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IQALUIT - Joanassie Akumalik is a skilled communicator and advocate and, more importantly, an active listener.

“I think listening is a big part of what you get to be,” he said. “Listen a lot or hear a lot. Hear what other people are saying. I say this because when I turned 16, my mother allowed me to decide whether I wanted to go to school in the morning or not.

Joanassie Akumalik: “I think listening is a big part of what you get to be.” - Carolyn Sloan/NNSL photo

“If I said yes, then she becomes very persistent. If I say no, she leaves me. So she gives me that option, you know. She gives me that very silent command, but I hear it. Listening and communicating is very important nowadays.”

Born in Arctic Bay, Akumalik entered the workforce at the age of 16 as a labourer for Panarctic Oils, which employed a number of Inuit from Arctic Bay and Pond Inlet at its Melville Island site.

There he developed an interest in welding and was later offered the opportunity to go to Winnipeg to upgrade his education and take a two-year welding program.

“That was my first time going down south by myself,” said Akumalik. “It was really a shock. That was the first time I’d seen escalators, and all these qallunaat – so many of them around – and a lot of cars and buildings and a lot of stuff to see.”

After returning home, he worked as an apprentice at the Nanisivik lead-zinc mine, and was eventually recruited by the Northwest Territories as an interpreter-translator for the government in Iqaluit, then known as Frobisher Bay.

“Back then, it was mostly a learning curve for Inuit how to deal with the government with some different kinds of departments, whether it be economic development or wildlife,” he said. “So my job was to translate the rules of the government to Inuit, or to unilingual Inuit. So it meant for me to deal with Inuit on day-to-day basis, translating, working with Inuit.”

In 1983, he met his wife and the couple moved to her home community of Clyde River. After taking a management program offered by the government, he was hired by the Qikiqtaaluk Wildlife Board as its executive director.

Years later, he moved back to Arctic Bay with his wife so they could give their young sons a sense of community life, an opportunity to learn traditional skills and the chance to know the rest of their family.

It was there, at the age of 43, Akumalik became mayor of his home community. In addition to being a leader for his people, he was also their caregiver, mediator and advocate.

“We started getting all these people in the middle of the night coming to our house,” Akumalik remembered.

“One time there was a loud knock on our door about four in the morning …I opened the door and this lady came in half naked, all bruised up... I think she felt she was safe at our place because we didn’t drink and my wife knows how to deal with battered women.

“So you deal with things as a mayor.”

During his term in office, Akumalik was also faced with a mine closure resulting in the widespread loss of livelihood for the people of Arctic Bay.

“At one point, the mine was closing and I was right in the midst of it,” he said. “And here we are, about 800 population of people, against this big mining company who has about 11 or 15 mines around the world.”

In terms of his personal life, Akumalik’s ability to grasp opportunities and make the most of his communication skills is something he attributes largely to overcoming an addiction to drugs and alcohol.

“I’ve been sober for 18 years now, so that was also a learning curve,” he said. “I was drinking a lot but then I learned about AA, went to a treatment centre. Those were the best seven weeks of my life, not only for myself, but for my wife and kids as well.

“I think I wanted to heal. I had a lot of this stuff inside me that had been bothering me from when I was growing up and I let them out.”