Zebedee Nungak
Zebedee Nungak CQ (Inuktitut: ᔭᐃᐱᑎ ᓄᓐᖓᖅ Jaipiti Nunngaq; born 23 April 1951) is a Canadian Inuk author, actor, essayist, journalist, and politician.
As a child, Nungak was taken from his home in the community of Saputiligait, along with two other children, for the purposes of an experiment by the Canadian government to "expunge them of Inuit culture and groom them to become northern leaders with a southern way of thinking."
Nungak later became pivotal in securing successful land rights claims and the creation of his home territory of Nunavik.
Zebedee Nungak (Inuktitut: ᔭᐃᐱᑎ ᓄᓐᖓᖅ Jaipiti Nunngaq)[1][2] was born in the community of Saputiligait, Nunavik, Quebec, a small village south of Puvirnituq[3][4][5] on 23 April 1951.
[9][5] Nungak, unlike Ittinuar and Tagoona, described his entry into the experiment as a "walk in", not having undergone IQ testing.
[1] Once Nungak had returned, he faced ridicule from his Inuit peers, but felt simultaneously unable to fit into the southern society he was taken to.
[13] The program had been devised to "expunge them of Inuit culture and groom them to become northern leaders with a southern way of thinking.
"[5] While conducting the experiment, the Canadian government acknowledged the possible ramifications of the program in destroying family ties, as well as Inuit culture.
[10][14] As a result of their extended time as part of the experiment, Nungak and Ittinuar realized they had a unique perspective of both the north and south.
[3] In a 2011 interview, Nungak said that over the course of his political career, he has "crossed antlers with prime ministers, premiers and Québec separatists".
[5][16] Nungak, as a negotiator on behalf of the NQIA, was one of eleven signatories to the James Bay and Northern Québec Agreement (JBNQA) in 1975.
[5] Nungak, who was appointed president of the organization in 1995 to succeed Simeonie Nalukturuk, was primaried in 1997 by two challengers, but won with 79% of the vote cast by beneficiaries of the agreement.
[3][21] Nungak, as part of the Avataq Cultural Institute, went on a tour of Nunavik to determine the current state of the Inuktitut language, writing a plan to ensure its preservation.
[31] He was critical of the sovereignty movement, whose rhetoric ignored Indigenous voices as they were deemed "inconsequential" compared to the Francophone Quebecois electorate.
[32] As president of the Makivik Corporation, Nungak went on speaking engagements in Brussels, Geneva, and London to advocate against the movement and a potential second independence referendum.
[33] As part of his engagements, Nungak met with the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations and the Royal Geographical Society of London.
[35][37] In 2021, Nungak was one of five recipients of the First Peoples' Medal by the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, J. Michel Doyon, to honour their contributions in their communities and abroad.
