Kirsten Murphy
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Aug 20/01) - "My mind is normal. I forget I'm disabled," says artist Bernadette Kublu from her bed at the Iqaluit elders centre.

Unable to walk since arthritis and anemia crippled her six-foot frame a decade ago, the former Pond Inlet resident knows she is different.

Bernadette Kublu draws in her room/studio at Iqaluit's elders'centre. - Kirsten Murphy/NNSL photo

Different because her pen-and-ink drawings reflect her days as a raven-haired teen who bathed in spring streams and ran with the wind.

Different because Kublu, 52, is publicizing her otherwise private life to raise awareness about Nunavummiut living with disabilities.

There is no single territorial or federal department supporting people with disabilities. Instead, responsibilities are spread between Health Canada and various territorial government departments.

Disability advocates say the lack of continuity prevents or delays disabled people from leading independent, dignified, healthy lives.

"I want the community to include me as an ordinary person. I don't like being ignored," Kublu says.

She'd like her own apartment and a community support worker to help her shop and meet friends for coffee.

Kublu participated in the Inuit Community Consultation Sessions in Iqaluit Aug. 9 and 10. The invitation to participate came from the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada and the aboriginal relations office of the federal Department of Human Resources.

The meetings amounted to a planning session for presentations on housing, health, employment, nutrition companionship issues affecting Inuit at a national meeting this fall.

Educating the non-disabled world is the first step, says Inger-Lise Christensen in Grise Fiord.

Born with cerebral palsy, the 26-year-old mother and wellness counsellor serves as an elected hamlet councillor.

"I don't have a problem with my disability because I was born with it. It's other people who can't get over it," she says.

Christensen says she

hopes for a day when able-bodied people treat the approximately 1,000 people living with disabilities in Nunavut as equals.