Federal government to officially apologize for Dundas Harbour relocations in Nunavut
Relocations in 1930s and ’40s were early examples of government-directed moves of Inuit
A long-awaited apology will be given by the federal government on Thursday, to Inuit families affected by the Dundas Harbour relocations nearly a century ago.
Gary Anandasangaree, the federal minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs, will deliver the official apology at a ceremony in Arctic Bay, Nunavut.
“It will be a relief, a big relief for a lot of people, a celebration — something that has been coming a very long time,” said Lucy Qavavauq, who’s with the Dundas Harbour Relocation Society which has been advocating for the official apology.
The Dundas Harbour relocations were early examples of government-directed moves of Inuit.
In 1934, according to the Qikiqtani Truth Commission, a ship carried 52 Inuit and 109 dogs from several Baffin Island communities — Kinngait, Pangnirtung and Pond Inlet — to Dundas Harbour, an abandoned RCMP post on Devon Island. A Hudson Bay Company clerk also went to operate a trading post there.
A 2013 report from the Qikiqtani Truth Commission says the government’s motives for the relocation were “complex.”
“Reopening Dundas Harbour made a sovereignty statement at little or no expense to Canada, and also brought Inuit to an unpopulated area from more southerly locations that were considered to be overhunted,” the report reads.
Two years later, however, the Dundas Harbour trading post was abandoned, and some Inuit were taken back to Pangnirtung. Others would be moved again, several more times, over the following years.
Qavavauq said that while she welcomes the official apology, she wishes it “would have happened sooner.”
“It would have been great, ideal, for the elders that actually experienced it to be able to witness that apology,” she said.
The event on Thursday is happening at 2 p.m. ET at the Arctic Bay Community Centre.
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