.

The document will then go to city council before it becomes the official general plan.