Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Oct 09/00) - After months of inaction on the issue of the assignment of harvesting rights, definite steps were taken by a group of Inuit women who rushed the recent Nunavut Wildlife Symposium.

Tired of being left out of an issue that affects them, the women walked into the wildlife meeting in Iqaluit at the end of September and demanded they be considered and consulted during the implementation of Article 5.7.34 of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.

Iqaluit resident Rebecca Williams organized and acted as the spokesperson for the group. She said women had never been consulted despite the fact that they are one of the primary groups of people assigning their harvesting rights.

"Our position was that when they are working on the implementation of assignment rights, they must involve the people impacted by it," said Williams.

"Whether it's a handicapped person or someone who is too old or me because my spouse is non-Inuk, they basically need to consult us," she said.

Created under the Nunavut Land Claim in 1993, the article governing the assignment of harvesting rights is assumed to have been included as a way to provide food for Inuit unable to hunt by assigning their harvesting rights to a non-Inuk spouse or to another Inuk.

Authority for developing the policies and procedures was delegated to the Hunters and Trappers Associations.

Since March of 1998, the Amarok HTA committee virtually spearheaded the movement in Nunavut until other commitments and changes in staff led to a series of missed deadlines.

Assignment was again brought to the table during the wildlife symposium and a resolution to form a committee -- dubbed the wildlife policy advisory committee -- to resolve the issue was struck, but it was Williams and her group who garnered the most attention with their surprise visit to the meeting.

Williams said they no longer wanted to be left out in the cold.

"We have not been advised and we don't know of any group who has been advised who are impacted by this," she said.

"It was pretty intimidating to go into a meeting like that without invitation, but the response was very good. They really understood and this might be a turning point in implementing this," said Williams.

She said the group currently has no other plans for action, but they are watching to ensure the awareness they generated didn't fall by the wayside.

In the meantime, as the new committee gets down to work, David Ell, the secretary of the Amarok HTA in Iqaluit, said the assignment rights committee was back on track and has drafted new procedures that are under review. The policy will be brought to a vote by the HTA's membership during their general meeting in December. But not however, before the women included in the membership are consulted.

"Yes, we do plan to take it to the women in the membership," said Ell.