KIVALLIQ
Tongola Sandy, who died in Rankin Inlet July 23 at the age of 68 while surrounded by his family, was a man beloved by many.

Tongola Sandy, seen here with his wife Rosemary, was known as a humble, hard-working and good man who played an instrumental role in what would become the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement. He died peacefully while surrounded by family in Rankin, July 23. - photo courtesy of Sandy family

The reasons are universal and repeated by family, friends and work associates. He was good, humble, a tireless worker, stubborn, determined and devoted to his people and his family.

Although he had been ill - a series of strokes and Alzheimer's left him progressively incapacitated over the past few years - he is continually remembered as a man who was deeply committed to his region.

"I always felt a tremendous respect," says Tagak Curley. "Some of us were highly involved in national and regional levels of politics but we had people like him who were involved at the ground level at all times. Very important."

Curley adds, "Those were busy times, when we were negotiating the land claims for so long. When I started the Inuit movement it was so heavy, so heavy. Very heavy. The burden that you carry to try and regain the self-confidence, the self-determination of the people in their birth-right land. These were tremendously heavy times and leadership was scarce."

Tongola's wife Rosemary remembers, "They would have meetings (that lasted until) after midnight."

Curley says, "After the regional bodies were created, first the national then the regional, then we started seeing leadership developing. It was always fascinating to me because in earlier days when we literally had nothing to try to get an Inuit movement, you could find a lot of smart people but you could not find one completely willing to give all."

Tongola was willing to give all.

"He did it really quietly because he was a really quiet man. He was involved in a lot of things but he was so quiet nobody knew what he was doing," says Rosemary.

John Hickes, a former mayor of Rankin Inlet and negotiator for both NTI and KIA, has this to add, "He was humble but very hard-working. When you're humble, people don't see ... He was one of the hardest working men I've ever seen. His professional development - you just don't see very many of his type."

Curley grew up with Tongola from a young age in Coral Harbour.

"He was a couple of years younger than me. Once we were teenagers, we all shared the same things, hunting and trapping, and being boys at Coral Harbour," says Curley.

"We all had sympathy for him because his mother died when he was a young kid. We were all little guys, five or six. But we always remembered his mother died early. As a result, he and his two older sisters were very special to all of us. To us, mothers and dads were very much more special because we depended on them so much more then. We were always taught by our elders to treat them as special."

Curley recounts that his friend became very good in the outdoors because, even at a very young age, whenever his father would go out he was always with him.

"He was very attached to his father Sandy Sateana," says Curley.

James Sandy says, "Dad was into land and maps. As a child his dad used to take him out on the land a lot and he was really into maps. You show him a map, he knows it right there."

Tongola started with the Hudson's Bay Company at 13.

"He was unlike some of us. Even though I have been actively involved from my mid-20s, the shared common lifestyle in our teenaged years was the hunting economy. But we knew the world was changing so he first pursued employment with the Hudson's Bay Company. He became a clerk and an assistant manager with the Hudson's Bay."

Eventually Tongola was offered a job as a manager in Chesterfield Inlet or Repulse Bay (now Naujaat) but not wanting to leave Coral, he took a job as manager with the housing association, then worked for the Nunavut Housing Corporation. The travel all over the North became intensive. The family relocated to Rankin Inlet. Leaving Coral Harbour was not an easy decision - it was home - but Tongola's travelling often found him stranded in Rankin because of the weather and he was not seeing his wife and children.

He landed at the Kivalliq Inuit Association, eventually as chief land administrator.

Rosemary points to Luis Manzo, now director of lands with KIA.

Manzo says, "Tongola was part of the lands selection team that is now the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement. That's the important piece. This is a very good accomplishment because this is what we are now. If it wasn't for these people ... That's how simple it is. They are the foundation of what we became today. That's something that needs to be said. People need to know."

Rosemary, who confesses her interests were not the same as Tongola's, recalls a time when the couple returned to Coral Harbour for a visit, "I don't know what happened. He was so happy. He said, 'We won. We tricked the federal government and we got what we want.'"

Apparently Tongola's excitement had to do with one particular piece of land that would now be Inuit-owned land. Everyone agrees Tongola had a way of getting what he wanted.

"I don't know how he does it. If it's for Inuit - he was willing to fight for the Inuit people," says Rosemary.

Lands and mapping merged with financial acuity when he said to Rosemary: "If I became KIA president I could be more help to Inuit"

Tongola would go on to save the business arm of the Kivalliq Inuit Association, Sakku Development, after being elected president in 2003.

"In 2003, Sakku Investments Corporation was in a deficit of over $1 million," remembers Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. president Cathy Towtongie.

"Tongola had just been elected as president for the Kivalliq Inuit Association. There was a lot of discord among the board members. One auditor resigned. One auditor was asked to leave. There had been a lot of bad decisions and no documentation.

"Today Sakku is developing. Without him, it would have folded. It was that serious. He was very much responsible for that turn-around. He never wanted to get the credit."

Tongola is also credited with solving the issue of the Manitoba and Athabasca Denesuline claiming land based on land use and occupancy right up to Baker Lake over the years.

"He told us, the way to deal with this is to get the elders of the Manitoba and Athabasca Dene and the Inuit elders together because there had been connections before," says Towtongie. "And the elders told us, 'We can never go against each other. We do have overlapping claims but we have always shared.'

"We would have been fighting in court today if that was never done."

Towtongie adds she was shocked to learn of the close engagement between the Dene and Inuit, who helped each other during time of scarcity. There are even stories of adoption, Dene to Inuit and Inuit to Dene. But Tongola knew.

Says Curley, "It was critical. We just couldn't do it just on the legal technicality matter. He was very well-versed with the elders' connection. That was always a number one priority before the contemporary leadership - always to have a strong relationship to our elders. I think it was my grandfather who told us to respect our elders. We took him seriously."

Tongola is also credited for the formation of Ukkusiksalik National Park outside Naujaat and its Inuit Impact Benefit Agreement with the Government of Canada and then Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

"We didn't think at that time prime ministers want legacies. Tongola convinced him that he wanted a national park as a legacy. And he did. Jean Chretien signed the national park with Tongola. Simple, yet momentous. He knew how to strategize," says Towtongie.

Tongola also pushed for the study for a road linking Manitoba and Kivalliq. He was convinced if there was a road and electricity coming up from Manitoba, the cost of living would go down in the Kivalliq.

"He saw the future. Without a proper foundation the cost of living would go higher, including energy. He was a forward thinker. A man of very few words, but when he did speak, we listened to him," Towtongie says.

All the while he was a devoted family man.

"He was a good man. He was really a good man. He was always supportive," says Rosemary, adding it didn't matter what time a grandchild called, Tongola was available to them and "he would do anything for them."

An avid woodworker, he made sleds for the children for sliding, and dollhouses the young girls pass down to each other as they grow out of them

Among the many Tongola has left behind are five children, 15 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Among those are two that carry his name into the future: grandchild Steve Sandy and great-grandchild Draden Voisey, known as Tongola #2 and Tongola #3.

"He not only loved his family but he was connected with the elders and his church," says Curley. "He played an important role in the social lives of local people. Because we need that, people who have an understanding of people who are grieving.

"Both he and his wife were very good at that, comforting people who have lost loved ones, people who are in family crisis. I think it's partly because Tongola grew up as one without a mother for a long time and he had a special concern for less fortunate individuals."

As Towtongie says, "He never promoted himself. It was always for service to Inuit."

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