Sheila Watt-Cloutier Honorory Degree Comments

Commencement 2009
Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine
Comments made when presenting Sheila Watt-Cloutier for honorary degree.

SHEILA WATT-CLOUTIER, environmental activist and champion of Inuit human rights, Bowdoin College honors you today for your extraordinary efforts to protect the Arctic ecosystem and the many people who call that majestic and fragile region of the world home.

Born in Kuujjuaq, in Arctic Canada, you spent the first ten years of your life living a traditional Inuit life style as your family hunted, gathered foods, and traveled by dog sled. Living on the land you developed not only a deep respect for the environment, but an insight into your culture's strong connection to it. Like many Inuit of your generation, you were sent away to Western schools. Happily, you found your way back home as an adult and began advocating on behalf of Inuit, focusing on improving the quality of their education and health care systems.

Since then you have been recognized for your leadership within your community, across Canada, and on the international stage. You have represented the interests of Inuit living in Russia, Alaska, Canada, and Greenland and have been concerned for the welfare of hundreds of other small-scale societies of the circumpolar north. You helped negotiate the Stockholm Convention that called for banning the use of persistent organic pollutants that have been contaminating northern lands and seas - endangering plants and animals, and sickening northern residents.

Along with Inuit hunters and elders from Alaska and Canada you filed the first international legal action that linked climate change and human rights. Your landmark petition charged that unchecked greenhouse gas emissions from the United States are destroying the Arctic ecosystem on which Inuit depend, a violation of Inuit cultural and environmental rights. You have stated that filing that petition in defense of Inuit rights to retain their land, maintain their life ways, and enjoy health, security, and freedom of movement has remained the most caring act you have ever brought forward in the protection of your culture. It was a gift to our nation and to the world as well.

You have reminded us that the problems generated by global warming and the introduction of toxins into the environment are not just about maintaining ecosystems, safeguarding wildlife, and perfecting the system of carbon swaps; these issues "are about the welfare of children, families, and communities."
 
In these troubled times, you have had encouraging words for your people, particularly the young reminding them that their ancient hunting culture and traditional knowledge have equipped them with the independence, good judgment, and resourcefulness that will help them navigate their rapidly changing world. The skills passed down from the ice age apply well to the space age.

"Powerless victims we are not," you have declared, reminding us that the culture that was ingenious enough to invent and perfect the igloo and the kayak, the culture that has thrived in Arctic regions for thousands of years ¬-- it not about to just disappear. However, to maintain their vibrant communities Inuit need stable, thick sea ice and plenty of well-packed snow, maintained by crisp, well below zero temperatures. The lower the better.

As you lecture and negotiate throughout the world you explain that snow and ice serve as your culture's highway, hunting platform, and larder. Snow and ice form the backdrop against which traditional knowledge is passed down from elders to young people. In essence, snow, ice, and low temperatures form a protective blanket, without which Inuit culture is vulnerable. Out of a sense of love, caring, and responsibility and with tremendous tenacity, you have astutely declared to the world, "Inuit have the right to be cold."

President Mills, on behalf of Bowdoin College, whose history of research in the Arctic and involvement with Inuit communities spans 149 years, and whose mascot is the Polar Bear, an animal that also has a right to be cold, I am honored to present Sheila Watt-Cloutier for the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa.

Written and presented by Susan A. Kaplan, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Arctic Studies.