Makivik Corp. is mourning the death of one of the negotiators of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement.
Greg Fisk, an Alaskan consultant and politician, died at his home in Juneau, Alaska this week. He was 70 years old.
“I’m in shock,” said Senator Charlie Watt, who first met Fisk in the early 1970s.
“When I met Greg more than 40 years ago I saw a person who was motivated and not a submissive person,” Watt said. “He’s definitely in the history books of the Inuit of Nunavik.”
As president of Makivik’s predecessor, the Northern Quebec Inuit Association, Watt hired Fisk during a trip to Alaska to study the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in the early 1970s.
Fisk’s experience with the land claim as a consultant for Arctic fisheries made him a natural fit for the NQIA at the negotiating table.
Fisk’s death comes just weeks after the 40th anniversary of the signing of the JBNQA, and the release of Makivik-produced documentary on the land claim process.
Fisk actually flew to Montreal last summer to be interviewed in the film Napagunnaqullusi, which was recently premiered in Kuujjuaq and Montreal.
“Many of our youth are just learning about the trail blazers who negotiated our land claims agreement in 1975,” said Makivik president Jobie Tukkiapik in a Dec. 2 release.
“To hear one of the negotiators has died during this time is unexpected and we want his family in Alaska to know his legacy in Canada will live on.”
Fisk had only just been elected to serve as mayor of Juneau, when he was discovered dead in his home Nov. 30. His cause of death has yet to be determined.
Republished with permission from Nunatsiaq Online, a news service based in Iqaluit, Nunavut
Read Original Article – Published December 02, 2015 – 1:15 pm
Nunavik Inuit mourn the passing of a land claim negotiator
