Yumimi Pang
Northern News Services
Published Monday, July 21, 2008

NUNAVUT - Peter Ittinuar made history by becoming the first Inuk member of Parliament in 1979 and almost three decades later, he's turning heads with a new book.

Teach an Eskimo How to Read, which is set to be launched in Iqaluit on Oct. 17, chronicles Ittinuar's life in an autobiographical style. The book, published by Nunavut Arctic College and fourth in a series of life stories of Northern leaders, is based on a series of taped interviews with Ittinuar.

"When I consented to do the book I didn't think of it as an autobiography, but I wanted to tell my perspective on things, to explain what I did in my MP days, tell a bit of history, what shaped me, what made me make the decisions I did make," said Ittinuar in a phone interview from his home in Brantford, Ont.

In the last portion of the book Ittinuar reflects on his thoughts of Nunavut and what it is and is not.

Ittinuar is passionate about the territory and recalled that in his maiden speech in the House of Commons as an MP in 1979, Nunavut was his foremost concern.

Ittinuar is now employed as a negotiator with the Ontario government dealing with land-related matters but he sometimes speaks at schools.

He said he would sometimes review the students' history books and notice some misinformation.

"It was an attempt to set the record straight without taking away from anybody else but giving due credit," said Ittinuar.

Ittinuar was born in Chesterfield Inlet in 1950. In his youth, he became fascinated by his grandfather, Danish explorer Peter Freuchen, for whom he is named.

"I am the leftover of some white man passing through the Arctic and leaving behind a blood line. In that way it's quite a common story," said Ittinuar.

Ittinuar added that he was fortunate because he was able to learn about his grandfather through the many books that Freuchen wrote, which number close to 40.

Ittinuar also pays homage to Anaqqaaq, a famous shaman who helped raise him.

"He was the antithesis to Peter Freuchen. He was about as Eskimo as you can be," said Ittinuar, noting it was the start of a dichotomous existence.

Another formative part of Ittinuar's life was being part of the Eskimo Experiment, a government project that sent Inuit children to the south for a middle class education.

Ittinuar was only 12 when was taken from his home in Rankin Inlet after he excelled in academic testing and was shipped to a foster family in Ottawa in 1962. The goal was to see if Inuit children could perform at the same level as white, middle class children.

"We were put into upper middle class homes and sent to regular school," he said, adding he took part in southern hobbies such as music, judo and swimming lessons. "As far as I know, the experiment was a resounding success."

Ittinuar is quick to note that organizers of the Eskimo Experiment failed to ask his parents' permission to send him away to school and that the decision to take him was colonial in nature.

"I cannot deny that it helped me move ahead," he said.

In 1964, Ittinuar moved North again, to Lynn Lake, a mining town in northern Manitoba because his family had re-settled after the mine in Rankin Inlet had shut down.

"My experimental Eskimo days in Ottawa not only made a gap between me and my fellow Inuit but there was already an obvious gap between me and these kids in Lynn Lake who were white. It was pretty obvious I had an upper middle class upbringing," he said. "It was a strange and ironic situation."

Ittinuar made positive contributions in his time as an MP, including helping to secure a senate seat in northern Quebec to help better represent Inuit in the area. Ittinuar was elected to Parliament with the NDP, and he worked to help secure Nunavut as a territory, notably crossing the floor in 1982 to join the Liberals shortly after plans were announced to improve self-government of Inuit by creating a third territory.

"I'm a nobody but I happen to have been in a place and time where, whether consciously or not, I was involved in re-mapping Canada," he said.