OTTAWA – 7 November 2012 –Duane Smith, President of Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada today called on all Inuit and all Canadians to celebrate Inuit Day.
In 2006 ICC General Assembly in Barrow, Alaska instructed ICC to “annually proclaim the November 7th birth date of ICC visionary, Eben Hopson, Sr., as Inuit Day, and to urge all Inuit governments, agencies, and communities to annually proclaim this day as Inuit Day, and conduct appropriate ceremonies and celebrations.”
Since 1977 the Inuit Circumpolar Council has flourished and grown into a major international non-government organization representing approximately 150,000 Inuit of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Chukotka (Russia) and holds a seat as Consultative Status II at the United Nations.
“November 7th commemorates the birthday of ICC’s founder, Eben Hopson Sr. and in unity with Inuit worldwide, we welcome this day to celebrate our cultural identity through language, family and art” said Mr. Smith.
Our language contains the memory of four thousand years of human survival through conservation and good management of our Arctic wealth. (Eben Hopson, 1977)