by Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (Mar 16/98) - The Inuit have always been traders. And because the Inuit have always been traders, they have always been in business, Jose Kusugak, president of Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated said.

Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. implements the Inuit obligations of the Nunavut land claim agreement.

The Inuit have traded for thousands of years, he said.

Kusugak, who spoke with xxxNews/North on Sunday pointed to the Inuit's ties with the Hudson's Bay Company, as an example of a people in business.

Non-Inuit society often sees the Inuit-Hudson's Bay Company relationship as one favoring the Europeans.

By today's standards, the trading may not have been a fair deal, but back then the Inuit thought it was fair, Kusugak said.

Fur was plentiful while rifles and other commodities sought by the Inuit, like flour and sugar, were often scarce, he said.

But put the fur trade in historical perspective, Kusugak added.

"The economy of Canada started with the fur trade. Furs made the Hudson's Bay Company. At one point, fur was a currency," he said.

For the Inuit, "the idea of building a business community is not necessarily a new concept. It is just a different type of business."

The Inuit will now generate new economic growth through investing in stocks and partnerships, he said.