Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami candidates on future of the national Inuit organization

Canada's national Inuit organization is electing a new president on Sept. 17. Three people are vying for the top job, and they all want to amplify the Inuit voice on a national level.

"When it comes to Canada's Arctic, the one thing that all Canadians need to know and understand is that when they consider Canada's Arctic, they start thinking about Inuit Nunangat, which is the Inuit homeland," says Terry Audla, who was first elected in 2012 as president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami's and is now seeking a second term.

"Once they start realizing that, I think everyone will be in a much better position to be able to responsibly develop the area."

Audla says that he needs more time to achieve his mandate of diversifying ITK's funding in the face of federal cuts.

However, he faces a challenge from Natan Obed, currently the director of social and cultural development for Nunavut's land claims organization Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.; as well as Jerry Komaksiutiksak, who works for the Mamisarvik Healing Centre in Ottawa. 

Money is the issue

"We have existing modern treaties and they're constitutionally protected," says Audla, "Because of these modern treaties we have the right to determine what happens here in the Arctic."

Audla says that's no small responsibility, considering that the Inuit homeland represents nearly two-fifths of Canada's land mass and 50 per cent of its coastline.

The crisis facing ITK at the moment, Audla says, is a lack of funding that has made the organization scale back its staffing and operations.

"The one thing that Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami has never done is take advantage of charitable status," he says, "and I feel that's a huge potential."

A post-land claims era

Obed, the youngest of the three ITK presidential candidates, says the future of the organization rests in expanding its mandate.  

"In a post-land claims era there are many things that ITK could do," says Obed. including exploring the possibility of delivering services, now that the organization is not preoccupied with land claims issues.

"We have to imagine ITK as not just advocating for Inuit rights to non-Inuit. ITK is a place where Inuit should be thinking about how to connect from Arctic to Arctic," says Obed, "We should be thinking about things that bring us together, that have nothing to do with fighting for social justice, or fighting for economic development."

Obed says he has always had a passion for social and cultural issues, is "particularly concerned about Inuit mental health and also Inuit early childhood development."

He also mentions suicide prevention as a hot button issue, calling it the "biggest policy issue of our time.

"I, like every other Inuk in Canada, have been personally touched by the issue," says Obed. 

"How bad does it have to be before we act?  What do the numbers have to be?"  

One election during another

As the federal election ramps up, all three challengers agree that they would like to see more Inuit issues on the national agenda.

"We need to be up front and centre, and make sure the distinction of Inuit are being looked at, and that there are going to be promises for Inuit, so the issues that we face are being dealt with at the highest level," says Jerry Komaksiutiksak, the third candidate for the ITK presidency.

Komaksiutiksak points to mental health, high unemployment, lack of education, and food security as key issues that ITK needs to raise during the federal election.

He also says that ITK also needs to promote itself more at the community level and do more work to be a real voice for the four represented regions, a task that he says needs to be completed by a president who is fluent in both Inuktitut as well as English.  

Who gets to vote?

Three representatives from each of the four land claim organizations, in addition to the Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada president, will be voting on the new ITK president at this fall's annual general meeting in Cambridge Bay.

The governance model was created to make the ITK president directly accountable to the communities.

"I think it's admirable that we have communities that elect regional Inuit organizational presidents and the board of directors, and we have regional Inuit presidents that then sit on ITK," says Obed, adding that the current structure allows the board of directors to be traced back to the community level.

"I feel like the ITK president should be taking direction from the four Inuit regions because the four Inuit regional presidents take direction from the communities." 

Obed says the way ITK operates is unique among aboriginal groups.

"Not many other aboriginal groups in Canada have such a clear governance model, that allows for somebody to feel like the person that sits at the table as the president of ITK could be accountable through them as long as they are able to influence their own political leadership."

Despite praising the current ITK structure, Oded says that governance models are a moving target and the ITK should be different than what it was in the 1970s when it was first created.  

Almost 45 years in the making

ITK is the voice of 55,000 Inuit living in 53 communities across the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the Western Arctic, Nunavut, Nunavik in Northern Quebec, and Nunatsiavut in Northern Labrador. The organization was formed almost 45 years ago as a national advocacy body to promote the interests of Inuit on environmental, social, cultural, and political issues.

The national Inuit organization was formally established in 1971 but has roots which reach back to the 1960s.

At the outset, the organization was rejected by the federal government. At the time, Indian Affairs Minister Jean Chrétien refused to fund ITK, which was then called Inuit Tapirisat of Canada. It was after much negotiation that Chrétien relented.  

Since its inception, the organization's main goals have been securing land claims for all the Inuit regions in Canada.

The Inuit of Northern Quebec came first with the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, the first modern comprehensive land claim in Canada, in 1975. The Inuvialuit followed, signing a land claim in 1984. 

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The Nunavut Land Claims Agreement was signed in May 1993, which led to the creation of Nunavut in 1999. Labrador Inuit signed their own land claim in 2003, creating the Nunatsiavut government in 2005.

Today, the future of the ITK is in peril as its federal funding has been cut, minimizing the organization's ability to represent the Inuit voice.