Kunuugama

Combatting Deficit Thinking

Kunuk Inutiq — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 20:07:05 +0000

Combatting deficit thinking doesn’t have to mean ignoring issues and avoiding systemic shifts. In our politics and policy development, where is the idea that we should only be talking about good things happening coming from? Are people over simplifying strength-based approach? Which end up ignoring social issues that are the products of colonialism and structural …

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My time at Pirurvik’s Saarrut camp – Pirurvik, a place of growth

Kunuk Inutiq — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 20:45:55 +0000

It has taken me a bit of time to process my time at Saarrut camp, partaking in the Reclaiming the Whole woman program the other week. I went as part of a team of people I have been working with to create a new philanthropic organization called Indigenous Peoples Initiative. The hope is to design …

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Nunavut Vision: Inuusivut Aaqinnialiqquq – Our Lives will Now Improve

Kunuk Inutiq — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 19:13:58 +0000

Today, it has been thirty years since people sat in the Inuksuk high school gym to witness an agreement between Inuit of Nunavut and the Prime Minister of Canada (and others). During that event there was so much hope and expectation exhumed in the room and all of Nunavut. It was our day, as Inuit! …

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Ode to the Sea – On World Oceans Day

Kunuk Inutiq — Sat, 08 Jun 2024 13:20:40 +0000

Her home is on the bottom of the ocean. She rules this fluid world, taking care of all it’s creatures big and small in her embrace – where she ends and they start it is not clear. She is their keeper, they are hers. In a world where equilibrium depends on all the elements within …

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Connection between Indigenous Language and Ocean Conservation

Kunuk Inutiq — Wed, 22 May 2024 00:10:58 +0000

(Online presentation for Oceans Collaborative, May 13th, 2024) A language provides a lens into a worldview, perspective, values and a way of being. It does not mean a person cannot have a window into that world without the language. Like our pre-contact clothing that provided perfect protection from our weather, our language serves the same …

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Arvangniarniq ~ Bowhead whale hunt in Clyde River, August 2014

Kunuk Inutiq — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 22:04:58 +0000

As soon as I heard my home community of Clyde River was interested in a bowhead whale hunt, I knew I wanted to be there, to be a part of my community in such a significant moment. In the months leading up to it, I was very excited; a week prior to the hunt, I …

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Nunavut Territory at 25: We Are Now Grown Up

Kunuk Inutiq — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 18:39:55 +0000

On this day twenty five years ago, with all the promise, hope and anticipation it brought, I stood on stage with Lucy Illauq and Peter Gzowski hosting the televised celebration of the creation of the Nunavut Territory. The coverage was in Inuktitut, English and French. I recited the Inuktitut introductions, we took turns mixing up …

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Rights as Rights for Us

Kunuk Inutiq — Mon, 19 Feb 2024 15:53:47 +0000

I’ve struggled with the concept of a right or rights in a legal context. I think because historically Indigenous people have been granted rights by the colonizing state. As if we have no agency or sovereignty pre-existing before Europeans arrived. In law school we had an Anishnaabe Professor, John Borrows who said rights were both …

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Why I think we’re Tuniit mix

Kunuk Inutiq — Sat, 06 Jan 2024 15:30:15 +0000

I’ve wanted to go to Alaska ever since I’ve been aware of the place and aware of my Inuitness. Last June I was finally given an opportunity to visit Qikiqtaġruk/Kotzebue. I was so excited and could not believe it was actually happening. The gathering was something my friend Dalee Sambo-Dorough and I had spoken about: …

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Anirniq ~ Breath

Kunuk Inutiq — Wed, 21 Sep 2022 15:50:03 +0000

Anirnira, tarnira ~ My soul, I breathe Inuuvunga ~ I am alive, a being Tusaqpagit ~ I hear you Inuuvunga ~ I am alive, a being Ikpigivagit ~ I feel you Inuuvunga ~ I am alive, a being Tukisivagit ~ I understand you Inuuvunga ~ I am alive, a being Kanngunaqtut anivut ~ shame is …

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