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NUNAVUT - Nancy Karetak-Lindell served as Nunavut's MP for 11 years, from 1997 to 2008. A long-time volunteer, mother of four, and strong voice for education in the territory, she was born and raised in Arviat, where still lives today - a place she loves and a community that continues to bring her joy.

Nancy Karetak-Lindell with her father Johnny Karetak, who has had a strong influence in her life. - photo courtesy of Nancy Karetak-Lindell

When Nancy Karetak-Lindell thinks about the last 10 years, she feels a sense of gratitude to those who came before her, who inspired hope and who found strength through adversity.

"I think the most important thing that all leaders have had to do over the years is to provide hope for people," she said. "I think if we as leaders don't create that hope for people, then we've defeated our purpose."

In large part, the hope that inspired the creation of Nunavut, the desire for Inuit to determine their own destiny, arose from tremendous suffering, said Karetak-Lindell. From the legacy of residential schools to the people who disappeared during the tuberculosis epidemic of the 1950s and 60s, Inuit have endured adversity through a desire to create a better future.

"You can read every history book that you can find on Earth and you can find that for every adversity, people survived because there was someone that was able to provide that hope," said Karetak-Lindell. "In some way, for Inuit, (these hardships) were the beginning of a new era, a chance for us to right some wrongs we can't change. But we can use it to change for the better, for our children and our grandchildren."

Change is something that the former politician, now 51, knows well.

"I've always said that Inuit have got to be one of the most adaptable people in the world," said Karetak-Lindell. "I mean, my father was still doing travel by dog team when I was a kid. And today, my parents have Visa cards and Internet and client cards, even though they don't speak any English. You have to put that in the right context and it's just amazing that we've come through as we have because no society can go through that amount of change and not have people fall through the cracks."

While this change has brought challenges of its own, it has also brought tremendous opportunity and progress, she added.

"I think many times we tend not to think how far we have come, because we're so concerned with all the challenges that are ahead of us," said Karetak-Lindell. "I think sometimes, we need to go back and reflect on where we came from."

In her mind, one of the most significant achievements in the last decade is the establishment of Inuktitut as an official language.

"Some might not see that as significant, but for people like my parents...their world expanded in a way that for those of us who can read other languages, I don't think we ever completely think of," said Karetak-Lindell. "We don't realize the significance of the barriers that we put in front of people who have so much to contribute. Because they're unilingual and Inuk, the barriers that face them hamper their full participation."

With the new language laws came the opportunity for unilingual Inuit to participate in the workforce as well, to fill roles within the RCMP, the health care field and government for the first time, she said.

"All these positions, as a child, I never would have imagined possible," Karetak-Lindell said. "And because of having Inuit in positions ... they can incorporate that IQ ... into laws, into policies, and that has brought about tremendous change.

"With all these, even just being able to do a meeting all in Inuktitut. It has made Inuit actually proud of being Inuit because many people weren't."

Despite the strides that Nunavut has made, there are areas, such as education, which still have a long way to go, said the former MP.

"I'm very frustrated that we haven't acknowledged the fact that the way we've tried to educate our children has not worked," she said. "We're so hung up on the southern way of accessing knowledge and applying some title or letters beside someone's name."

It's not about disregarding the southern approach to learning, she added. It's about finding a system that works for Nunavut.

"I remember one of the biggest things as an MP was fighting against the bureaucracy who had always done things the same way," said Karetak-Lindell. "I know people's hearts are in the right places, but we're having so much difficulty incorporating IQ in some areas of the bureaucracy, and if we're going to sustain that hope for the people, there has to be some real change in that bureaucracy.

"We are going to make mistakes and let's not be so scared to make them ... There comes a day that you have to move forward."