John Amagoalik’s supporters hope his return will pave the way for more Nunavut elders
Nearly three months ago, John Amagoalik, a man often called the Father of Nunavut, wrote a letter from an Ottawa seniors’ facility asking the territorial health minister to help bring him home.
“I am writing to advise you that I urgently want to return to Iqaluit to live out my final days with my family in the territory I fought to create,” Mr. Amagoalik, 78, wrote on March 31. “I urge you to do whatever you can within your power and authority as Minister of Health to assist me and my family.
” Mr. Amagoalik’s wish has now come true, thanks to a committee of former colleagues, friends, family and supporters who raised money and made arrangements to care for the Inuk leader at home in the territorial capital. On Friday, he landed at the Iqaluit airport, where he was greeted by a small group of well-wishers, including his wife, Evie Amagoalik, carrying fluorescent signs and bouquets of flowers. The couple shared a long embrace. Ms. Amagoalik wiped tears from her eyes.
Mr. Amagoalik’s supporters hope his return will pave the way for more Nunavut elders to return from Embassy West Senior Living, a facility in Ottawa where 68 Inuit now live because the territory doesn’t have enough long-term-care beds or other high-level supports to care for them.
“I am hopeful that we have had a breakthrough,” said Anne Crawford, a Nunavut lawyer and advocate for Pairijiit Tigummiaqtikkut, an Iqaluit Elders Society that has been campaigning to build housing units for elders in all 25 fly-in communities in Nunavut. The Government of Nunavut has agreed to hold quarterly meetings about bringing elders home from Embassy West, Ms. Crawford added, a development she attributes to the example set by Mr. Amagoalik’s case.
“John really has led the way for us, which we thought probably would happen, given the name and the history – that he would again be a leader,” Ms. Crawford said. Mr. Amagaolik was born in 1947 in an Inuit hunting camp in northern Quebec.
He was six when his family was coaxed by an RCMP officer – working on behalf of federal officials looking to assert Canadian sovereignty in the High Arctic – to move 2,000 kilometres north to Resolute Bay on Cornwallis Island, not far from an American military base.to the Qikiqtani Truth Commission, which examined government mistreatment of Inuit in the eastern Arctic in the mid-20th century, including the killing of sled dogs. The Inuit families were dropped on a barren gravel beach in 1953 with no sources of sustenance beyond polar bears, seal and a few starving musk oxen – a far cry from the plethora of game, fish and vegetation they were used to in northern Quebec.
Darkness reigned for three straight months in the winter.
“I remember a lot of times, without any warning, somebody would burst out crying,” Mr. Amagoalik said in his testimony. After a stint in residential school, Mr. Amagoalik grew up to become one of the leaders of the Inuit land claims movement, which culminated in the creation of Nunavut in 1999. As chief of the Nunavut Implementation Commission, he helped create the territory’s governance structure and public administration.
In a brief phone interview from Embassy West on Thursday, Mr. Amagoalik said he was looking forward to returning to Iqaluit, where he lived for decades, to spend time with his wife, children and grandchildren.
“I’m so grateful to all the people that have helped make arrangements and work out the details along the way. It’s not easy,” he said. Mark Stiles, a friend who worked with Mr. Amagoalik in the Northwest Territories in the 1970s and helped facilitate the interview with The Globe and Mail, joined forces with Ms. Crawford, Mr. Amagoalik’s family and other friends to arrange his return. They called themselves the “John A. committee.
” Mr. Amagoalik moved to Embassy West about 15 months ago after his right leg was amputated above the knee, Ms. Crawford explained. He and his wife and extended family were living in an accessible house with a long entry staircase, a common configuration in the Arctic.
He is also living with other chronic, age-related conditions, including forgetfulness, frailty, reduced mobility, fall risk and some cognitive decline, according to a patient assessment that Ms. Crawford and Mr. Stiles shared with Mr. Amagoalik’s permission. But none of his ailments precluded him from living in an accessible home with the help of a personal support worker.
Ms. Crawford said Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the land claims organization that ensures promises made under the Nunavut agreement are carried out, offered the Amagoaliks an accessible housing unit, and a fundraising drive gathered enough money for 12 hours of PSW support per day through to July. Canadian North airline donated his plane ticket home. Ms. Crawford hopes the territorial government will help pay for continued PSW care after donations run dry.
Nunavut Health Minister Janet Pitsiulaaq Brewster said by e-mail that, out of respect for Mr. Amagoalik’s privacy, she would not discuss plans for his care. However, she said she supports bringing more Inuit elders home to Nunavut where possible. She touted the recent opening of a long-term care home in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut’s second largest community, and noted plans to increase long-term care capacity in Iqaluit and the western Nunavut community of Cambridge Bay.
“I know many people across Nunavut are delighted to see Mr. Amagoalik back in the territory, surrounded by family, friends, and community,” Ms. Pitsiulaaq Brewster wrote.
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