Sheila Watt-Cloutier

Inuit activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Sheila Watt-Cloutier was born in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, in northern Quebec. Sheila travelled everywhere by dogsled until she was sent off to Nova Scotia for school. She remembers returning home one year later to discover that the dogs had been replaced by the noisy, whining wail of snowmobiles. Politics didn't come naturally to Sheila; she describes herself as an introvert doing an extrovert's work. Education issues brought Sheila into the political arena while running for the Makivik Corporation's corporate secretary in 1992. She wasn't successful but three years later she ran again and won. During this time Sheila became aware of the extent that toxins and other pollutants affected the Inuit in the Arctic to the point where Inuit women think twice about breast feeding their babies. For Sheila, health concerns became environmental concerns, which in turn became cultural concerns and ultimately, survival concerns. (It's important to note that the Inuit number only 160,000 in the world). In 2006, Watt-Cloutier was nominated for the Nobel Peace prize for her work in bringing climate change to the world's attention. In 2007 she was nominated again but lost to former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore. Ken Rockburn spoke to Sheila Watt-Cloutier at her home in Iqaluit.