Website: www.tunngavik.com
Head of Government/Organization: President Aluki Kotierk
Description: In the early 1970s Inuit of the Northwest Territories established basic political objectives including the settlement of their land claim and the establishment of the Nunavut Territory.
The 3 volume report of the Inuit Land Use and Occupancy Project, published by the Government of Canada in 1977, demonstrated use and occupancy by Inuit of approximately 1.5 million square miles of land and ocean.
Land claims negotiations were initiated under Inuit Tapirisat of Canada which in 1976 submitted a formal comprehensive land claims proposal. In 1982 the Tungavik Federation of Nunavut (TFN) was established with the sole mandate to negotiate a land claims agreement with the Government of Canada.
An agreement-in-principle was signed in Igloolik in April of 1990, and a final agreement—the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement—was ratified in 1993. Following the enactment of the Nunavut Land Claims Settlement Act, TFN was reorganized as Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI). NTI is the territorial Inuit organization mandated to defend the rights and promote the interests of Nunavut Inuit and to carry out Inuit obligations under the land claims agreement.
NTI programs include an Inuit elders’ benefit plan, a harvester support program and a bereavement and compassionate travel program. It also provides financial support to Inuit development corporations and community economic development organizations, and to Nunavut Sivuniksavut (a post-secondary educational program).
NTI maintains its head office in Iqaluit and regional offices in Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay, as well as a small office in Ottawa.
Treaty/Land Claim Agreement: Nunavut Land Claim Agreement
Signatories to the Agreement: Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated and, for Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, the Government of Canada and the Government of the Northwest Territories
Key Dates: May 1993
Brief description of the region covered by claim: Nunavut Territory
Total Land Area: Excluding marine areas and some of the very large inland lakes, the Nunavut Settlement Area is 823,471 square miles (2,132,780 square kilometres).
Inuit Owned Land totals 135,992 square miles (352,217 square kilometres), of which 14,274 square miles (36,969 square kilometers) includes the subsurface.
Surface title to Inuit Owned Land is held by three regional Inuit associations, and the subsurface title by NTI.
# of Beneficiaries: 23,000 Beneficiaries in Nunavut
First Nations/Inuit within the Land Claims Areas: Nunavummiut
Aboriginal Languages Spoken: Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun