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Sheila Watt-Cloutier, OC (born 2 December 1953) is a Canadian Inuit activist. She has been a political representative for Inuit at the regional, national and international levels, most recently as International Chair for Inuit Circumpolar Conference. Watt-Cloutier has worked on a range of social and environmental issues affecting Inuit, and has most recently focused on persistent organic pollutants and global climate change. She has received numerous awards and honors for her work, and has been featured in a number of documentaries and profiled by journalists from all media.

Early life and career

Sheila Watt-Cloutier was born in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, Northern Quebec, Canada. Her mother was known as a skillful healer and interpreter throughout Nunavik. For the first ten years of her life, Sheila was raised traditionally, travelling on the land by dog sled, before being sent to attend school in Nova Scotia and Churchill, Manitoba. At McGill University in Montreal she took courses on counseling, education and human development. In the mid-1970s, she worked for the Ungava Hospital as an Inuktitut translator and strived to improve education and health conditions. From 1991 to 1995, she worked as a counselor in the review process of the education system of Northern Quebec. This work lead to the influential 1992 report on the educational system in Nunavik, Silaturnimut - The Pathway to Wisdom. Watt-Cloutier also contributed significantly to the youth awareness video Capturing Spirit: The Inuit Journey.

Watt-Cloutier has a daughter, a son, and a grandson. Her son is the youngest captain-pilot ever in Air Inuit. Her daughter is an acclaimed Inuit folk singer, throat-singer and drum-dancer. Currently, Sheila Watt-Cloutier lives in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada.

Political positions

Watt-Cloutier has been a political representative for Inuit for over a decade. From 1995 to 1998, she was Corporate Secretary of Makivik Corporation, the Canadian Inuit land-claim organization established for Northern Quebec (Nunavik) under the 1975 James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement.

In 1995, she was elected President of Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC) Canada, a position she was re-elected to in 1998. ICC represents internationally the interests of Inuit in Russia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland. In this position, she served as the spokesperson for Arctic indigenous peoples in the negotiation of the Stockholm Convention banning the manufacture and use of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) or DDT. These substances pollute the Arctic food chain and accumulate in the bodies of Inuit, many of whom continue to subsist on local country food.

In 2002, Watt-Cloutier was elected International Chair of ICC, a position she would hold until 2006. Most recently, her work has emphasized the human face of the impacts of global climate change in the Arctic. In addition to maintaining an active speaking and media outreach schedule, she has launched the world's first international legal action on climate change. On December 7, 2005, based on the findings of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, which projects that Inuit hunting culture may not survive the loss of sea ice and other changes projected over the coming decades, she filed a petition, along with 62 Inuit Hunters and Elders from communities across Canada and Alaska, to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleging that unchecked emissions of greenhouse gases from the United States have violated Inuit cultural and environmental human rights as guaranteed by the 1948 American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man. Although her suit was rejected at first, just two months later, the Commission announced it would hold a hearing on the issue on March 1, 2007.

Awards and honors

2002:

• Global Environment Award, World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations - Washington, DC, USA (On behalf of ICC Canada)

2005:

• Sophie Prize, The Sophie Foundation - Oslo, Norway
• Champion of the Earth Award, United Nations Environment Programme - Nairobi, Kenya
• Northern Medal, Governor General of Canada Adrienne Clarkson - Ottawa, Canada

2006:

• International Environmental Leadership Award, 10th Annual Green Cross Millennium Awards, hosted by Global Green, USA - Los Angeles, USA
• Honorary Doctorate of Law, University of Winnipeg - Winnipeg, Canada
• Citation of Lifetime Achievement, Canadian Environment Awards - Vancouver, Canada
• International Environment Award, Gala 2006, Earth Day Canada - Toronto, Canada
• Order of Greenland, Inuit Circumpolar Conference General Assembly - Barrow, Alaska, USA
• Officer of the Order of Canada - Ottawa, Canada

2007:

• On 2 February 2007 The Globe and Mail published a report that Watt-Cloutier, along with former Vice President of the United States Al Gore, had been nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. The report stated that they had been nominated by Boerge Brende and Heidi Soerensen, both Norwegian members of parliament. The article also pointed out that the Norwegian Nobel Committee does not comment on the names of people who may have been nominated and according to the statues of the Nobel Foundation they do not publish the names.

Publications

• "The Inuit Journey Towards a POPs-Free World." Northern Lights Against POPs: Combating Toxic Threats in the Arctic. Ed. David Leonard Downie and Terry Fenge. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003. 256-267.
• "Don’t Abandon the Arctic to Climate Change." The Globe and Mail 24 May 2006: A19.
• "ICC responds to last week’s editorial." Nunatsiaq News 9 Jun 2006: Opinion.
• "Nunavut must think big, not small, on polar bears." Nunatsiaq News 19 Jan 2007: Opinion.

External links

• Sheila Watt-Cloutier's Speeches

Notes and references

1. ^ Sheila Watt-Cloutier's Biography at the Government of Canada's Networks of Centres of Excellence
2. Alaska Federation of Natives - Leadership Forum
3. See the Arctic Monitoring Assessment Programme (AMAP) for more information on POPs in the Arctic.
4. ICUN - The World Conservation Union
5. Sheila Watt-Cloutier's Petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights at the ICC, 7 December 2005. Retrieved 27 November 2006.
6. 2002 WANGO Awards. Retrieved 27 November 2006.
7. The Sophie Prize, Winners, 2005, 14 June 2005. Retrieved 27 Nobvember 2006.
8. Champions of the Earth Winners 2005 (biography and speech. Retrieved 27 November 2006.
9. Governor General presents the Governor General's Northern Medal to Sheila Watt-Cloutier, 3 October 2005. Retrieved 27 November 2006.
10. 10th Annual Green Cross Millennium Awards. Retrieved 27 November 2006. (PDF)
11. Honorary Doctor of Laws - Sheila Watt-Cloutier 2006. Retrieved 27 November 2006.
12. Canadian Environment Awards 2006, Citation of Lifetime Achievement. Retrieved 27 November 2006.
13. Earth Day Canada Gala 2006. Retrieved 27 November 2006.
14. Governor General to invest 38 recipients into the Order of Canada
15. Inuit leader nominated for Nobel
16. The Nobel Peace Prize - From Nomination to Ceremony
17. Nunavut must think big, not small, on polar bears,Retrieved 1 February 2007.

• 1953 births
• Canadian activists
• Canadian environmentalists
• Inuit politicians
• Living people
• Officers of the Order of Canada
• Qikiqtaaluk Region