Melting ice threatens safety, way of life for Indigenous people says Inuit leader

Sheila Watt-Cloutier grew up riding across ice and snow on a dogsled and learning how to live off the land with her family. Now, the Inuit leader worries the safety and traditions of Indigenous people in the Arctic are under threat as the land they live on and learn from literally disappears.

Watt-Cloutier, formerly the chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC), is receiving an award Tuesday at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver for her work on climate change and human rights. While in town, she shared her concerns with The Early Edition host Stephen Quinn.

"This isn't just about ice and snow and polar bears. This is really about families and how we are trying our best to maintain a way of life with all the influx of what's happening around us," said Watt-Cloutier, who lives in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik in northern Quebec.

Watt-Cloutier said growing up on the land, knowing what it is like to be connected to nature, food sources and family, gave her a strong set of values as an adult. On the land, she said, is where Inuit children learn to be courageous and patient and the changing arctic landscape is complicating that tradition.

"What we are afraid to lose is the wisdom, not just the ice but the wisdom that goes with that," said Watt-Cloutier.

She said when seasoned hunters are passing on traditional knowledge nowadays they are also teaching Indigenous youth to be more focused on the conditions around them than in years in order to keep themselves out of harms way.

"You already have homes going into the sea," said Watt-Cloutier, referring to coastal erosion and its impact on communities in Alaska. 

And as more ice melts, it could also trap and isolate people who depend on the frozen land to get around.

"The ice and snow is transportation and mobility for us. It's our highways and when that starts to go, then it becomes an issue of safety and security foremost," she said. 

Watt-Cloutier was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 and as she said, has been warning people about what is happening in the Arctic "for a long, long time."

She said her work is becoming more relevant now as people around the world are experiencing climate change's impact and are connecting it to what Watt-Cloutier called "the breakdown of the air conditioner."

And as for the people who have watched the breakdown first-hand, she said Inuit people are doing their best to adapt.

"We are not going to give up hunting and fishing on the land," said Watt-Cloutier. "It's where we get solace and train our children."

Watt-Cloutier will receive the Jack P. Blaney Award for Dialogue at SFU's Morris J.Wosk Centre for Dialogue in a ceremony on Feb. 18.