TALOYOAK/SPENCE BAY
James Eetoolook has spent a lifetime promoting human rights and self-reliance for Inuit people.

After more than 45 years of promoting Inuit rights and culture, James Eetoolook was awarded a lifetime achievement Indspire Award last month. “It's really for the people of Nunavut and aboriginal people of Canada,” said Eetoolook about how it felt to win the award. - NNSL file photo

As a token of appreciation for working towards these goals for more than 45 years as a hamlet administrator and founding board member of multiple Inuit organizations including the Tunngavik Federation of Nunavut – the predecessor of Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated – Eetoolok was presented with an Indspire Award for lifetime achievement at a ceremony in Winnipeg on March 21.

“I keep telling people, it's for the people of Nunavut,” Eetoolook said in an interview with Nunavut News/North about the award. “I would never achieve it alone. I've spent a lot of time working together with others, helping others, struggling with others, they gave it to me.

“It's really for the people of Nunavut and aboriginal people of Canada.”

Born in 1946 in a camp near Fort Ross, Eetoolook's father worked as a guide helping Hudson Bay Company personnel travel from the outpost near the Bellot Straight on the southeast end of Sommerset Island to Gjoa Haven.

When the Hudson Bay Company moved their outpost to the mainland after a few years of bad ice, to what is now Taloyoak, in 1949, the Eetoolook family followed.

Eetoolook remembers being interested in politics and Inuit rights from an early age.

Although Inuit were officially allowed to vote in federal elections after 1950, he remembers when his parents cast their first federal ballot, after the 1960 Canada Elections Act gave all Canadian aboriginal people the right to vote in elections.

“Of course, I was too young to vote that time ... I convinced my parents to vote for a Progressive Conservative because I could read the brochures,” he said with a little laugh.

“I tried to follow Inuit rights when I was young,” he said. “I read quite a bit about what's going on in Canada, along with the other people who have some concerns about the land and social welfare of Inuit.

“There was a lot of things going on – exploration was going on in the North and we had some concerns. We didn't have a say in what was going on, so I guess I was part of the people that looked for ways to improve and have a say and a voice towards the Canadian government and the NWT government during that day.

“That's how I became active in pursuing Inuit rights in Nunavut, along with the other people, of course – my colleagues right across the territory.”

His first “steady job” was as a clerk at the Hudson Bay Store in Taloyoak, where he later became manager. But Eetoolook was continually involved with a group of Inuit who were dedicated to providing Inuit with a voice in decisions being made about their traditional territory.

When the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, which later evolved into the national Inuit organization Inuit Tapirii Kanatami, was formed in 1971 and the regional Kitikmeot Inuit Association was incorporated in 1976, Eetoolook was a founding member. Through the years, those organizations worked to change the sometimes destructive lifestyle among Inuit people and push for rights and fair treatment of Canadian Inuit.

When Spence Bay became a hamlet in 1975, Eetoolook became the community's first settlement secretary. Over the years as the municipal government evolved, Eetoolook re-defined the position, creating what is now known as senior administrative officer.

In recognition of his contribution to hamlet governance, the Nunavut Association of Municipalities created the Eetoolook Award, which is presented annually to the territory's top senior administrative officer.

Although he has had several opportunities to run for territorial council, first in the NWT before division and later in Nunavut, Eetoolook said he never did because he wanted to focus on promoting Inuit rights with cultural organizations.

In 1982, the Tunngavik Federation of Nunavut – the precursor to Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated -- was established with the goal of negotiating and settling the Nunavut Land Claims agreement. Eetoolook was again a founding member and has sat on the board ever since.

“I've been with them right to the end,” he said of the land claim process.

He remembers one night at 2:30 a.m. on Parliament Hill in Ottawa when all parties finally agreed and the land claim was settled.

He is proud of what was included in the claim that created Nunavut in 1999 and made Inuit the largest landowners in Canada, particularly that the claim to the land includes mineral rights. But for him, the biggest win was solidifying Inuit involvement in government and in including traditional knowledge about wildlife, the environment and land in the way decisions are made in the territory.

“I think overall, the whole Nunavut land claims, I'm proud of it and it's workable,” he said.

“It gave us self-determination within our system.”

He had hoped the claim would include governance over education and social security programs, but those powers have yet to be transferred from Ottawa.

“The education system has to change if you're going to start seeing our future generations being involved in the operation of our territorial and federal government.

"If they're going to be leaders we need to see them educated,” he said.

For the youth of today, Eetoolook would like to see proper education and job training so that they can avoid the trap of living off social security.

“The world is changing and Inuit need to change with it. That forces some of our traditional life to change – we know that. I don't think my grandchildren and their children are going to go back to a traditional lifestyle. They need to change if they want to survive as human beings.”

With the combination of global warming and exponential population growth, Inuit need strong future leaders to ensure their voice continues to be heard on Arctic issues, he said.

“There is only a handful of us,” he said. “I think we have to work together, we have to survive together and we have to be a part of the world. No matter what is going on in the world, we need to live with it and be a part of it.”