Urgent for Inuit artifacts to come home, says Elder

By Darrell Greer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Kivalliq News Former Nunavut commissioner Piita Irniq has been involved with the repatriation of Inuit skeletal remains and artifacts for more then 30 years now. He was recently overjoyed with the return of artifacts to Inuit and First Nations from the Vatican, and said now it’s time to talk to the United States and European countries to negotiate the return of “our” Inuit artifacts. Irniq said from 1989 to 1991, he was first involved with the repatriation of skeletal remains, more than a century old, that had been taken from the Arctic to Denmark. He said the skeletal remains had been exhibited in a museum for a time and used by those training to become doctors. “They used them to see how long…

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