The renewed Inuit-to-crown partnership—that's the term we as Inuit have used—starts with a respect for Inuit land claim agreements and the Inuit governance structures that have been created under land claim agreements.
In our four regions, we have different governance models, but they are all based on these comprehensive land claim agreements with the crown. Our populations are all invested in those agreements. In many ways, the shared future that we imagined when we signed those agreements still has yet to come. As Inuit leadership and the federal government and jurisdictions in which Inuit reside move in this path together, it has to come with that shared sense of partnership.
That can be seen through the Government of Canada working with our leadership to create this change, and not going beyond it in cases where it can, and just having relationships with public governments in jurisdictions in which Inuit reside, or with Inuit organizations or community-based organizations that are not the representatives of Inuit. That is a way in which everyone can feel as though there is this new change.
Within the Inuit democracy, if you will, we have youth organizations and we have women's organizations. We are structured in such a way that our voice can be utilized in a very specific response to specific questions. Seeing all that function is an ongoing challenge for us, because we don't have the historical connections to success. We haven't been recognized in the same way that perhaps other indigenous representation groups have, and our land claim agreements have not been implemented in the way in which many Inuit have felt that they need to be, so we look forward to this shared path moving forward.