Teach an Eskimo How to Read...

Peter Freuchen Ittinuar, Canada's first Inuk Member of Parliament, was born in 1950 in Chesterfield Inlet, an Inuit community on the west coast of Hudson Bay. Ittinuar had a very traditional upbringing but stood apart because of his love for reading. He was picked to take part in the "Eskimo Experiment" and was sent to live with a family in Ottawa. He rose through the qullunaat world, becoming the first Inuk Member of Parliament during the crucial period of the patriation of the Canadian Constitution in 1979.