Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Nov 22/99) - The right to harvest wildlife is a subject that Inuit across the territory are impassioned about.

That much is crystal clear.

The issue becomes muddied, however, when the topic turns to specifics, including who can assign their harvesting rights, what rights can be assigned, and who can set the procedures governing assignment.

But based on the outcome of two upcoming meetings -- a regional gathering scheduled for this Saturday, Nov. 27, in Rankin Inlet, and the annual general meeting of the membership of the Iqaluit Amarok Hunters and Trappers Association on Dec. 4 -- many of the ambiguities should be cleared up.

"After Dec. 4, the HTA will establish their procedures according to the needs of the collective," said Sytukie Joamie, the manager of the Iqaluit-based HTA.

More specifically, the members of Amarok are going to decide how, or even if, they wish Inuit in their community to be allowed to assign their hunting rights to other people.

"It's really up to the collective. It depends on how they answer our question -- how they want assignment rights to be established," said Joamie.

Borne out of the Nunavut Land Claim in 1993, the issue of assignment was included to allow Inuit who could not harvest wildlife for themselves to assign their hunting rights to another Inuk or a non-Inuk spouse to ensure a food source.

But many Inuit have begun to feel the concept is being abused and used by Nunavut residents and in particular, non-Inuit, who want to hunt big game species for glory.

Under that same land claim, and in the implementation contract, the authority and the responsibility for managing assignment was given to the HTAs. This means it is up to the elected group in each hamlet to decide on the policies and procedures that will govern assignment in their communities.

To that end, each HTA must create their own assignment applications and until then any forms being used or any rights that have been assigned to date are null and void, Joamie said.

Madeleine Redfern, a member of the Amarok HTA's assignment committee, said the first step in developing the policy was to secure funding and training in order to bring all of the HTAs up to speed on the issue. That will be discussed at the regional meeting this weekend.

The second step Redfern said, in Iqaluit at least, was to lay out all the issues for the membership during the AGM.

"On something as important as this, when there is an immediate and long-term impact, the community really needs to understand and decide how they want to proceed with this," said Redfern.

"All we can do is bring forward options and provide information," she said, adding that the danger lay in having yet another group set the procedures and policies from outside of the membership.

"The whole premise and idea of setting up Nunavut government and the Nunavut Land Claim Agreement was to give more power to the people in the communities rather than things developed from an outside agency or from the top down," said Redfern.

The decisions made by the collective in two weeks time will then set the direction the Amarok assignment committee will take in the future.