[Witness spoke in Inuktitut as follows:]
ᖁᔭᓐᓇᒦᒃ ᐊᐱᕆᒐᕕᑦ
[Inuktitut text translated as follows:]
Thank you for the question.
[English]
I think you raised a really interesting point in terms of culture. That was one of the reasons I wanted to share when Inuit were able to vote starting in 1962, because Inuit were moved from the land to communities. Part of being moved from the land to communities was not only a drastic cultural and lifestyle change in terms of the economy, wage economy, going to school, participating in a community in the way we do now, but also voting for an individual was something that also had to be learned.
In our nomadic family camp systems, leaders would become leaders based on their knowledge, their skills and family members going to individuals based on their expertise on specific issues. The idea of leadership in terms of an election is a different concept and is raised on occasion in our communities when there are discussions about ᐃᓱᒪᑕᖅ, or someone who's able to make decisions about things. The irony is now having individuals who speak both English and Inuktitut being in positions even when they're fairly young to be leaders, and I think that's in contradiction to the way our culture would often function very recently in living history. That adds an additional barrier to how things are done.
I think it's quite uncomfortable for Inuit candidates in the way they go around saying, “Vote for me. I have the best skill set. Vote for me. I will be capable of doing this. Vote for me. This is what I will do for you.” Culturally, the idea of self-promotion is quite frowned upon, because we're all part of our communities. Each of us, regardless of who we are and what we do, have an important role in our community, so no one is to be put on a higher pedestal than that of someone else. It becomes quite uncomfortable even for candidates to be asking for people's votes, so that adds to how there may be.... We talked a little bit about the different factors as to why there may be lower voter turnout. I think that might be one.
I'll leave it at that.
[Witness spoke in Inuktitut as follows:]
ᑭᐅᕙᒌᑦ ᓘᕆ?
[Inuktitut text translated as follows:]
Did I answer you, Lori?
[English]