By Stephen Hendrie
A week following the first ever Nunavik Human Resources (HR) conference, Makivvik Treasurer George Berthe said, “I think it went really well. We have awakened the right dragons and tigers of each organization, and there’s a buzz created here.”
The event was part of a vision at Makivvik to transform HR from something George described as “boring, tedious, and usually painful,” into the driving force of Nunavik organizations, and critical to the Nunavik Self-Determination process.
“When I joined Makivvik as Treasurer I said I wanted to make Makivvik an institute of education,” said George. He explained that by teaching staff to the max, Nunavik becomes stronger.
The Makivvik Executive and Board supported the creation of the conference in the 2023-2024 fiscal year. The HR division, led by Director Michael Iorio, got to work to plan the conference. The key organizing crew included HR Manager Jennifer Matchett-Tasse, HR Officer Cynthia Cookie-Simard, and HR Training Officer Pamela Stevenson. Additional Makivvik staff during the conference included Sylvia Labranche and Carson Tagoona.
By November 2023 an email blast was sent out to all the HR Directors in the various organizations in Nunavik. It said “Save the Date” for April 30 – May 2, 2024 in Montreal!
“The response was really good,” said Jennifer Matchett-Tasse. “As word of mouth started to come out – thanks to our executives – the numbers started to grow more and more. We were hoping for 60 participants and 15 organizations. In the end we were over 120 people and over 30 organizations.”
The logo for the conference – Nunavik Working Together – depicted a man’s hand tightening a rope on a qajaq, while a woman’s hand sews the gap left by the seal flipper, closed. Both are connected by the sealskin. Making the qajaq watertight is only possible by working together.
History will note that the first Makivvik HR Conference was held during goose hunting season. It was mentioned by many speakers, jokingly, right away. But when it comes to HR, goose hunting, or any harvesting activity, is an important part of the Nunavik context. It was a nice way to get right into the issues.
On April 30, 2024, the conference began. Tunu Napartuk was the facilitator. He welcomed everyone, and said he hoped that during the week participants would move from table to table and become friends in the common goal of bringing HR in Nunavik to the next level.
The conference was structured with plenary sessions in the morning and early afternoon, followed by breakout sessions each day, concluding back in the main room. Overall there were more than 15 keynote speakers, and 11 breakout sessions. There was also a small trade show.
The first speaker was Makivvik President Pita Aatami. He was on a link from Kuujjuaq. He mentioned the geese flying overhead and how it’s difficult to be inside at this time. “Being out on the land is good for the body and mind.”
He spoke of the challenges of being a remote region and attracting staff to work there. “Benefits are an issue. Inuit need to have the same benefits as workers who come up from the south. It’s also tough to attract workers who stay. A lot come up for a year or two, and then go back south.”
The issues addressed by Pita’s opening remarks were fleshed out by speaker after speaker in greater detail over the course of the three days, and in the breakout sessions. The elephants in the room were discussed openly, whether it was the disparities between Inuit and non-Inuit staff on the issue of benefits, or the importance of succession planning to ensure Inuit take up higher ranking management positions.
Underling the importance of HR for the region was a presentation on the Nunavik Self-Determination file by Chief Negotiator Anthony Ittoshat. He provided a brief history of the issue, noting that the concept was not part of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement in the 1970s.
The presentation and discussion on self-government provided an important foundation for the HR professionals in the room to know and understand how important their work is to prepare Nunavik to get to the next level of development.
Vital to the success of the conference was the presence of elders Martha Greig and Louisa Cookie-Brown. Both openly shared their past growing up on the land, and then being sent to residential schools, emerging from the trauma of that experience with careers in service to others in Nunavik. With their deep understanding of traditional Inuit culture, language, and values, they communicated with passion on the critical importance of respecting Inuit values in the process of developing Nunavik together.
“We have to do as much as we can with the resources that we have to push this file forward,” said Michael Iorio, Makivvik’s HR Director. He noted the nine Inuit staff taking the Public Governance and Administration course at McGill. “It’s a Quebec Department of Education Certificate Program. They’ll be at convocation with the rest of McGill in the year 2025. That’s really great.”
By the last day of the conference, the notion of sharing resources emerged naturally from participants. It was suggested to create an inter-organizational HR working group to address issues in common. The hope is to keep the buzz about HR going and to hold an annual conference on this issue to improve training across organizations and build Nunavik together.
