While Idle No More may have been sparked by First Nations’ concerns with recent Federal Legislation, many Inuit have also joined this burgeoning grassroots movement. Since its inception, Inuit have been attending rallies across Canada, organizing flash mobs in Nunavut, issuing statements of solidarity and relating the goals and spirit of Idle No More to Inuit contexts.

Rallies in Iqaluit

Major Idle No More events were held in Iqaluit on December 21 and January 16. Idle No More organizer and performance artist Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory described the actions in a telephone interview with the media co-op.

The first action was a flash mob in the Iqaluit airport. Roughly twenty five people gathered to drum, dance, and sing an Ajaja song, a traditional Inuit form of song with a distinctive chorus. According to Williamson Bathory, the song was chosen because its meaning spoke to the spirit of Idle No More.

“It’s a song about celebrating how a year has passed and how happy I am to still be alive. I can tell a year has passed because now there are two stars that signify the beginning of spring, and I’m so happy to be alive. It has such hope to it. Hope that we’ve made it through to now, and we’ve got so much more to do.”

Participants held signs that read “Idle No More”, and a large Canadian flag made out of sealskin was used as the a symbol for the flash mob. Williamson Bathory said that the sealskin flag was chosen for the rally “to show how we see Canada as made through Aboriginal agreements.”

The second Idle No More action in Iqaluit was an outdoor rally. According to organizers, roughly forty people showed up to march through town, singing and chanting, in minus 37 degree weather.

According to Williamson Bathory, popular chants included “hey hey, ho ho, Stephen Harper’s got to go!”, “hey hey, ho ho, Leona Aglukaq’s got to go!” and “Who’s land? Our Land! Who’s kids? Our kids! Nuna-what? Nuna-vut!”

Relating Idle No More to Nunavut

While the 1982 Canadian Constitution recognizes Inuit as “Aboriginal people” alongside Indians and Métis, Inuit are not subject to Indian Act legislation, are not politically organized under a band council or reservation system, and did not enter into historic treaties with the Crown. Regardless, Nunavut Inuit have related the aims and spirit of Idle No More to their contemporary realities in Nunavut in various ways.

On January 9, the leadership of Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated (NTI) – the corporation created to manage the lands Inuit hold title to under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement – visited Attawapiskat Chief Spence on Victoria Island during her hunger strike.

According to a January 10 press release from NTI, the delegation met with Spence to “express support and discuss the commonalities Inuit and other Aboriginal Canadians share in respect for the failure of the Government of Canada to live up to its obligations.”

The press release criticized the Federal Government for failing to properly implement the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, and noted that NTI has been in a legal battle with the Crown since 2006, because of the government’s “failure to live up to the obligations they promised to fulfill in that agreement.”

In a letter to the Globe and Mail on January 9, NTI President Cathy Towtonie claimed that these breaches include “denial of economic opportunities, inadequate pre-employment training, and lack of environmental monitoring.”

A different perspective on the Idle No More movement was provided by the group Nunavummiut Makitagunarningit (“the people of Nunavut can rise up”) in a statement of solidarity. The group, referred to as “Makita” for short, describes itself as a “public interest group” concerned with the ways in which decisions about potential uranium mining are being made in Nunavut.

In the statement, released January 10, Makita announced that they “stand in solidarity” with the Idle No More movement, which they see as a “call for all Indigenous peoples to awaken from within and resist the oppressive mechanisms that keep them in their place”.

The statement went on to criticize the approach NTI and the Government of Nunavut have taken to economic development in their territory, accusing their leadership of “acceding to Harper’s agenda to exploit our lands”.

Makita called on the Nunavut Inuit leadership to “reorient development in Nunavut in a way that puts Inuit aspirations, and the well-being of the land and all Nunavummiut, ahead of corporate profits”. The statement concluded that members of the group “recognize that our hopes for Nunavut will only be strengthened by standing in solidarity” with Idle No More.

Both perspectives seem to have been at play during the rallies held in Iqaluit. Organizer Williamson Bathory explained the diversity of reasons people became involved with Idle No More in Nunavut. She said that many of the participants “relate it to the part of Idle No More that’s about the awakening from within.”

She went on to describe Idle No More as “really a Canadian movement...the Canadian thing is to recognize Aboriginal Rights.”

“It’s a pretty huge deal that the land claims agreement isn’t being fully implemented here in Nunavut. And all of our communities are going through the same things that First Nations communities are going through in terms of high rates of suicide and high rates of substance abuse and men in jail and all these kinds of things.”

Kakkik Peter, a participant in Iqaluit’s Idle No More actions, described his reasons for engaging with the Idle No More movement in an e-mail to the media co-op. For Peter, relating Idle No More to Nunavut had to do with the relationship of dependency between Nunavut and the Federal Government.

“All practical funds in the territory come from one source: the federal government. In order for us to address any of our 'issues' we need to approach the federal government.”

According to Peter, this means that “the stance the federal government takes and whether they honour their agreements with Inuit is a deciding factor in the majority of our lives.”

Peter said that Idle No More provides an opportunity for Indigenous peoples to change the stance the Federal government takes to Indigenous interests.

“Right now, our government doesn't have our best interests at heart, it can be argued that it never has. With Idle No More we have a chance of changing all that. There are many things that can be said to be different between Inuit and First Nations. What is the same is that we want a government that is on our side. We want that because we know what that entity is doing has a strong impact on the future of our children and on the Earth. In a way, it's the highest form of selfishness. When my spirit returns, I want a positive world in which for it to return to.”