GUEST COLUMN: Inuit Day honours people who protected the Arctic – Orillia Matters
Inuit, without consent, sacrificed and some starved to death while defending Canada’s sovereignty; it was a ‘sacrifice that has benefited our entire country’
Nov. 7 is International Inuit Day.
The truth is, some people aren’t aware that there is an Inuit Day. Some people aren’t even aware that Inuit don’t belong to First Nations people.
In honour of Inuit Day, I’d like to share a little more about Inuit and also how we as a people have done a lot for Canada. We deserve our day of celebration.
Though Inuit are not part of First Nations, it doesn’t mean that we weren’t in Canada first, it just means we are a different group of people and we call ourselves Inuit. We are the first people of the arctic tundra, but not of the boreal forested areas.
For those new to Canada, I want to share that Inuit, are the first people of the circumpolar region of the world which includes Canada, Russia, Greenland, Alaska. We as a people have been inhabiting Inuit Nunaat (Inuit northern traditional lands, water, and ice of the world) since time immemorial.
