Title: POLITICS-INDIGENOUS: Inuits To Get Their Own Homeland By Mark Bourrie OTTAWA, Mar 7 (IPS) - The huge new Canadian territory of Nunavut will be born April 1, creating the first major political entity in North America with an overwhelming aboriginal majority. More than 85 per cent of Nunavut's 27,000 population are Inuit (formerly called Eskimos), making the territory the only state, province or territory to have effective native self-government. More than half of the population of Nunavut is under the age of 20 but, in the Canadian federal system, provinces and territories such as Nunavut have jurisdiction over education, health, welfare, natural resources, courts, jails, and municipalities. John Amagoalik, a high-level Inuit official dubbed the "Father of Nunavut", says the establishment of the new political entity will give Inuit much more power over their lives. "We've been subjects of other governments for a long time," he says, "and finally we will have our own government which speaks our language, understands our history, and knows our priorities. "The people in power will now be our friends and neighbors. When we were governed by Yellowknife (the Indian and white-dominated Northwest Territories), it was very frustrating. Those people were always somewhere else and a lot of times they didn't take us seriously." In 1982, the Northwest Territories government held a referendum to ask residents if they favored the creation of a new territory in the eastern Arctic. The result was close: only 53 per cent supported the idea. Most of those in favor, however, were in the region that will become Nunavut. While Inuit leaders negotiated the boundaries of the new territory, they also settled a giant land claim with the federal government. Under the settlement, the Inuit keep outright ownership of 350,000 square kilometres of land and 800 million dollars in federal money over the next 14 years. The money will be held in trust to fund local businesses and to supplement the income of people practising traditional livelihoods, such as hunting and trapping. The Inuit also gain a share of resource royalties and hunting rights in exchange for signing away future claims to aboriginal rights and title to all remaining lands and water in Nunavut. Nunavut will occupy about 2 million square kilometres, about half the size of western Europe. The land mass contains seven huge Arctic islands, giving the territory two-thirds of Canada's coastline. The region has mineral resources, a small fishery that is limited by the region's Arctic climate, and huge hunting ranges that hold herds of arctic caribou, a type of North America reindeer that native hunters have relied on for subsistence since the last ice age. The region is strategically important as the base for much of the North American Distant Early Warning System, which is supposed to detect nuclear missiles fired from Europe or Asia. It also faces environmental challenges: the growing ozone hole problem, global warming, and airborne pollutants from Europe and North America. The territory has adopted consensus government. There will be no political parties, and all 19 members of the legislature will have a vote on who is premier. Jack Anawak, a former member of the federal parliament, is widely expected to be chosen to lead the new government. He says the new legislature "has a great mix. There are older people who speak only Inuktituk (the language of the Inuit), some younger people who will work very hard, and some people with a lot of political experience." One of the territory's main challenges will be creating opportunities for the youth of the vast region, Anawak says. That means a strong emphasis on education and skills development. But the territory must still fight such social problems as a 30 per cent unemployment rate, a cost of living one-third higher than the rest of Canada and high rates of youth suicide and substance abuse. "The leadership today has succeeded in getting Nunavut on the map in terms of the move to a formal territorial government. They are our greatest hope. I think the government of Nunavut will very much feel a special responsibility to those kids," Anawak says. The territory also faces a huge housing and school shortage as more Inuit leave their traditional nomadic lifestyle for life in towns. Still, thousands of people from southern Canada are expected to move into the territory within the next few months to work in jobs that require skills that are not available in the local workforce. (END/IPS/mb/mk/99) Origin: ROMAWAS/POLITICS-INDIGENOUS/ ---- [c] 1999, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS) All rights reserved May not be reproduced, reprinted or posted to any system or service outside of the APC networks, without specific permission from IPS. This limitation includes distribution via Usenet News, bulletin board systems, mailing lists, print media and broadcast. For information about cross- posting, send a message to . For information about print or broadcast reproduction please contact the IPS coordinator at . Conf?