The Indigenous World 2025: Inuit Nunangat

Written on 25 April 2025. Posted in Canada

The majority of the 70,545 Inuit (69%) in Canada live in 51 communities in Inuit Nunangat, the Inuit homeland encompassing the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Nunavik in northern Quebec and Nunatsiavut in northern Labrador.

Economic and social disparities continue to exist between Inuit and other Canadians. This includes much lower mean annual incomes, more people living in crowded homes, lower rates of education, food insecurity, higher unemployment, less access to medical services, lower life expectancy and an infant mortality rate three times the national average.^[1]

Comprehensive Inuit-Crown land claims agreements shape the political contours of each of the four Inuit regions. Through these constitutionally protected agreements, Inuit representative organisations and governments co-manage, together with the federal government, 40% of Canada’s land area and 72% of its coastline. Inuit are represented at the national level by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) and internationally by the Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada (ICC Canada). ITK’s Board of Directors is made up of the leaders of the four regional Inuit representational organizations and governments: Inuvialuit Regional Corp., Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., Makivvik and the Nunatsiavut Government. In addition to voting members, the presidents of the ICC Canada, Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada, and the National Inuit Youth Council sit on the board as non-voting permanent participant representatives.

This is the first update on Inuit Nunangat in several years (since The Indigenous World 2020^[2]) so, by necessity, it will cover several items that took place prior to last year but which are relevant to the current situation of Inuit. Among these are the impacts of COVID-19 and the passage of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) Act.

This article is part of the 39^th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. The photo above is of an Indigenous activist Funa-ay Claver, a Bontok Igorot, standing alongside Indigenous youth activists and others. They are protesting against the repressive laws and human rights violations suffered through the actions and projects of the Government of the Philippines and other actors against Indigenous Peoples at President Marcos Jr’s national address on 22 July 2024 in Quezon City, Philippines. The photo was taken by Katribu Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas and is the cover of The Indigenous World 2025 where this article is featured. Find The Indigenous World 2025 in full here

COVID-19

All across the Arctic, Inuit communities shut down and cut themselves off from the rest of their respective countries. In most places, distance and isolation played an important role in preventing the worst ravages of the pandemic. Decisive action by community and regional leaders kept the COVID numbers low in Inuit Nunangat. Despite continuing infrastructure deficits, including limited access to medical facilities, Inuit exercised “health care sovereignty” in their communities, resulting in a rate of infection that was 2-3 times lower than in the southern parts of the country.^[3] Throughout much of the pandemic, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) organized regular briefing calls that included all regional Inuit organizations, the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) and others to update statistics and issues.

As the pandemic began to wind down, ITK issued a report on The Digital Divide: Broadband Connectivity in Inuit Nunangat that pointed out that the heavy reliance on online education and work during the pandemic had put Inuit at a serious disadvantage compared to the rest of the country due to the lack of broadband access in many communities.^[4] In 2024, the Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced millions of dollars of funding for fibre optic cable links to several communities in Nunavut and Nunavik.

The COVID-19 pandemic clearly showed the advantage of Inuit-led health initiatives, a lesson that is being applied to the continuing scourge of tuberculosis across Inuit Nunangat where TB rates over the 2015-2019 period were 300 times higher than the rest of the country:

These high rates of TB across Inuit Nunangat reflect the socio-economic disparities–like overcrowded housing, food insecurity, barriers to health care, and poverty–between Inuit and other populations in Canada and are the result of the ongoing impacts of colonization on health.^[5]

In March 2024, ITK and the federal government reinforced a pledge to eliminate TB in Inuit Nunangat by 2030.

UNDRIP Act Implementation and the Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee

The UNDRIP Act became law in 2021 and the Government of Canada is committed to creating an action plan and making annual progress reports in cooperation with Inuit and other Indigenous Peoples. ITK contributed a number of recommendations to the action plan, including applying “an Inuit Nunangat approach … to implementing, monitoring, and assessing the Collaborative Modern Treaty Implementation Policy”. The government will also continue to actively engage in and support the Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee (ICPC) and utilize it as a primary mechanism for facilitating work on Inuit-specific actions for implementing the UN Declaration as well as for advancing shared Inuit-Crown priorities that will evolve on an ongoing basis subject to decision by Inuit Treaty Organizations and the Crown.^[6]

The ICPC, created in 2017, brings together Inuit leaders and Cabinet Ministers (and, once a year, the Prime Minister) to work on shared priorities. Inuit have consistently urged the government to take a “distinctions-based approach” to Inuit issues and move away from a “one-size-fits-all” approach to Indigenous issues in Canada. The ICPC’s 15 priority areas include land claims implementation; revitalization of Inuktut, the Inuit language; education and early learning; health and wellness; environment and climate change; and housing and homelessness, to name but a few. By using the ICPC to deal with these issues, the government is supporting the implementation of the UNDRIP Act.

ITK has called on the government to be “more ambitious in meeting its statutory obligation of aligning Canada’s laws with the rights affirmed by the UN Declaration”. It joins other Indigenous Peoples’ organizations in calling for the establishment of an Indigenous human rights commission and tribunal.^[7]

Inuit Nunangat a “distinct region”

One of the main initiatives of the ICPC has been the creation of an Inuit Nunangat Policy, which creates a distinct region aimed at giving Inuit a greater say in developments in their homeland. The policy is the first of its kind and is designed to guide the government in its engagement with Inuit, no matter where they live. ITK President Natan Obed said the policy is important because it recognizes Inuit self-determination and that they are distinct from other Indigenous Peoples in Canada. Obed pointed out that the policy recognizes Inuit Nunangat as “a distinct geographic, cultural and political region” and is important “due to geopolitical changes and threats to Canada’s Arctic sovereignty from other countries”.

A federal government Cabinet directive states, among other things, that the Inuit Nunangat Policy “is intended to help create socio-economic and cultural equity between Inuit and other Canadians”. It instructs all government departments and agencies “to drive cultural change within their organizations to implement the Inuit Nunangat Policy and help achieve this urgent objective”.^[8]

Inuit Nunangat University

Canada is the only Arctic state without a university in its Arctic territory. Inuit who want to go to university have had to move south and face many challenges living in unfamiliar urban centres. Planning for the Inuit Nunangat University is underway, spearheaded by ITK and its National Strategy on Inuit Education 2011. The ITK Board of Directors passed a resolution in 2017 supporting the development of a university and, in late 2024, the organization announced CAD $50 million investment from the Mastercard Foundation, the largest private donation ever made to Inuit. Additional funding is being sought from the Canadian government and private donors. A charter, strategic direction and selection process for key work have been approved. The goal is to have the first cohort of students in their seats by 2030.^[9]

Devolution in Nunavut

2024 began with the formal signing of the Nunavut Lands and Resources Devolution Agreement between Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and the governments of Canada and Nunavut. The product of many years of negotiation, the devolution agreement gives Inuit decision-making power over public lands, non-renewable resources and freshwater as part of the largest land transfer in Canadian history. It was accompanied by a Human Resources Development Strategy that “will accelerate Inuit training, increase Inuit employment, and will lead to more jobs for Nunavut Inuit with the ability to decide the direction of development and conservation in Nunavut”.^[10] Full transfer of responsibilities is scheduled to be completed by 1 April 2027, the 28^th anniversary of the creation of the Nunavut Territory.

New Arctic Foreign Policy

Canada updated its Arctic Foreign Policy in late 2024 because the North American Arctic is “no longer free from tension” amid increased geopolitical instability following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has “shaken the foundations of international cooperation in the Arctic”. It commits the government to increased domestic and international collaboration in order to combat emerging foreign threats in the North.^[11]

The policy will revive the role of Canada’s Arctic ambassador, which was eliminated in 2006 under the previous Conservative government. It will also open consulates in Nuuk, Greenland, and Anchorage, Alaska. Among other initiatives, Canada will “launch boundary negotiations with the United States regarding the Beaufort Sea and finalize the implementation of the boundary agreement between Canada and the Kingdom of Denmark regarding Tartupaluk (Hans Island).”^[12] Inuit have long argued that Canadian sovereignty rests on Inuit historic use and occupation of the Arctic^[13] and they were involved in developing the new policy. Inuit also have decades of experience working across borders with other Inuit in Alaska, Greenland, and Chukotka.

When the policy was announced, Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre did not endear himself to Inuit and other northerners when he commented on social media on the government’s plans to appoint a new Arctic ambassador: “Arctic ambassador? To do diplomacy with who? Santa Claus?” ITK President Natan Obed called the comment “very concerning”.

Reconciliation: Nunavik dog slaughter apology

In the 1950s and early 1960s, federal policies were designed to ensure that nomadic Inuit settled in communities in Nunavik, northern Quebec. During this period, federal police killed more than 1,000 Inuit sled dogs, which had been a vital means of transportation for hunters out on the land and sea ice. A report by a retired judge in 2010^[14] found that Quebec provincial police officers had killed the animals “without any consideration for their importance to Inuit families”.^[15]

The report found that the federal government, which had jurisdiction over Indigenous Peoples under Canada’s federal system, had failed to intervene or condemn the slaughter. In November, the Minister of Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs apologized to Nunavik Inuit for the slaughter and the disruption to their way of life. The killing of the sled dogs took place at a time when Inuit children were also being taken from their families and sent to residential schools, often far from their home communities.

The Makivvik Corporation, which represents Inuit of the region, worked for many yeas to secure the official apology. Afterwards, the federal government announced CAD $45 million in funding for “reconciliatory programming”.^[16]

Reconciliation in an uncertain future

Nine years after the release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report, there was unease that a change in government could unravel a decade of (albeit sometimes slow and uneven) progress in the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and the Government of Canada. When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in December that he would step down after the governing Liberal Party had selected a new leader in spring 2025, all the polls pointed to an easy victory by the opposition Conservative Party under populist leader, Pierre Poilievre.

When the Conservatives were last in power under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, relations with Inuit and other Indigenous Peoples were poor and Indigenous issues got very little time in Ottawa. ITK President Obed has said that given all the change since the Liberals came to power in 2015, a future government would be bound to honour agreements to work to implement the recommendations in the TRC Report. “But you never really can tell.”^[17]

John Crump spent three decades in Arctic policy work, most recently as ICC Canada Senior Policy Advisor. Before that he worked for GRID-Arendal, a Norwegian foundation that supports UN Environment. He served as Executive Secretary of the Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat based in Copenhagen, as policy analyst with Canada’s Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP), as Government Relations Manager for the Nunavut Planning Commission (NPC) and as Executive Director of the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee (CARC). He was also Cabinet Communications Advisor in the Yukon Premier’s office.

John’s academic background is in journalism, communications, history and political economy. He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in journalism, public administration and polar issues in Canada and Germany. He currently lectures on Arctic Policy in the Northern Studies Programme at Carleton University.

This article is part of the 39^th edition of The Indigenous World, a yearly overview produced by IWGIA that serves to document and report on the developments Indigenous Peoples have experienced. The photo above is of an Indigenous activist Funa-ay Claver, a Bontok Igorot, standing alongside Indigenous youth activists and others. They are protesting against the repressive laws and human rights violations suffered through the actions and projects of the Government of the Philippines and other actors against Indigenous Peoples at President Marcos Jr’s national address on 22 July 2024 in Quezon City, Philippines. The photo was taken by Katribu Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas and is the cover of The Indigenous World 2025 where this article is featured. Find The Indigenous World 2025 in full here

Notes and References

^[1] Based on statistics compiled by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK). “Social and Economic Inequality in Inuit Nunangat” (2018). https://www.itk.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Social_Inequity_Infographic_English.pdf

^[2] Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), “Inuit Nunangat.” In IWGIA, The Indigenous World 2020 (edited by Dwayne Mamo). https://iwgia.org/en/canada/3634-iw-2020-inuit-nunangat.html

^[3] Andrey N Petrov, Dalee Sambo Dorough, Sweta Tiwari, Mark Welford, Nikolay Golosov, Michele Devlin, Tatiana Degai, Stanislav Ksenofontov, and John DeGroote. “Indigenous health-care sovereignty defines resilience to the

COVID-19 pandemic” The Lancet. 18 April 2023, p. 1478.

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)00684-0

^[4] Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. ITK calls for increased internet access, reliability and affordability in Inuit Nunangat as part of COVID-19 recovery plans. Press Release. 16 August 2021. https://www.itk.ca/itk-calls-for-increased-internet-access/

^[5] Government of Canada. Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and Indigenous Services Canada Working to Eliminate Tuberculosis in Inuit Nunangat by 2030. Statement. 24 March 2024. https://www.canada.ca/en/indigenous-services-canada/news/2024/03/inuit-tapiriit-kanatami-and-indigenous-services-canada-working-to-eliminate-tuberculosis-in-inuit-nunangat-by-2030.html

^[6] Government of Canada. United Nations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Action Plan. Chapter 3: Inuit Priorities. https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/declaration/ap-pa/ah/p4.html

^[7] ITK ready to work with federal government to implement UN Declaration Act Action Plan. Press release. 21 June 2023. https://www.itk.ca/itk-ready-to-work-with-federal-government-to-implement-unda-action-plan/

^[8] Cabinet Directive on the Implementation of the Inuit Nunangat Policy (February 2025) https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1738341162069/1738341193805

^[9] Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. Voices across Inuit Nunangat are uniting in the vision for an Inuit-led University. https://www.itk.ca/projects/inuit-nunangat-university/

^[10] NTI President Signs Devolution Agreement. NTI Press Release 18 January 2024 https://www.tunngavik.com/news/nti-president-signs-devolution-agreement/

^[11] The policy was announced before US President Donald Trump began talking about invading Greenland and annexing Canada.

^[12] Canada’s Arctic Foreign Policy https://www.international.gc.ca/gac-amc/publications/transparency-transparence/arctic-arctique/arctic-policy-politique-arctique.aspx?lang=eng

^[13] See “Inuit and Canada Share Northwest Passage Sovereignty – ICC Canada President” https://www.inuitcircumpolar.com/press-releases/inuit-and-canada-share-northwest-passage-sovereignty-icc-canada-president/

^[14] Government of Canada's apology for the Nunavik Dog Slaughter https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1732300419996/1732300456676

^[15] CBC Radio “For some in Nunavik, federal apology for dog slaughter is a step toward reconciliation” 24 November 2024. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/step-closure-feds-apology-nunavik-dog-slaughter-1.7392062

^[16] Government of Canada's apology for the Nunavik Dog Slaughter https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1732300419996/1732300456676

^[17] The Toronto Star, 21 June 2024. Justin Trudeau’s government is losing its momentum on Indigenous reconciliation, leaders say — and they’re worried a Conservative government could be worse” https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/justin-trudeaus-government-is-losing-its-momentum-on-indigenous-reconciliation-leaders-say-and-theyre-worried/article_b5ee2504-2db4-11ef-bc98-ff2fcec1d4de.html

Tags: Land rights, Cultural Integrity , Covid-19, International Processes