In a Lonely Place: Nunavut politician Paul Okalik discusses the challenges facing the Canadian Inuit less than 20 years after gaining political autonomy: An interview with Laurel Jarombek

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Paul Okalik doesn’t shy away from public spectacle. In late 2015, while Canadian Minister of the Environment Leona Aglukkaq was speaking at a forum, Okalik—at the time Minister of Health and Justice for the northern territory of Nunavut—was seen performatively reading a newspaper. The previous year, Aglukkaq, a Conservative, had been spotted doing the same at a hearing where Liberal opposition members were testifying about food insecurity in Nunavut.

Then, in 2016, Okalik stepped down from his position in the Nunavut cabinet. Citing his own history with alcoholism, he announced to the regional legislature that he could not support a measure to permit alcohol sales in the territory without first establishing addiction treatment programs.

Nunavut became a territory in 1999, splitting from the Northwest Territories after a long series of negotiations between Inuit leaders and Ottawa. (Canada’s three territories receive their authority from the federal government, while its 10 provinces have powers enshrined in the Constitution.) The Inuit now make up more than 80 percent of Nunavut’s population. The sparsely populated territory is governed by a legislative assembly and led by a premier. Okalik, who was born in an Inuit hamlet on Baffin Island, was Nunavut’s first premier, a position he held until 2008. He has served in various offices since then, most recently as a representative of Iqaluit, Nunavut’s capital. In October, he lost his seat to former Iqaluit mayor Elisapee Sheutiapik.

Now 18 years into Inuit self-rule, Nunavut’s politicians still grapple with a budget largely reliant on federal funding. Shortly after the 2017 elections, World Policy Journal managing editor Laurel Jarombek spoke with Okalik about this period of transition for Canada’s Inuit—a people who, after their traditional ways of life were disrupted by assimilationist national policies, are now developing new methods of governance. The following has been adapted from their conversation.

Prior to the 1999 agreement, the Inuit had been pretty much left behind. We had been governed by the Northwest Territories and Ottawa, and it was a challenge to bring attention to the issues we faced in our homeland. We established our own territory to focus on our priorities—to promote our language and to have a meaningful role in government. We used our land claims agreement, a treaty negotiated with the national government in the 80s and 90s, to push for self-governance.

When I returned to Nunavut after studying government and the law, the first elections were gearing up, and I was convinced to run for office. I wanted to do what I could for my territory.

Today, almost 20 years later, issues like low living standards and education are still outstanding. The Inuit started with a totally different economic system that didn’t rely on money; it was focused on survival and food gathering. That lasted until around the time I was born, in the early 1960s, and after that the Inuit were relocated to government-made settlements. So we never had a monetary system with which to save and create wealth, and we switched from a hunter-gatherer society to today’s society without any real transitional period. We want to retain our culture, and at the same time acquire the tools to move forward.

We want to have the same educational standards as anywhere in the country. We can’t sustain our current cycle of being uneducated, living in public housing, and relying on welfare. It’s not an option. We were once an independent, sovereign society, with our own systems for governance and living. And we can do that again. But for the past decade, we have seen the 15 or 16 percent of our population that is not Inuit govern our territory through bureaucracy—they hold the most powerful and senior positions. There are some bright, young, university-educated Inuit who put their names forward in this last election, but they were rebuffed...