{"id":2039,"date":"2020-02-15T10:58:03","date_gmt":"2020-02-15T15:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/?post_type=project&#038;p=2039"},"modified":"2026-02-09T15:10:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T20:10:04","slug":"inuit-arctic-policy","status":"publish","type":"project","link":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/project\/inuit-arctic-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Inuit Arctic Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"et_pb_section_0 et_pb_section et_section_regular et_block_section\"><div class=\"et_pb_row_0 et_pb_row et_block_row\"><div class=\"et_pb_column_0 et_pb_column et_pb_column_2_5 et_block_column et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough\"><div class=\"et_pb_post_title_0 et_pb_post_title et_pb_bg_layout_light et_pb_module et_block_module\"><div class=\"et_pb_title_container\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"et_pb_column_1 et_pb_column et_pb_column_3_5 et-last-child et_block_column et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough\"><div class=\"et_pb_post_title_1 et_pb_post_title et_pb_bg_layout_light et_pb_module et_block_module\"><div class=\"et_pb_title_container\"><h1 class=\"entry-title\">Inuit Arctic Policy<\/h1><\/div><\/div><div class=\"et_pb_text_0 et_pb_text et_pb_bg_layout_light et_pb_module et_block_module\"><div class=\"et_pb_text_inner\"><p>If you look at a globe from on top, you get a surprising view. Inuit own<br \/>or have jurisdiction over half the entire Arctic, stretching over half of the<br \/>world\u2019s circumference; we are, in fact, the largest landholders in the world.<br \/>Yet, we number only about 155,000 in four countries Russia\/Chukotka;<br \/>US\/Alaska; Canada\/Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Nunavut, Nunavik,<br \/>Nunatsiavut and Denmark\/Greenland. The Arctic has been our home<br \/>and our sustenance for centuries.<\/p>\n<p>By 2010, Inuit Nunaat, our homeland, has become a major force in<br \/>international and national politics, in climate change research and science,<br \/>in culture and arts, in minority human rights and models of indigenous<br \/>self-government. Arctic Sovereignty is one of our main concerns and is<br \/>now also an international concern.<\/p>\n<p>Thirty years ago when the process of formulating a comprehensive Inuit<br \/>Arctic Policy began, it was almost a novelty to speak of Inuit rights and<br \/>some regarded the first document as unattainable. But people have<br \/>underestimated our adaptability and resilience. \u201cWe were a rag-tag and<br \/>young group of Inuit\u201d, as Mary May Simon, president of Inuit Tapiriit<br \/>Kanatami, recently said in a speech, \u201cbut we were determined\u201d.<br \/>She was right, we were determined to improve our living conditions and<br \/>safeguard our land. We are a culturally-anchored people who not only<br \/>created principles for a policy but also managed to get many of them<br \/>implemented; today many of our early pioneers, who worked so tirelessly,<br \/>against almost impossible odds, are distinguished national or international<br \/>leaders. In those thirty years, the Inuit world has changed profoundly;<br \/>the Inuit Circumpolar Council and its Arctic Policy principles have played<br \/>an important role in this development.<\/p>\n<p>However, as we worked to gain our rights nationally and internationally,<br \/>it also became apparent that the original Arctic Policy needed revisions<br \/>and updating for the Inuit Arctic Policy is a living and evolving document.<br \/>This work was entrusted to Aqqaluk Lynge, ICC Greenland and Marianne<br \/>Stenbaek, McGill University, Canada. I want to acknowledge them and<br \/>express ICC\u2019s gratitude to them for this new edition that I trust will be as<br \/>influential as the previous edition.<\/p>\n<p>I would also like to express ICC\u2019s continuing gratitude to Mary May Simon<br \/>who originally inspired the Arctic Policy work and worked so hard to make<br \/>it a reality. Eben Hopson will always be remembered with gratitude and<br \/>devotion as the founder of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (now Council)<br \/>in 1977 in Barrow.<\/p>\n<p>Jim Stotts, Chair<br \/><em>Inuit Circumpolar Council<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><div class=\"et_pb_module et_pb_button_module_wrapper et_pb_button_0_wrapper\"><a class=\"et_pb_button_0 et_pb_button et_pb_bg_layout_light et_pb_module et_block_module\" href=\"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/Inuit-Arctic-Policy.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" data-icon=\"\ue071\">Download PDF<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2041,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"project_category":[46],"project_tag":[],"class_list":["post-2039","project","type-project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","project_category-policy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/2039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/project"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2039"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/2039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":987516020,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/2039\/revisions\/987516020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"project_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project_category?post=2039"},{"taxonomy":"project_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project_tag?post=2039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}