Fun Fast Facts:
Updated: 21 Apr 2014 (Indigenous Canadian Inuit – Raising the flag for visibility)
- Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Greenland, Canada, and the United States.
- Inuit is a plural noun; the singular is Inuk.
- The Inuit languages are classified in the Eskimo-Aleut family.
- The European arrival tremendously damaged the Inuit way of life, causing mass death through new diseases introduced by whalers and explorers, and enormous social disruptions caused by the distorting effect of Europeans’ material wealth.
- Canada’s 1982 Constitution Act recognised the Inuit as Aboriginal peoples in Canada, but not First Nations.
- In 2008, Leona Aglukkaq was appointed as Minister of Health becoming the first Inuk to hold a senior cabinet position.
- Since 1970, the biennial Arctic Winter Games have been held in communities across the northern regions of the world, featuring traditional Inuit and northern sports as part of the events.
- In Inuit shamanism, the first two humans were Aakulujjuusi and Uumarnituq, both male. This same-sex couple desired company and decided to mate. This sexual encounter resulted in pregnancy for Uumarnituq. As he was physically not equipped to give birth, a spell was cast that changed his sex, giving him a vagina capable of passing the child.
- Two-spirit people is a modern umbrella term used by some indigenous North Americans for gender-variant individuals within their communities. Some tribes consider there to be at least four gender identities: masculine men, feminine men, masculine women, and feminine women.
Updated: 15 Apr 2013 (Going beyond liberal legislation)
- Civil marriage rights nationwide since 2005 (first country to have this nationwide).
- In January 2001, performed the first ever legally recognised same-sex marriage in the world.
- First openly gay city councilor in Toronto was elected in 1981.
Indigenous Canadian Inuit – Raising the flag for visibility
Broadcast: 21 Apr 2014
LGBTIQ-friendly organisation: Facebook page for LGBT and Queer Inuit in the Arctic
- Founded March 6, 2014.
W3JOY interviewed: Robbie Watt – founder of the Facebook page
“I would say that being an Inuk gay man in today’s society has become quite hard for reasons such as fundamentalism has reached the high Arctic more so in the last 15-20 years.”
“In the beginning when I publicly came out, there were even many of my community members that just couldn’t even go near me, let alone shake my hand anymore. Very quickly things turned around when they realised that I’m still the same individual – that my sexuality really had not changed me.”
“As Inuit, we tend to pick up a lot on non-verbal cues. And yes I came out and yes I seemed to coast along quite well – I had no problems – but internally on a daily basis until today, until recently, I’ve been getting these non-verbal cues where they don’t really seem to accept me.”
“I think our elders today are pretty much, I wouldn’t say assimilated but they have taken in this very fundamentalist view on life where everything’s conditional now. It’s rare to see what I call a real kind of elder where I just want to sit down and have a chat with. Those are the kind of elders that don’t judge.”
“My father, I finally had a chance to speak with him and I said ‘well Dad, I couldn’t just be complacent about this anymore’ and he said ‘I know, I know. And I’m very, very proud of you. Your Mum and I are very proud of you’. It was the first time that I’d actually heard my mother and my father being so proud of me and to hear that – that sincere unconditional feeling…today I thought I was just coasting along but now I feel like I’m ready to soar!”
Listen to the podcast
Going beyond liberal legislation
Broadcast: 15 Apr 2013
LGBTIQ-friendly organisation: Pride At Work Canada
- Founded in May 2008 by a group of dedicated individuals with a vision – to improve the climate of inclusiveness for LGBT employees in the workplace.
- Encourages organisations to create workplaces where LGBT employees will be more able to be themselves and, ultimately, to be more productive.
- Launched an LGBT Career Site.
- Will launch an LGBT Inclusion Index that establishes benchmarking for LGBT workplace inclusion.
W3JOY interviewed: Brent Chamberlain of Pride At Work Canada
“Canada’s had very progressive laws around things like workplace discrimination, adoption, same-sex marriage….it’s not always the case that legislative equality has come with cultural norms around acceptance of LGBT.”
“Although we’re seeing a lot of good work being done in certain sectors, there is a lot to be done in industries we haven’t touched yet.”
“When you start talking about the public sector, when you start talking about the oil and gas industry, these are major challenges that we haven’t begun to touch yet.”
“Legislation isn’t enough to drive these kind of changes through organisations.”
“Having people like Chief Diversity Officers…has been a huge part of this change….one of Canada’s largest organisations employs about 30+ people within their diversity team.”
“It’s not something that’s nice to have, it’s an absolute must have.”