The Long March to Self-Government

By JOHN AMAGOALIK

It was in the 1950s, after Stuart Hodgson was appointed Commissioner of the Northwest Territories, that we began to hear about government moving north.

Hodgson headed what was called the NWT Council. All of its members were appointed by the federal government and it was based in Ottawa.

The territorial council began to hold some of its sessions in the larger communities in the north, like Fort Smith, Hay River and Yellowknife.

Abraham Okpik was the first Inuk to be appointed to sit on the territorial council.

As a young boy, I remember the council holding one of its sessions in Resolute. They took over our small federal day school for their meetings.

Feeling left out, some community leaders in the eastern Arctic began to make some noise about representation. The first democratic election for a member of the council from the east was arranged. Simonie Michael of Iqaluit became the first elected Inuk to sit on the council.

In 1967, during Canada’s Centennial Year, the NWT Council and the administration was transferred from Ottawa to Yellowknife.

The appointed members were all eventually replaced by elected members. The Commissioner continued to serve as the legal head of the council and government.

The democratically elected members of the council began to assert their right to select their own leader and Ottawa finally agreed to their demands. They now had the right to elect their own leader from amongst themselves. George Braden was elected the first Government Leader of the NWT. The Commissioner became a ceremonial governor.

In the meantime, the Inuit political movement in Canada was emerging. In 1971, the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada was founded at a national convention in Pangnirtung.

The first leaders of the new national organization immediately announced that it was their intention to start negotiations for the settlement of land claims in the Inuit regions of Canada and to create a new territory and government in the eastern Arctic.

After many years of difficult negotiations, all four Inuit regions of Canada (Inuvialuit, Nunavut, Nunavik, and Nunatsiavut) have had their land claims settled and, in 1999, the new territory of Nunavut became the 13th member of the Canadian Confederation.

The Aboriginal leadership of Canada were also successful in helping to amend the Canadian constitution to recognize and protect the constitutional rights of Inuit, First Nations, and Metis.

The Inuit march to self-government is not yet over. Those of us who started the march are now getting on in years and our joints are starting to get creaky.

It is now up to a new generation of Inuit leaders to continue this march.