Inuit leader warns of Labrador group's 'illegitimate claims' to Inuit identity

The head of the national organization for Inuit in Canada is warning the public about what he calls "illegitimate claims to Inuit rights" being advanced by a self-identified Indigenous group in south and central Labrador.

Ahead of International Inuit Day on Nov. 7,  Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), released a strongly worded open letter to federal leaders, academic institutions and Canadians drawing attention to the disputed identity assertions of the NunatuKavut community council (NCC).

The council was incorporated in 1986 as the Labrador Métis Association, and its leaders identified publicly as Métis until 2010, when they changed the name to NunatuKavut.

"NCC is a shape-shifting non-Indigenous organization that is part of the alarming trend of non-Indigenous people and groups co-opting Indigenous identities, cultures, and experiences to secure financial resources and rights," Obed's letter reads.

The NCC represents about 6,000 people it maintains have always been Inuit, but chose the term Métis at a time when "Indigenous representativity was constantly in flux," according to its website. The group has asserted Métis identity before, such as in its 1993 brief to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP).

In response, the NCC says it is disgusted and appalled by the ITK's efforts to erase its history and deny it access to federal supports.

"This latest correspondence from Natan Obed is defamatory and once again filled with outrageous claims, outright lies and falsehoods," NCC president Todd Russell said in a statement posted online.

Obed wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about the issue in 2021.

Obed's latest letter says "fraudulent claimants often change their stories over time and use aggressive measures to silence those who question them," noting that NCC is not an Inuit rights-holding organization and is not affiliated with the four recognized Inuit treaty organizations.

"Those who falsely align themselves with a recognized Indigenous people to secure resources, rights and status are practising a perverse form of colonial racism that not only harms Inuit by diverting badly needed resources away from our people but may, in certain circumstances, amount to criminal fraud," the letter reads.

"The federal government must stop enabling this morally reprehensible and possibly criminal behaviour."

Russell responded by calling Obed "profoundly ignorant."

"Despite our numerous offers to meet and to have dialogue to share our history, culture and governance, he has not responded or made time for conversation and learning," Russell's statement says. "Yet he continues to expend time and effort spreading harmful misinformation."

Innu Nation, which occupies two federally recognized First Nations communities in Labrador — Sheshatshiu and Natuashish — also disputes the NCC's assertions.