Nunavut celebrates 15 years of Inuit land claim

Inuit across Nunavut marked the15th anniversaryWednesday of thehistoric land claim that created Canada's youngest territory.

On July 9, 1993, Parliament passed the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act and the Nunavut Act, granting the Inuit of the eastern Arctic their own territory with their own government.

Nunavut officially came into being on April 1, 1999, carving out a new jurisdiction on Canada's map from what was then part of the Northwest Territories.

"It's been [an] uphill battle," said Paul Kaludjak, president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the body responsible forimplementing the land claim on theNunavut side. "When we signed the claim in 1993, I thought we were over the hill. But apparently not.

"Many of us said the work had just begun, and it continues today. Throughout the years, it hasn't been that easy. It's not all glamour, and it's been difficult at many times we've made some headway on implementation on the claim."

In 2006, Nunavut Tunngavik launched a $1-billion breach-of-contract lawsuit against the federal government, claiming it failed to live up to its responsibilities under the land claim agreement with Nunavut.

The organization accuses Ottawa of 16 breaches of the agreement, such as not helping to train Inuit for government employment and inadequately funding Nunavut's planning commission, water board and other territorial organizations.

"It's been great and difficult to work on the implementation of the claim over the last 15 years because the lack of acknowledgement by the federal side to properly implement the claim," Kaludjak told CBC News in an interview Wednesday.

"But that's not to say that things have [not] gotten done."

Kaludjak and Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik helped kick off Nunavut Day celebrations Wednesday afternoon at Nakasuk School in Iqaluit, where Nunavummiut enjoyed a feast, scavenger hunt, craft show, chili cook-off and games.

Inuit in Yellowknife also observed the occasion over the lunch hour, with a barbecuenear a downtown hotel.

Three decades of negotiations

Passage of the two Nunavut acts marked the end of nearly 30 years of work by Inuit negotiators tosettle the Nunavut land claim. Those negotiators included current Premier Paul Okalik and Paul Quassa, currently mayor of Igloolik.

Speaking in Inuktitut, Quassa told CBC News that signing the land claim agreement with Ottawa was thrilling because Inuit understood that they were able to run their own affairs.

"We do recognize the efforts of our past leaders of the years you're looking at [a] 25-, 30-year span and our Inuit leaders at that time that worked so hard to get the land claims underway and trying to get recognition for the Inuit of Nunavut," Kaludjak said.

"It was no doubt difficult to make the outside world understand that we had our land and we'd like to control our destiny. And it took a lot of energy and a lot of work by those people then to make the recognition and the initiative to get Inuit recognition in the map of the world and try to make sure that we get heard at that time."