Born in Naujaat in 1950, Jack Anawak can recall when Inuit were still in the hunting and gathering stage of our life.

There were no houses, he said -  just the church and HudsonSA国际影视传媒檚 Bay Company, which only sold supplies to the then-community of 200.

"Everyone else who was in Naujaat were in igloo sod-huts or tents in the summertime," he said. "They only survived by hunting and so we were like that until the (federal) government came along in 1963 and built what were called SA国际影视传媒榤atchboxesSA国际影视传媒�."

Those matchboxes, as Anawak describes them, measured 16 ft. x 24 ft.

"That was the first time that Inuit in Naujaat moved into houses," he said. "Most of the people at the time were out at their camps, and only when the houses started arriving did people move in.SA国际影视传媒�

From a small family with only one older sibling who soon moved out to marry, Anawak lost his mother at the age of six when she was sent south for an unknown illness. Only recently, after 60 years of searching, did Anawak locate her grave in the Sioux Valley Dakota Nation around Brandon, Man.

SA国际影视传媒淲e had no idea where she was buried because we werenSA国际影视传媒檛 told where she was buried,SA国际影视传媒� he said.

AnawakSA国际影视传媒檚 father soon remarried a woman with children and was sent to residential school in Churchill in 1959, moving around from Rankin Inlet to Naujaat, and Chesterfield Inlet and back. Anawak then moved on to an academic school in 1964 for a further two years before returning to Naujaat, where he lived off the land for two years with his team of dogs while helping start the community's Co-op.

He got married in Rankin Inlet had two children with his first wife and would end up marrying a second time in 1975 to Caroline.

Spending the next eight years in his hometown, Anawak assumed his first government role as the SAO in Naujaat before moving on to Rankin Inlet where he took a job working with the GNWT.

Anawak then become president of the Kivillaq Inuit Association in 1986 before taking a run at federal politics as a Liberal in what was then known as the riding of Nunatsiaq in 1988. He would go on to win that year and became the party's critic of the Department of Northern Affairs. He would win re-election in 1993 as part of the Liberal landslide that year and became the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.

Following federal politics, he would become one of the first MLAs elected to sit in the inaugural Nunavut consensus government in 1999 and served one term as the member for Rankin Inlet North. From there, he was Canada's ambassador for circumpolar affairs with the Arctic Council, but that role was dissolved by former prime minister Stephen Harper in 2006.

SA国际影视传媒淲e were from the wrong party," contends Anawak.

Anawak tried once more to get back in federal politics with a run for the Nunavut riding in 2015 as a member of the NDP. He lost to Hunter Tootoo that year, but he has returned to municipal politics after winning a seat on Iqaluit's city council in 2023.

Reflecting on NunavutSA国际影视传媒檚 evolution during his 74 years of life, Anawak said Inuit had the determination to get its own territory.

But there's still a long way to go.

"ItSA国际影视传媒檚 been 25 years, and the dreams of the leadership have not been fully realized today," he said. "(At) the inception of Nunavut in 1999, we were supposed to have Inuktitut as a working language for the government within 20 years and that hasnSA国际影视传媒檛 happened. The bureaucracy was supposed to be about 85 per cent Inuit. That hasnSA国际影视传媒檛 happened. 

"I hope we get a leadership that has the determination to really pursue those goals because Nunavut was created because of Inuit (and) nothing else. The only reason Nunavut exists is because of us Inuit."

He said devolution was a step in the right direction, but thereSA国际影视传媒檚 still an opportunity to go further.

"We have Nunavut as a territory, but we have Nunavut in terms of land claims owned by Inuit," he said. "Basically, the majority of Nunavut is still Crown land. I hope that we get to point where we get to take advantage of the opportunities, whether itSA国际影视传媒檚 mining, tourism, oil and gas, to have more control over Nunavut.SA国际影视传媒�

Anawak feels that the territorial government has not put enough of its Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (knowledge) mandate into the system, and that itSA国际影视传媒檚 still very much a western style of government. 

"I hope there will arise a leadership of young people that has the determination to pursue Nunavut as it was meant to be," he said. "That is Inuit-owned, Inuit-land, Inuit-operated government.SA国际影视传媒�