Inuit hunters in Canada's eastern Arctic territory of Nunavut. The hunters are setting up nets to hunt fish and seal. The Danish orgainization Inuit Sila announced today it is becoming a pan-Arctic NGO to defend and promote Inuit seal hunting from around the entire Arctic region

Inuit hunters in Canada's eastern Arctic territory of Nunavut. The hunters are setting up nets to hunt fish and seal. The Danish orgainization Inuit Sila announced today it is becoming a pan-Arctic NGO to defend and promote Inuit seal hunting and seal product sales from around the entire Arctic region
Photo Credit: Levon Sevunts / Radio Canada International

International defence of Inuit seal-hunting, goes to EU in Brussels

A new pan-Arctic Inuit organization is took its case on seal hunting directly to the European Parliament today.

The organization called Inuit Sila is based in Copenhagen and has been defending and promoting Greenland Inuit seal hunters for three years, but is announcing today that is is becoming a pan-Arctic NGO to include all Inuit and the important tradition of seal hunting.

They took their case to the EU meeting in Brussels today, serving seal meat to delegates and announcing the expansion of the organization to include Inuit hunters from around the Arctic region.

Inuit Sila protest and information event at the European Parliament in STrasbourg France in May 2015
Inuit Sila protest and information event at the European Parliament in Strasbourg France in May 2015. © Inuit Sila

The European Union ban on commercially produced seal products in 2009 and 40 years of campaigning against seal hunting has virtually wiped out the market for seal products according to the organization.

Inuit Sila activists Leif Fontaine (Greenland) and Aaju Peter  (Nunavut) shown in Brussels this week to counter misconceptions from anti-sealing campaigns and promote the sale of sustainably harvested seal products. in light of the EU ban on commerically harvested seals and products
Inuit Sila activists Leif Fontaine (Greenland) and Aaju Peter (Nunavut) shown in Brussels this week to counter misconceptions from anti-sealing campaigns and promote the sale of sustainably harvested seal products in light of the EU ban on commerically harvested seals and products © Rasmus Holm- Inuit Sila

A press release from Inuit Sila says the seal population is far from endangered and sale of sealskin is an important income for hunters living in a part of the world where you cannot grow crops. It says the annual Inuit seal hunt in the Arctic is 100% sustainable and that the catch is around 200,000 animals a year out of a growing seal population of around 12 million. It claims the seal population hasn’t been this high in 200 years.

Fashion coats, boots, mittens, purses etc of sealskin represent an important source of income for remote Inuit communities. Although theEU ban excludes aboriginal hunting and products, it has promoted confusion, and combined with a decades long campaign against seal hunting, has resulted in almost wiping out the market for seal products. Inuit Sila wants to change that.
Fashion coats, boots, mittens, purses etc of sealskin represent an important source of income for remote Inuit communities. Although theEU ban excludes aboriginal hunting and products, it has promoted confusion, and combined with a decades long campaign against seal hunting, has resulted in almost wiping out the market for seal products. Inuit Sila wants to change that. © CBC

“It has always been the idea that Inuit Sila should be extended to cover all Inuit seal hunters in the Arctic, who are all affected by the EU ban. The consequences of the ban in Nunavut, Canada, are largely the same as in Greenland,” says Leif Fontaine who is a hunter himself and spokesperson for Inuit Sila in Greenland.

Inuit rights activist Aaju Peter from Nunavut agrees: “We must stand together in this one case.” She says, “This applies to all communities in the Arctic, which are severely affected by 40 years of campaigns against seal hunting and now the EU’s discriminatory ban,”

Originally from Greenland, Iqaluit -based lawayer and Inuit activist Aaju Peter, speaks with a reporter outside the European Parliament in France. Peter is part of a Greenland group, Inuit Sila, in France protesting an EU ban on seal products.
Originally from Greenland, Iqaluit -based lawyer and Inuit activist Aaju Peter, speaks with a reporter outside the European Parliament in Strasbourg France earlier this year protesting the EU ban on seal products. Peter is part of a Greenland group, Inuit Sila in Brussels this week to promote sustainably harvested Inuit seal products, Inuit Sila has also announced it is becoming a pan-Arctic NGO. © Rasmus Holm/Inuit Sila

She also sees this as part of a bigger Arctic movement of the Inuit people getting more united: “Together we have a stronger voice internationally. On the whole, I believe that we must begin to orient ourselves more toward each other from east to west in the Arctic. If we are not united, no one will listen to us”.

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