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  Af Mariia Simonsen 28-06 2010 - 19:36

The latest studies reveal that Nunavut, a self-governing territory in the Canadian Arctic, is incredibly rich in resources such as minerals, oil and gas.

However, unlike provinces in Canada, Nunavut has no authority over the exploitation of its natural resources, whether this concerns exploration, exploiting these resources or keeping the income resulting from their exploitation, according to Aariak.

She called on the Canadian government to give Nunavut the right to decide what to do with these resources.

“Residents of Nunavut are the only ones who should be deciding where and how our valuable resources should be exploited in order to get as much out of them as possible,” she said.

“We must change attitudes towards Arctic Canada from regarding it as ‘the last frontier’ to acknowledging that people actually live and work in these territories,” said Aariak.

She equated the right to self-determination with regaining “the sense of independence which we once knew and regarded as a given.”

“However, in the future there will be another kind of independence because this will be a new era and new century,” Aariak said.

According to Aariak, a new agreement on the decentralization and implementation of current land claims agreements is the key to realizing social, economic and cultural independence.