INTERVIEW
The Inuit Circumpolar Council’s chair on how Inuit are speaking up about climate change with a global voice
The Inuit Circumpolar Council’s Dalee Sambo Dorough on the international voice of Inuit
WWhen Inuit politician Eben Hopson founded the Inuit Circumpolar Council in 1977, he wanted to bring Inuit together, transcending borders and boundaries, to create an organization that would advocate for their interests on a global stage. That was crucial, says Dalee Sambo Dorough, the organization’s current chair, who started working for Hopson while still in high school in Alaska. And it remains crucial to this day, as the Inuit Circumpolar Council engages in international discussions with bodies such as the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties and the Arctic Council, which turns 25 this fall. Sambo Dorough spoke with Canadian Geographic about her organization’s role on the Arctic Council, Inuit perspectives on climate change and having the right to a seat at the table.
On the role of the Inuit Circumpolar Council in the Arctic Council The Inuit Circumpolar Council was instrumental in shaping the Arctic Council [an intergovernmental forum that facilitates cooperation among Arctic states and Arctic Indigenous Peoples] as a regional intergovernmental stage for Arctic environmental protection. It was originally conceived to focus on an Arctic environmental protection
strategy, then it blossomed into a much more comprehensive entity. The Inuit Circumpolar Council, on behalf of Inuit throughout Chukotka, Alaska, Canada and Greenland, were intent on ensuring that our voices were heard within the Arctic Council as permanent participants; we have inherent or pre-existing rights to the Arctic as our traditional territory, both the lands and the coastal seas in the Arctic region. We’ve carved out an important intellectual and political space on behalf of our people and as advocates for our people. Since its formation in Ottawa in 1996, the heart of the purpose of this organization has been to ensure that Inuit will have a place within Arctic dialogue.
On how the impacts of climate change are interconnected
I would say that food security would be at the top of the list in terms of the adverse impacts of climate change.
But I have to also underscore that all of these issues are intimately related. They’re interrelated — like how human rights are interrelated, interdependent, indivisible and interconnected. Food security is related to many other elements of our way of life: social relations and protocol, the role of men, the role of women, cultural dynamics, spiritual dynamics, as well as the traditional economies around food, hunting, fishing and harvesting. We know climate change can be devastating to our way of life.
On the importance of having an international voice
For so many of our people, the value of engaging at the international level is often questioned. I think it’s the same for every Indigenous nation or community across the globe — when we have such urgent issues facing us right here at home and we need the resources to plug the holes that exist. Why? When we first organized in June of 1977, in Utqiaġvik, Alaska, one of the issues that was facing Iñupiat in Alaska was a pending ban on Aboriginal subsistence whaling by the International Whaling Commission. So, we knew we had to have a voice at the international level. We had to amplify our voice within the IWC to ensure that there wasn’t a ban on the way of life of the Iñupiat whaling communities. Eben Hopson, the founder of the organization, knew that and had the extraordinary foresight to work to pull the organization together, knowing that these external forces would become dayto-day challenges for us at the international level.
On changing attitudes toward Inuit The Arctic and ice and snow — it’s universal. I suppose to some extent it’s almost like a calling card. You know — you’re from the Arctic, you’re an Inuk — you can go almost anywhere in the world and people know that, “oh, you’re the people that live in the ice and snow.” But I think that having the corridors of international relations lined by developments like the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and other elements, has been extremely helpful. That we, as a matter of the right of self-determination, have the right to a seat at the table.
And by virtue of that, we have the ability, the capacity — indeed, the responsibility — to share our views and perspectives in favour of our people with the objective of ensuring that we’re always going to be here. I really do think that we’ve come to a point in time where we’re starting to turn the corner to ensure that we do have a place in this space. I see and feel a level of support for what we’re doing, what we’re seeking to gain in every forum that we’re involved in — a level of respect and recognition that I think the subject matter deserves. Even though there are problems all around us, I’m absolutely optimistic.
‘THE HEART OF THE PURPOSE OF THE ORGANIZATION HAS BEEN TO ENSURE THAT INUIT WILL HAVE A PLACE WITHIN ARCTIC DIALOGUE.’