Vote to support the Nunavut Heritage Centre at NTI meeting in Cambridge Bay

Iqaluit, Nunavut – November 6, 2017 – Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated (NTI) and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association have each pledged $5 million to realize the creation of a Nunavut Heritage Center.

“I am very excited about NTI’s support, in addition to QIA’s pledge,” says Inuit Heritage Trust (IHT) president, Eva Aareak. “This is tremendous momentum that the Nunavut Heritage Center project has never seen before. Next, we will start to focus on getting support from the incoming Government of Nunavut.”

The Nunavut Heritage Center is projected to cost $70 to $90 Million. QIA pledged $5 million towards the creation of the Center during their Annual General Meeting in October 2017. IHT then requested support from the other Inuit organizations during its report to the NTI board of directors meeting in Cambridge Bay in the last week of October, and the response was favorable.

“Inuit stand united when it comes to our desire to bring home Inuit artifacts and ethnographic material collected, at times without consent, by explorers and researchers,” says QIA president P.J. Akeeagok.

There are currently more than 140,000 artifacts stored and preserved in other jurisdictions, the Government of Nunavut has been spending millions since 1999 to store them outside of Nunavut.

The Government of Nunavut and IHT conducted community consultations and a Nunavut Heritage Center Capital Financing Study in 2001 onwards. NTI, Government of Nunavut and IHT announced that Iqaluit would be the location of the Nunavut Heritage Center in 2006. Qikiqtaaluk Corporation started to collaborate with IHT on this project and invested in a concept plan for the Heritage Centre in 2014.

Nunavut’s Inuit organizations will approach the new territorial Government immediately to prioritize the establishment of the Nunavut Heritage Center.

For further information, please contact:

William Beveridge                                                         Sima Sahar Zerehi

Executive Director,                                                        Director of Communications,

Inuit Heritage Trust                                                      Qikiqtani Inuit Association

wbeveridge@ihti.ca                                                       szerehi@qia.ca

Tel: (867) 979 0731                                                        Tel: (867) 975.8413

Fax: (867) 979 6700                                                       1.800.667.2742