NUNAVUT
For the man who received it, a carving of an Inuk man assembling three pieces of snow into an iglu has come to symbolize the creation of Nunavut.

Tunngavik Federation of Nunavut chief negotiator Paul Quassa and vice-president Bob Kadlun present then Indian Affairs Minister Tom Siddon with "Snow Block Carving" in Iglulik on April 30, 1990, the day they signed the agreement-in-principle to negotiate the final Nunavut Land Claims Agreement. This Nunavut Day, Siddon is returning the carving to the territory for posterity. - photo courtesy of Hans Blohm

Former indian affairs minister Tom Siddon, who steered the federal government from agreement-in-principle to the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, was given the carving the day he signed that first paper in 1990.

"This is kind of the way Nunavut was built, one block at a time, with a long history of Inuit survival on our Northern limits of Canada," Siddon said. "Of course, it was always Nunavut, home to the Inuit people. That's what the creation of Nunavut was all about. That's why I think it doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the people of Nunavut."

The gift was received early in his time as minister, and his only visit to the territory was a memorable one.

"On that visit to Iglulik, we had a great welcoming ceremony in the school and then we were treated to a traditional feast, country meats all spread out in the high school gymnasium and it was a great time together," Siddon recalled during a phone interview from Okanagan Falls, B.C. "(On) the 29th of April, we went out with a great guide, Paul Apak, who took my wife and I out with Tom Molloy on a dogsled out to the ice front and we built an iglu and slept in it. That was my initiation and first experience in Nunavut to be there and watch as Paul constructed the iglu and bedded down.

"We got up the next morning at the cold light of dawn and mushed back into Iglulik for a whole day of ceremonies, which included the signing of the agreement-in-principle at the school gymnasium. Paul Quassa was the president of (Tunngavik Federation of Nunavut) at the time, and that's where he presented me with this rather special carving."

Twenty-five years after receiving the carving, Siddon said it is time it returned home. He and his wife plan to attend a Nunavut Day ceremony in Iqaluit to return the 40-centimetre-tall artwork. As minister, he often received gifts, but said he believes he is not the rightful owner.

"There's always the question, are we supposed to keep it?" he said. "I have lots of smaller carvings and various things that I was given, especially when I was Indian Affairs minister. None of them have the historic tie to the land, to the history, to the expectations of the people of Nunavut that this carving does."

Siddon's presence at that 1990 meeting came soon after he was put into the role by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney after facing a challenging period of time in Fisheries in the wake of a fish stock scandal that faced his predecessor.

"I had been Fisheries Minister for five years and Mr. Mulroney called me in February 1990 and said, 'Tom, I've got to move you. I'd like to move you from the frying pan into the fire,' and that's a quote. He said, 'but we are going to have some historic work to complete on land claims that your predecessors have been working toward as part of the government's policy on comprehensive land claims,' and he said, 'these are going to be historic years, the next two or three years, and I want you to finish the process.'"

With the groundwork set to sign the agreement-in-principle, Siddon headed to Iglulik knowing there were still years of hard work before the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement would be signed.

"I had to get cabinet approval to develop the political accord, which was essentially the underpinnings of the new government of Nunavut, which would be a Nunavut territory-wide government largely to the benefit of the majority population," he recalled. "That was ratified in a series of referenda I think in 1992, then the finishing touches were placed on the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement and it was finally adopted and signed in Iqaluit in May 1993. That was just before our government came to an end, the Mulroney years, but I was proud and honoured to be part of that unfolding of history."

On the flight home from Iglulik in 1990, Siddon moved from celebration to crisis.

"We got a radio call that hostilities and shootings had broken out at Akwesasne, which is near Cornwall, Ont., and that was the beginning of a very long and challenging summer of my life, and led to the ultimate end of hostilities at Oka," he said. "A particular morning in August, I went in behind the barbed-wire in the pines at Oka and signed an agreement to which we were accompanied by a masked Mohawk warrior, which created in its own right a lot of unhappy people in Quebec that we would sign an agreement under those circumstances, but we also had challenges with First Nations all across Canada that summer.

"This was an ultimate challenge to my time as minister," Siddon said. "But the ultimate achievement was the creation of Nunavut in my recollection looking back a quarter of a century."

He acknowledged the "fathers of this process," including John Amagoalik, and praised Mulroney for his insistence that the territory be created, but said he was proud to be able to carry the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement to completion before the fall of the Mulroney government, shortly after it was signed in 1993.

"That legacy now is a reality, there are always issues dealing with the governments, particularly the Government of Canada, providing enough resources to complete the dream," he said, "but I think it's a lasting and historical change in the map of Canada and it is recognized internationally as a significant achievement of our government at the time."