Iqaluit (Aug 25/03) - Aaju Peter says she's lived five lifetimes so far. And she isn't done yet. She still has many dreams, many things she'd like to do.

Peter's first lifetime was in Greenland. She was born there but like many Inuit in Canada, she was sent away to school. In her case, it was Denmark.

Thus her second lifetime begin. She spent eight years in Denmark, from age 11 to 18. And when she returned to Greenland, it wasn't home anymore.

"I had lost my roots, my connection to my family. I had even lost my Greenlandic a bit and I couldn't communicate with them," she recalls.

She relearned the language quickly, but said she couldn't cope with the anti-European and anti-white sentiments she encountered.

"I didn't want to put up with it."

She then came into contact with Canadian Inuit through a circumpolar conference.

"I was only learning European subjects, and when I saw these people, I was blown away."

So in 1980, she visited what is now Nunavut, and in 1981 moved to Iqaluit permanently.

"I didn't see it as a way out then, but now, it was an opportunity to get out of there."

Peter had met an Inuk and they built a family together.

"I considered myself so fortunate because he was as interested in me being Greenlandic as I was in him being Inuk," she said.

She learned to speak Inuktituk so she could pass that knowledge to her children.

She learned traditional ways from her mother-in-law, but says that it was mostly out of necessity.

Things would deteriorate for Peter, and for 14 years, Peter said she was living a dream, a bad one.

She recalls living from one day to the next, not having any money, struggling to make ends meet.

She remembers walking from Apex with four of her children to Iqaluit with the only five dollars they had so she could buy bread and juice.

But then, one day, she realized things had to change, and she made them change.

She left with her five children and turned her life around.

"It's like I was sleepwalking for 14 years."

Peter's life now is a happy, complete one.

She is currently studying law at Arctic College, and will graduate in two years and then will have one year of articling to do.

She is interested in aboriginal law, and wants to see it used once more.

"Inuit had laws in the past but now they have been replaced with western and southern laws," she said.

So Peter wants to reconcile the two, not abolish one.

"We can make them work together."

But before doing that, the traditional laws have to be gathered together Peter said.

"We need to compile this knowledge. There is so much material with the elders. We need a strategy to put it in a central place to have access to it," she said.

Peter hopes her law degree will allow her to do that.

"I don't see myself working in a law office. I see myself designing the future."

Relaxation needs

In order to relax from her studies, Peter works on a cruise ship for three weeks of the year as a resource person.

"It's a vacation for me. A vacation where I work 24 hours a day, but I wouldn't trade it for anything," she said.

The cruise is a way for her to recharge her batteries for another year.

"I go on these trips thinking I'm there to give them something, but whatever I give I get 100 times back. It gives me energy to go through another year of law school," she said.

The first time she did the cruise, it was only for three days.

"I couldn't give them more time. And I thought I would be with ignorant people who had no idea what the North was like."

She admits it was almost the opposite.

"I was so surprised. It was like getting hit with a bat.

"Those people were so knowledgeable. They knew more about Nunavut than I did," she admits.

Now, she wouldn't change those three weeks a year for anything.

"I can see myself doing this for another 20 years."

Passing on her knowledge

Peter has travelled in many countries and is passing on that love of travel and adventure to her kids.

"I want them to travel, to go to school away from here. I want them to experience different things so they can realize what a wonderful country we live in," she said.

Her oldest son, 21, is studying theatre at Algonquin in Ottawa.

"He loves it and I love that he loves it."

She also likes the fact that her son is passing on his culture and traditions to his classmates.

"He asks me about traditional stories and he turns them into performances for his classmates," she says.