Sheila Watt-Cloutier

Sheila Watt-Cloutier was born in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, Northern Quebec, Canada, in 1953. Her early life involved traditional travel by dog-sledge, followed by formal education in Nova Scotia and Manitoba. In the mid-1970s, she worked at Ungava Hospital as an Inuktitut translator, focusing on improving educational and health services for the Inuit. From 1991 to 1995, she served as a counsellor for the education system review in Northern Quebec, leading to the significant 1992 report, “Silaturnimut – The Pathway to Wisdom.” This report provided 101 recommendations to reform the education system, emphasizing community needs, self-government, and cultural preservation, and remains a key reference.

Watt-Cloutier’s political career began in 1995 when she was elected Corporate Secretary of the Makivik Corporation, an Inuit land claims organization. In this role, she addressed Inuit youth issues and contributed to the film “Capturing Spirit: The Inuit Journey.” That same year, she became President of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) Canada, re-elected in 1998. The ICC represents Inuit interests across Russia, Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. Her pivotal work as a spokesperson for Arctic indigenous peoples led to the negotiation of the Stockholm Convention, adopted in 2001 and enforced in 2004, which aimed to ban persistent organic pollutants contaminating the Arctic food chain and accumulating in Inuit bodies.

From 2002 to 2006, Watt-Cloutier served as International Chair of the ICC. During this period, she presented the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) findings to US Senator John McCain’s Senate Committee, challenging efforts to suppress climate policy recommendations. The ACIA highlighted the accelerating rate of warming in the Arctic and its impact on Inuit hunting culture. In 2005, she initiated the first international legal action on climate change, petitioning the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to recognize unchecked US greenhouse gas emissions as a violation of Inuit human rights. Although the petition was not heard, her testimony in 2007 established a critical link between climate change and human rights in global discourse. In 2015, she published her book, “The Right to Be Cold,” which explores her life and the effects of climate change on Inuit communities, advocating for climate change to be recognized as a human rights issue. She co-taught university courses on climate change at Bowdoin College and Mount Allison University.