Sheila Watt-Cloutier

Sheila Watt-Cloutier is a Canadian Inuit activist and from the year 2002 the Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC) that strives to represent the interests of Inuit population internationally. In 2005, she was awarded Sophie Prize for her work.

She was born on 2 December 1953 in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, Northern Quebec, Canada. Her mother was known as a skillful healer and interpreter throughout Nunavik. For the first ten years Sheila was raised traditionally, then she was sent to attend school in Nova Scotia and Churchill in Manitoba. At McGill University in Montreal she took courses on counseling, education and human development. In the middle of 1970s, she worked for the Ungava Hospital as an Inuktitut translator and strived towards improving education and health conditions. Then, from 1991 to 1995, she worked as a counselor in the review process of the system of education in Northern Quebec. This work lead to the influential report of the educational system in Nunavik Silaturnimut – The Pathway to Wisdom in 1992. She also contributed significantly to the youth awareness video Capturing Spirit: The Inuit Journey.

Sheila Watt-Cloutier has been politically representing the Inuit population for a long time. From 1995 to 1998, she was Corporate Secretary of Makivik Corporation that was established under the 1975 James Bay and Northern Quebec Land Claims Agreement. In 1995, she became the President of ICC Canada. At this position, she succeeded in persuading states to sign the ban of generation and use of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), such as PCB or DDT. These substances pollute the Arctic food web. For this work, she was awarded the inaugural global environment award from the World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations. In 2002, she became the international President of the ICC.

She has a daughter and a son. Her son is the youngest captain pilot ever in Air Inuit. Her daughter is a recognized folk Inuit signer, throat-singer and drum-dancer. Currently, Sheila Watt-Cloutier lives in Iqaluit, Nunavik, Canada.