Natan obed biography of martin
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Inuit leader not celebrating meeting with Pope Francis, his agenda is to &#;seek justice&#;
The leader of the national organization representing Inuit people says it will not be a celebratory occasion when he meets with Pope Francis at the Vatican next week as part of an Indigenous delegation.
Natan Obed has a specific item on his agenda: justice for alleged victims of a Roman Catholic priest accused of crimes against children.
Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, wants the church to hold to account an Oblate priest, Johannes Rivoire, who continues to live free despite multiple allegations of sexual abuse linked to his time in Nunavut.
&#;He is still alive and has not faced legal prosecution,&#; Obed said in a recent interview.
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Rivoire was in Canada from the early s to , when he returned to France.
A warrant was issued for his arrest in He faced at least three charges of sexual abuse in the Nunavut communities of Arviat, Rankin Inl
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In September, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, which represents all Inuit land claims beneficiaries, was getting ready to elect its new president. Of the three candidates, Natan Obed was the only one who didn’t speak Inuktitut fluently. How could he expect to lead Inuit, one of his critics asked pointedly during the election assembly, when he couldn’t even speak their language? Had he lost touch with his culture? Obed coolly responded that language alone couldn’t determine his identity. He ultimately won the election, but the question hung in the air. If young Inuit are not growing up with their ancient cultural practices, are they still “Inuk” enough to claim that identity? We asked three young Inuit leaders to take the discussion further.
Is it in your blood?
“Historically there was no definition of blood quantum for Inuit,” says Obed. “It was: if you believed you were Inuk, if you lived like an Inuk, and if your community accepted you as an Inuk.”
Now, with four Inuit land claims c
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Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami suggests I’m a criminal
I am a two-time alumnus of Dalhousie University. inom began as a lärling in , as a faculty member in and am now a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples’ health and well-being. I am Inuk. inom am also a member of NunatuKavut.
In an open letter released earlier this year. inuit Tapiriit Kanatami’s (ITK) President Natan Obed suggested that I, along with all members of NunatuKavut, are criminals.
“Before , NCC called itself the Labrador Métis Nation, and its members, including president Todd Russell, identified as Métis,” Obed says in the open letter.
Obed then equates the NunatuKavut inuit with those falsely claiming Indigenous identities and claims we are “shape-shifters” threatening to take resources away from “real” Inuit.
What this fails to recognize fryst vatten that the term “Métis” was always used as a way to reflect Inuit and mixed Inuit identities in Labrador. It was never used to assert an identity that was not reflective of the deep