Inuit Tapirisat of Canada
The Founding of ITC

As Canadian Inuit we are proud of our cultural heritage and of the many accomplishments that mark the course of our 5000 year history. For all but the last 250 years or so of this history, we were free to govern our lives and manage our territory and resources according to Inuit needs and ways of doing things. With the arrival of outsiders first from Europe and later from North America, the Inuit way of life started to change, and we have had to struggle very hard to maintain control over our culture, territory and resources.

Unlike many indigenous peoples in other parts of the world, Inuit were not directly threatened with guns or violence, yet we certainly suffered as a result of policies and actions imposed on us by whalers, fur traders, missionaries, government and, most recently, developers. As a result, we were expected to abandon important cultural traditions and accept new ideologies. Groups were expected to relocate their traditional territories if deemed in the best interest of Inuit and we had little control over our economy or conditions of our day to day life. Although the intention may not have been to destroy us, it was certainly to change us. We have come to understand that outside interests, whatever they represented, were not prepared to deal with us based on an understanding of our rights as aboriginal people. It was a reaction to this situation that eventually gave rise to an Inuit political voice.

By the late 1960s it became clear that if there was to be real change in the lives of Inuit, we had to become involved in the political process. We had to do this to protect what our ancestors had left us in trust. If we did not, there would be nothing to pass on to future generations. But we also had to engage in the political process as a means for developing new opportunities for securing our and our children's future. The first step of involvement was to establish a structure that would enable us to unite as Inuit with a common voice. And that is where the story of ITC begins.

The events leading to the establishment of ITC go back to the mid 1960s when Inuit students were brought together at high schools established at Churchill, Manitoba and Yellowknife, NWT. Regardless of what the academic and vocational objectives were for these schools, they provided an opportunity for young Inuit men and women from different regions to start discussing the types of problems all Inuit were facing. From these gatherings and discussions sprang a commitment to the politics of change.

At about the same time, an organization called the Indian and Eskimo Association (IEA) was created. It had two primary objectives. The first was to conduct research on the rights of indigenous peoples in Canada. The second was to assist newly formed aboriginal organizations across Canada in becoming involved in the political process concerning the recognition of aboriginal rights especially as these rights applied to our territory and resources. In 1969, Tagak Curley who was later to be one of the founders of ITC, was asked to represent Inuit as a member of IEA

The IEA provided a starting point for organizing Inuit, but from the outset we felt it was important to have our own organization to reflect the particular cultural, historic and geographic position of Inuit within Canada. We faced problems that were very specific to Inuit concerning land use and land title; resource management; language, education and health; types of proposed development; and relations with government and other outside institutions.

In 1970, IEA sponsored a conference in Coppermine, NWT to discuss what Inuit delegates identified as critical issues to ensure that our culture would not simply survive, but once again flourish. This conference was followed by a meeting held in Toronto in February 1971. The seven Inuit who attended the Toronto meeting stressed the need to have an independent Inuit organization working alongside Indian organizations.

The discussions at this first meeting identified many of the core issues that have defined the mandates and activities of ITC since it's founding in 1971. These issues included: aboriginal rights; concerns about both large scale development, especially the potential of oil exploration, and smaller scale or local development such as the establishment of northern tourism by outside interests; the need to formalize Inuit rights with respect to development and to establish appropriate mechanisms for Inuit participation, consultation and decision making powers; formulating policies, programmes and research for dealing with rights to territory and resources and concerns about the right to maintain traditional land use and harvesting practices. The transcript of this meeting provides more information about the establishment of ITC and it's aims and objectives.

Looking back on these events, we now realize that this first generation of new political leadership made incredible progress against very difficult odds. What this first generation of our new political leaders could not possibly know at the time, was that they were about to set in motion a process that would eventually lead to land claims and to the creation of strong self governing regions; even to the extent of redrawing the political map of Canada.

ITC Founding Conference: August 1971

Six months after the Toronto meeting, 28 Inuit representing the various regions gathered in Ottawa as delegates to the founding conference for ITC. The goal was to create an organization that would unite Canadian Inuit across the Arctic into a common movement with the strength and mandate to act.

The delegates ratified the following goals as the mandate for ITC:

In addition, decisions were made to produce a newsletter at least four times a year and to participate in the development of a handbook about Inuit and the law. At the request of the Inuit of Southampton Island, ITC began it's first formal negotiations with government in opposing oil exploration in Hudson Bay without participation of Inuit.

The funding for the staff and activities carried out by ITC was provided by the Office of the Secretary of State through what is called "core funding." Funding for non-core activities such as land claims research had to be raised from other sources on a project-by-project basis. In the beginning there was a problem with the level of funding needed to support the number of mandates ITC was expected to carry out. In 1975, the Secretary of State raised the level of core funding for ITC including funds to support the further development of the regional organizations.

First Annual Conference: August 1972

The First Annual Conference of ITC was held in Pangnirtung in August, 1972. During this meeting a summary of ITC's first year of operations was presented and the delegates discussed concerns, presented reports, established plans of action and passed resolutions on key issues. These included: the need to establish an appropriate community based educational system responsive to the special educational needs of Inuit including a curriculum that would promote our language and culture; the need to establish community based and culturally responsive social services; the initiation of a research program to document land claims; the high cost of transportation to, and in the north; the need to deal with hardships created in our communities from restrictive hunting regulations; the need to improve and expand radio as a means of communication within communities, between communities and between the north and southern Canada; the importance of recognizing Inuit concerns and rights in all phases of planning and decision making related to the development of our territory and resources.

ITC and Land Claims

By the mid 1960s major non-renewable resource development projects were being proposed for Arctic lands and offshore areas. Inuit were unanimous in considering these proposed projects to be real threats to our lands and biological resources and would ultimately lead to a further loss of our territorial interests and rights. An effective framework for resolving these concerns had to be established and ITC took the lead in discussions with government and legal experts regarding the establishment of a process for resolving Inuit claims to Arctic territory and rights to Arctic resources. Although this type of land claim or treaty negotiation process had not been considered as a political or legal option in Canada, there was an accumulating body of legal opinions on aboriginal rights.

In September 1972, ITC called together legal experts and social scientists to determine the type of information required to support the legal arguments for validating Inuit land claims. These discussions also determined the most appropriate research methods for collecting this information. Click here for a summary of these discussions . The completed study would define the actual geographic location of Inuit territory; establish the specific seasonal use of this territory; determine the unbroken unity between our cultural system and the land; and provide an explanation and record of Inuit knowledge about land and resources. In February 1973, ITC proposed to the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs that research be undertaken to produce a comprehensive and verifiable record of Inuit land use and occupancy for the Northwest Territories and Labrador.

"Land use" refers to all of the hunting, fishing, trapping and other activities that take place on the land, open-water and sea-ice environments that comprise our territory. The day-to-day, season-to-season and year-to-year record of land use can be systematically recorded and placed on a map creating a statement of real events that can be attached to specific places and times. It is this fact that allowed the real information to be collected as a demonstration of the Inuit statement of claim to territory. The project methodology had to accommodate the fact that when we use the land we do not change it. We have no fields or fences, roads or structures. We have left our footprints but in quiet ways. The only process that can be used to obtain this type of information is to talk to the Inuit hunters. What is important to note is that each hunter's ability to transfer a life time of experience onto a flat piece of paper represents a precise and permanent record of our hunting territory, the places where we lived and the routes we traveled for use by future generations. The maps of land use are supported by maps of Inuit knowledge about the environment and ecology of land, sea and fresh water.

The term "occupancy" refers to the social, intellectual, and economic systems that underlie our patterns of land use. Occupancy data describes the meaning and value of life on the land. It includes a description of cultural practices that are either directly or indirectly related to land use, and it reflects the larger social and historical context within which our land use patterns develop and change.

Land use and occupancy research was carried out for the Northwest Territories in 1974-1975, and for Labrador in 1975-1976. The studies were funded by the federal government. Results from the Northwest Territories were published in a three volume set of documents titled Inuit Land Use and Occupancy Project. The Labrador study was published in a single volume titled Our Footprints are Everywhere. Both studies relied heavily on the use of maps to identify each community's past and present land use patterns by individual species and seasons. The mapped and written descriptions of community land use were supported by information on our knowledge and cultural relationship with the land. With the completion of these studies, responsibility for the negotiation process shifted from ITC to the regional organizations.

from the ITC site, for more info please visit this site