A painful truth meets a willing reconciliation

Aaju Peter wants Inuit to know they have rights, even if governments are slow to act.  

The lawyer and activist says the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30 brings to mind the pace of progress in her birthplace of Greenland and her home in Nunavut.

"When you look at the recommendations by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, very few of them have been implemented. Many of them are stalled, and many others haven't even been looked at," Peter said. 

Non-profit organization Indigenous Watchdog says 41 per cent of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's 94 calls to action are either not started or delayed as of Aug. 1.

But the federal government says it's completed or working on most of its responsibilities under the 2015 report recommendations. 

"I want to hold the truth, and then somebody else on the other side will also say that they want to hold the truth. So it really depends who is saying what about truth and reconciliation," Peter said. 

As an example of dislocated truths, Peter pointed to a Danish government study on the forced sterilization of Inuit women and girls in Greenland from the 1960s to 1990s. 

Researchers ended up disagreeing on whether or not the practice constituted genocide, and now Greenland is holding its own truth and reconciliation process. 

For Inuit in Canada, Peter cited the seizing of children, forced relocations, widespread hunger, the dog slaughter, and the banning of languages and cultural practices as part of the painful truth the country needs to come to terms with. 

"The beating and raping and killing of these children, I mean, there's so much that is true. It did happen, and that's a painful truth," Peter said of the residential school era.

While Canada still has a long way to go on truth and reconciliation, Peter said the government has made progress. 

"The fact that Canada was willing, and the First Nations, Metis, and Inuit were also willing. Both parties were willing to try to reconcile, try to work out a path forward while addressing the past. You don't see many countries doing that who have had these similar kind of problems," she said. 

Peter wants to see trauma counselling, improved education, and better housing operated by Inuit and funded by the federal government as part of reconciliation. 

Iqaluit's Aqqusariaq Nunavut Recovery Centre, funded by Indigenous Services Canada and operated by Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., is part of the federal government's fulfilment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action.

"We all need to go through the trauma and try to figure out how do we heal from this? How do we stop passing it on to future generations? How can we heal from all these hardships that we have gone through?" Peter said.

Christian churches should also be held financially liable for their part in the residential school system, according to Peter. 

While the acceptance of painful truths and institutional reconciliation grinds on, Peter said Nunavummiut shouldn't wait to demand their place in this country. 

"We have rights as Canadian citizens, as Indigenous Canadians," she said. "We have rights under the Nunavut Agreement. We have all these rights, but if we don't do anything about them, nothing happens. We actually have to individually and together exercise our rights."

The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was established by the federal government in 2021. The same day, Sept. 30, has also been known as Orange Shirt Day since 2013, when many Canadians don orange shirts — some bearing slogans such as 'Every child matters' — in recognition of the harms caused by the residential school era.

Copyright 2026, Nunavut News. All rights reserved.

William Koblensky Varela, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunavut News.