“We must teach our children their mother tongue & our philosophies which go back beyond the memory of man. We must keep the embers burning so we may gather around (our ancestral fires) again.”
John Amagoalik (jahn ah-mah-gwah-leek), negotiator, policy advisor
“Sovereignty begins at home. When you have permanent people living in communities which have been their homes for thousands of years, there will never be any question of them belonging there.”
Mary Simon (may-ree seye-mun), chair National Committee on Inuit Education
“Respect for our Elders stems from the understanding that their lived experience and survival is something that we have to admire and replicate if we are to keep our culture strong.”
Robert Comeau (rah-bert koo-moo), law student, Inuit advocate, qajaq-er
“Nation-states pretend...that they can just destroy cultures and languages, while the rest of us indigenous people have little voice, so we just have to be very, very loud in the way we can be.”
Aaju Peter (eye-you pee-terr), lawyer, activist and sealskin clothes designer