JANIE LEASK: Sheila, thank you so much for the work that you're doing both in Canada and for the ICC and at the international level. This you said can be download on your Web site and the Web site is.....

MS. WATT-CLOUTIER: Inuitcircumpolar.com. MS. LEASK: Inuitcircumpolar.com. Okay. Terrific. It's really heavy. We have time just for a couple of questions and recognizing that this is a big room and WE don't have a traveling microphone, if you do want to ask a question if you would, please speak loudly. So anybody have a question? Yes. Could you stand up, please.

UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: I wonder if the Canadian elections have any implications for your work and in particular whether I've been reading about a resurgence in Quebec nationalism and implications for Inuit in that area.

MS. WATT-CLOUTIER: Uh-hum. As far as the elections are concerned, the actual elections happened very recently. I was actually here in Anchorage on my way on Sunday and it was only Monday that I heard that he had chosen his ministers, so I have yet to see when I get home who those ministers really are and how supportive they will be of the work that we do.

I would think that the Canadian people though, even though Prime Minister Harper had indicated that he is not pro- Kyoto, I would think that the Canadian people, and I have confidence the Canadian people will keep that pressure on him. And I think it would be a mistake on his part as newly elected and still a minority government that he would do otherwise at this time other than to be supportive of what has been started from Canadians.

For Quebec, I'm from Quebec, and I -- we have been negotiating our own self government for a long time with the Province of Quebec. We don't ourselves necessarily see that as the main challenge in our lives at this time in terms of sovereignty issues with Quebec. We have a very close working relationship. In fact, as the Inuit of the -- if you look at the Province of Quebec we have more land mass in most of Quebec than anybody else in the south, so we've always said if you secede you're not going to go with us and that way you're going to end up with a very small part of Quebec. So we're pretty clear about where we stand in terms of Quebec trying to separate.

MS LEASK: Anybody else?

UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: It's not without some guilt that I mention that I personally as a hobby grow apples and plums and cherries in this town and in the valley. And add to your very elegant insight into your culture, I do feel like 50 years ago we could grow crab apples in Anchorage and no one tried anything else. Now our fruit growing activity has expanded to where maybe a 100 variety of apples are grown in this area. And I realize that agriculture is probably not a real option for the Inuit, is that correct?

MS. WATT-CLOUTIER: Well, the thing with climate change, when people say well, you'll have to adapt to the situation, the problem with that is that we are adapting. We already are adapting to situations, many of our hunters are and so on. But changes are going to happen so fast that there won't be that adaption period. We can't go from meat eaters to weed eaters overnight or growing from hunting, subsistence to becoming farmers. That's just not a reality that anybody can deal with.

And already us Inuit of the arctic, what has taken many people about 350 years to adjust to this new way of life, some like in our region, as I say I grew up on a dog team the first 10 years of my life, many of my people were still living in snow houses and iglooiuks (ph) when I was born. And to think that in the 52 years since I was born we felt as though we've lived three lifetimes in that. It's happened so quickly. And we're reeling from that change. And my worry is that this next wave of tumultuous change to our climate could have potential to wipe us out very quickly, not just in terms of us the people, but our wildlife.

We don't know the body burdens of toxins in the polar bear. We don't know the body burdens of toxins in our marine mammals. And with global warming coming and adding to that do we know a tipping point? How much of our animal and wildlife and our flora and fauna can take such rapid change?

And so we the people, too, I mean we might be able and we already are adjusting to many changes, but you know, even our systems and the way our body is we have enzymes that are meant to be eating meat. You know, not certain other foods that we don't ingest well. That's the way that we're all made under this universe. And that's why we live in certain areas of the world. Certain things we can adjust to, other things we can't, not that rapidly.

And so it's the rapidity of the fast way in which things are happening that worries me more than anything because are, in essence, a very adaptable people. We're a hunting people who have adjusted and adapted to seasons and to different settings for a long, long time. And that's our strength, but in situations like this there's going to be tipping points, I believe, that will start to happen very quickly that we should be aware of. And that window in which to make drastic cuts is about 10 to 15 years. Let's do it now because international communities take that much time to do something effectively, to make changes to their policies.

UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: How much variation is there within the Inupiat language across the land? Would someone in Chukotka be able to understand 100% of what a Greenlander is saying?

MS. WATT-CLOUTIER: Our language, we have a common language of the four countries, but our dialects are so different. And depending on where we live, for example, Levi Cleveland from a certain part in Alaska and I can converse really quite well. We can understand one another very well. Other regions I can't understand almost -- you know, I can't understand a lot.

The dialects are very, very different. And in fact, we have different dialects within our own countries, in fact, as well. So when we common to our common ground and we have our meetings we function in English and our Russian Siberian don't speak English so there's always an interpreter because they're speaking Russian. But root words so many, so many are the same. So many. So we know that at one time in history we all started somewhere together. There's no doubt in our minds about that that we all started somewhere at one place at one time in history because the legends are the same, the songs are the same, the dances are the same and the root words are the same. The culture, the eating and the hunting, all of that is very much the same.

UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Was there a written language prior to coming in contact with Europeans?

MS. WATT-CLOUTIER: Not in -- not -- no, not -- we're an oral tradition. Yes?

MS. LEASK: Recognizing that here in Alaska we don't have a long successful history of getting policy makers out to rural Alaska for meetings or for trips or for tours and all, and you've done an incredible work at the international level. What kind of success have you had in Canada at getting the policy makers in Canada to the arctic?

MS. WATT-CLOUTIER: Right. The work that we did on the POPs issue, I think, is a good one tell because it really made an impact not only regionally, you know, locally in understanding what contaminants was all about in terms of for us, you know, eating the country food and nursing our babies and so on. But we did an awful lot of work in terms of communicating this kind of situation, not just to our communities, but working very closely and in partnership with our own Canadian government. Health Canada. INAD, with is the Indian and Northern Affairs Department. We worked with McGill University, the Center for Indigenous Nutrition and Environment.

There was many, many partners that came together to address this issue, not only to help and guide our people so that they wouldn't be alarmed about continuing to eat our country food which, by the way, is the most nutritious and the best yet even though we have the issue of toxins. We still say the benefits outweigh the risks because we're not there in terms of that tipping point where we should give it up. And the value of nursing and so on is so important.

But we've worked very hard to ensure that our government saw the urgency of it and that they because their government and negotiate these global treaties are the ones that understand and they champion with us. And we sing from the same song sheet when we go out to the world, so we've been fairly successful with Canada. And Canada has and I have a very close working relationship with Environment Canada. And, in fact, they have supported this role that I play even financially to do the work that I do. So it's very important. That's why I say it's time for ICC Alaska to take this on so you can start to build those bridges and partnerships because it is with that kind of building that you start to change public policy. Because as you work in the communities and the citizens around the world that's the intent is to change public opinion because eventually public opinion becomes public policy.

And that's what we need to continuously be working at because once people know and make the connections they want to do the right thing. And that's what happened with POPs. And that's what we've been working so hard at with the climate change issue is to change the attitudes and the approaches and the understanding and the opinions of citizens around the world. And we're doing that with many citizens of the United States. And the reason why we've gone the route of human rights and trying to make a difference is because that wall is just so strong and there in terms of the actual government that is here right now with its economic policies

UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: We're out of time for questions and, please, help me again thank.....(Applause) On behalf of the World Affairs Council and Commonwealth North thank you all for coming. And we stand adjourned. Thank you.

(END OF PROCEEDINGS)