Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Jan 15/99) - Joey Amos, 40, who was born in Inuvik and raised in a tent on the land, is an example of an Inuvialuit making a positive contribution to help preserve the environment, resources and the livelihood of hunting and trapping.

Since April, 1998, he has worked as the executive secretary of the Inuvialuit Game Council. Before that he worked in various capacities with the hunters and trappers committee, stretching back to 1990.

"My favourite part of the job is that I enjoy meeting different people," he says.

"It's a requirement to meet a lot of people whether it's in government or different agencies that deal with wildlife or renewable resources and also dealing with our own people at the community level."

His job requires him to make travel arrangements, record, transcribe and distribute minutes from meetings, as well as smoothing correspondence between the council's 12 directors from various Inuvialuit communities and the chair.

It's transcribing the minutes which Amos cites as his least favourite part of the job -- but he does it anyway "or I wouldn't be doing my job."

Technically, Amos is employed by the Joint Secretariat, which is an umbrella group made up partly of co-management boards such as the fisheries joint management committee, wildlife management advisory committee of the NWT and the environmental impact review board.

Separated but living common-law with Lorna Loreen, Amos has three children of his own who live in Quebec and one common-law daughter.

"I came out of school when I was 16 and I couldn't handle the pressures of school life and that type of stuff so I ended up going back out on the land when I was 16 until I became of work age and it's been in and out of the bush off and on," he says.

"It's nothing I'm going to make a living out of. My skills aren't as great as what normally would be done or normal trappers would have, so I wouldn't be able to survive. Maybe food wise, but to make a living out of it, no."

Keeps a getaway

Still, he has a tent out on Navy road that he previously lived in for about two and a half years.

"It's a great place for me to run away to and escape from the pressures of phones and TV."

Has the Inuvialuit Final Agreement helped the Inuvialuit people?

"Yes. I'm finding that it is becoming more and more beneficial because prior to the IFA being signed it was really hard for us to really have a say in how we managed the wildlife and resources," Amos says.

And as far as preparing younger Inuvialuit to take over IRC jobs southerners now hold, Amos is equally enthusiastic.

"Recently I'm finding out that more and more of our younger people are prepared to come into jobs."

He then cites a co-worker, William Hurst, as an example. He also mentioned Charles Hunter, who is the first Inuvialuit lawyer.

"The agreement has given younger people goals and aspirations," Amos says.