Nunavut Day celebration in Winnipeg offers growing Inuit community chance to share culture – CBC

Jul 10, 2023

A gathering at Winnipeg’s Vimy Ridge Park on Sunday afternoon shared traditional Inuit food, games and music in celebration of Nunavut’s 24th birthday.

Nunavut Day marks Parliament’s passage of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, which went into effect July 9, 1993. It’s celebrated as a milestone on the road to Nunavut becoming a territory, though that didn’t happen officially until April 1, 1999.

Nunavut’s establishment as its own territory is significant for the Inuit because it granted them power over their governance, said Pudlulak Ayaruak, whose grandmother was at the inaugural ceremony for Nunavut Day in 1999.

“We could have our own voice and not [be] told how we have to govern ourselves, how to be for our people, our own land,” she told CBC News at Vimy Ridge Park.

• ‘We are being known finally’: Winnipeg’s Inuit gather to mark Nunavut Day
• Nunavut Day now a stat holiday in the territory

Read More: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/nunavut-day-celebration-winnipeg-2023-1.6901644