OmniTRAX/Broe Quest Series
Sheila Watt-Cloutier
Chair, Inuit Circumpolar Conference
Sheila Watt-Cloutier is Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC), the Inuit organization that represents the interests internationally of Inuit resident in Canada, Greenland, Alaska, and Chukotka in the Far East of the Federation of Russia. Currently living in Iqaluit, Nunavut, she was born in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik (northern Quebec), and was raised traditionally in her early years before attending school in southern Canada and in Churchill, Manitoba.
Ms. Watt-Cloutier has an educational background in counselling, education, and human development. Her early experience as an Inuktitut interpreter for the Ungava Hospital in Nunavik led to a lifetime commitment toward improving health conditions and education in aboriginal communities. Dealing with youth issues holistically is important for Ms. Watt-Cloutier. She contributed significantly to "Silatunirmut: The Pathway to Wisdom," the 1992 report of the review of educational programming in Nunavik, and she co-wrote, produced and co-directed the acclaimed youth awareness video "Capturing Spirit: The Inuit Journey."
Ms. Watt-Cloutier has long been a political spokesperson for Inuit. From 1995 to 1998, she was Corporate Secretary of Makivik Corporation set-up under the 1975 James Bay and Northern Quebec Land Claims Agreement. She was elected President of ICC Canada in 1995 and re elected to this position in 1998, becoming international Chair of ICC in 2002. During her years at ICC Canada, Ms. Watt-Cloutier was spokesperson for a coalition of northern Indigenous Peoples that persuaded states to conclude a global agreement, signed in Stockholm in 2001, to ban the generation and use of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), such as DDT and PCBs, that contaminate the Arctic food web. She received the inaugural global environment award from the World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations in recognition for this work. She is also a recipient of the Aboriginal Achievement Award for Environment, which she received in 2004.
Ms. Watt Cloutier is currently heavily engaged in climate change initiatives with the aim of persuading states to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases. She contributed markedly to ICC Canada's 1996-2000 Institution-Building Project for Northern Russian Indigenous Peoples' Project (INRIPP-1), and the ongoing, phase two of this project focusing on economic development and training in remote northern communities. She visited Chukotka in 2003 and announced a pilot project with the region's Indigenous Peoples to promote the marketing internationally of local arts and crafts.
Ms. Watt-Cloutier’s vision for her term as Chair of ICC is to put the human/Inuit face on the global map. She feels, if citizens of the world can “connect” with the challenges the Arctic and it’s people are facing, it will lead to better understanding of how the planet and it’s people are one. Protect the Arctic-Save the Planet is one of her most common phrases as she delivers speeches throughout many parts of the world.
Sheila Watt-Cloutier can be reached at chair@inuitcc.ca
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