Nunatsiaq News

Nunatsiaq News: "Pang group wants to start new hamlet

About 100 people want to move to community founded by Lypa Pitsiulak

SARA MINOGUE

Several dozen people in Panniqtuuq want to move permanently to Opingivik Island across Cumberland Sound, and are seeking hamlet status for the outpost camp founded there by Lypa Pitsiulak over 25 years ago.

Twenty-seven Panniqtuuq residents met last week with Sakiasie Sowdlooapik, the Qikiqtani Inuit Association’s community director for Panniqtuuq, and the acting spokesperson for the group.

“I think it’s an excellent idea,” Sowdlooapik said.

“These people moved to Panniqtuuq from other outposts in the past,” he said. “They want to pass on their culture and traditional life by living in a less populated area.”

The idea to expand the outpost camp to a full-fledged community first surfaced in 2001.

The QIA started work on a written proposal for the project last year at Pitsiulak’s request. Pitsiulak has now held three meetings with Panniqtuuq residents to discuss the idea. He described the concept to their hamlet council several months ago.

So far Sowdlooapik has presented the proposal to Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and to Peter Kilabuk, the Government of Nunavut’s minister for community and government services. There has been no formal response."