Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (Nov 01/99) - It's a long way from the North to Parliament Hill, but a number of people who used to call the NWT and Nunavut home now hang their hats in the nation's capital.

Claire Barnabe knows just about all of them.

The former nun, settlement manager and two-time candidate for territorial government, spent 19 years in the North, starting in 1965, before moving to the Gatineau Hills region of Ottawa.

Barnabe currently works as a political advisor to newly-appointed NWT Senator Nick Sibbeston.

Barnabe took a run at retirement in 1996. "I managed to hide out in the bush for two years," she said. "That was a commitment I made to myself, to adapt and get used to retirement."

The two-year hiatus from public life came to an end in the spring of 1998, when she attended the Northern Science Awards. The event marked the beginning of an involvement with Eastern Arctic issues in Ottawa for the former resident of Iqaluit and Repulse Bay.

"While I was there I ran into (Nunavut MP) Nancy Karetak-Lindell, who had been there for a year. She asked me if I'd go and help her in her office because the Nunavut Act was just then going through Parliament."

Barnabe was a member of the Drury Commission, which recommended against division, but said that had little impact on her work to get the act through.

"I believe in the political process," said Barnabe. "You do your best, let the politicians decide then either get on side or do something else."

While helping Karetak-Lindell, Barnabe met many old friends from her days in the NWT. Among them was Peter Irniq, who had just been hired as a deputy minister in the newly-created Nunavut government.

In the fall of 1998 Barnabe began helping Irniq develop policy for the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth.

Barnabe refers to the emergence of Nunavut and the appointment of Sibbeston as the completion of a circle.

"Finishing the 20th century, we have two native women MPs and Willie Adams, the first Inuk senator, and now the West has its first senator, Nick Sibbeston, a Metis who grew up in Fort Simpson.

"Although a lot of people are critical things don't move very fast, I was very satisfied to see all of these positions filled by very competent and very experienced native people."