Sheila Watt-Cloutier facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sheila Watt-Cloutier
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Watt-Cloutier in 2009
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| Born | 2 December 1953 Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, Quebec, Canada
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| Occupation | Activist |
| Awards | Order of Canada, Right Livelihood Award |
Sheila Watt-Cloutier, born on December 2, 1953, is a Canadian Inuk activist. She has worked as a political leader for the Inuit people in Canada and around the world. She was the International Chair for the Inuit Circumpolar Council, a group that helps Inuit people globally.
Watt-Cloutier has focused on important social and environmental issues that affect the Inuit. These include problems like harmful chemicals called persistent organic pollutants and the big challenge of global warming. She has won many awards for her important work. She also advises groups like Canada's Ecofiscal Commission and the Centre for International Governance Innovation.
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Sheila Watt-Cloutier was born in Kuujjuaq, a town in Nunavik, which is in Northern Quebec, Canada. Her mother was a well-known healer and interpreter in Nunavik. Her father worked for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
For her first ten years, Sheila lived a traditional Inuit life. She traveled across the land using a dog sled. Later, she was sent away to school in Nova Scotia and Churchill, Manitoba. This was part of the Canadian Indian residential school system.
Early Work and Education
In the mid-1970s, Sheila worked at the Ungava Hospital. She was an Inuktitut translator there. She also worked hard to make education and health care better for people.
From 1991 to 1995, she was a counselor. She helped review the education system in Northern Quebec. This work led to an important report in 1992 called Silaturnimut - The Pathway to Wisdom. Watt-Cloutier also helped create a video for young people, Capturing Spirit: The Inuit Journey.
Leading the Inuit People
Sheila Watt-Cloutier has been a strong political voice for the Inuit for more than ten years. From 1995 to 1998, she worked for Makivik Corporation. This group helps Inuit in Northern Quebec manage their land rights.
In 1995, she became the President of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) Canada. She was re-elected in 1998. The ICC speaks for Inuit people in Russia, Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. In this role, she spoke up for indigenous peoples in the Arctic. This was during talks for the Stockholm Convention. This agreement aimed to stop the making and use of harmful chemicals like PCBs and DDT. These chemicals pollute the Arctic food chain and build up in the bodies of Inuit people. Many Inuit still rely on local food from their land.
In 2002, she became the International Chair of the ICC. She held this position until 2006. Her work then focused on how climate change in the Arctic affects people.
Fighting for Climate Justice
On December 7, 2005, Watt-Cloutier took a big step. She used information from the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. This report showed that Inuit hunting culture might disappear if sea ice melts. She started the world's first international legal action about climate change.
She and 62 Inuit hunters and Elders from Canada and Alaska filed a petition. They sent it to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. They said that too many greenhouse gases from the United States were harming Inuit human rights. These rights are protected by the 1948 American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man.
Even though the Commission did not hear her petition, they invited her to speak. On March 1, 2007, Watt-Cloutier and her legal team testified. This was the Commission's first hearing on climate change and human rights.
Awards and Recognition
Sheila Watt-Cloutier has received many important awards and honors for her work.
- In 2002, she received the Global Environment Award in Washington, D.C.
- In 2004, she won the National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Environment in Ontario.
- In 2005, she was honored with the Sophie Prize in Norway and the Champion of the Earth Award from the United Nations. She also received the Governor General's Northern Medal in Ottawa.
- In 2006, she received the International Environmental Leadership Award in Los Angeles. She was also made an Officer of the Order of Canada in Ottawa. Many universities also gave her honorary doctorates.
- In 2007, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. She also won the Rachel Carson Prize in Norway.
- In 2008, Time magazine named her one of their "Heroes of the Environment." She also received more honorary degrees from various universities.
- In 2015, she received the prestigious Right Livelihood Award. This award recognized her lifelong work to protect the Inuit of the Arctic. It also honored her efforts to defend their right to keep their way of life and culture, which are greatly threatened by climate change.
Personal Life
Watt-Cloutier has a daughter, a son, and a grandson. Before moving back to Kuujjuaq, she lived in Iqaluit, Nunavut, for 15 years.
See also
In Spanish: Sheila Watt-Cloutier para niños
