News
Tribute to Ingmar Egede
Ingmar Egede died on August 9, 2003 -- the United Nations’ Day of the
World’s Indigenous Peoples. Ingmar was a tireless worker for the promotion
of human rights of indigenous peoples around the world.
Ingmar was a strong supporter of the World Council of Whalers, having participated
actively in all WCW General Assemblies and providing advice and encouragement
during the Council’s formative years. In the course of his busy life,
he served the people of Greenland, as well as Inuit in Alaska, Canada and
Russia in many capacities. From 1989 - 1995 Ingmar served as an Executive
Council Member and then Vice President of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference,
during which time he vigorously defended Inuit rights to whaling and other
sustainable resources uses at the eight-nation Arctic Environmental Protection
Strategy (the fore-runner of the Arctic Council), the IWC, CITES, and before
various other UN tribunals and committees.
Trained as a teacher and psychologist, Ingmar served as principal at schools
in north and west Greenland from 1955 to 1968, and following further advanced
training in Denmark he became successively the leading educational psychologist
and then Rector of the Teachers College of Greenland until 1988, after which
he was appointed Advisor to the Greenland Minister of Culture and Education.
Ingmar made many other important contributions to Greenland society, serving
on the Board of Directors of the famous Tuukkaq Theatre, Chairman of the Silamiut
Theatre, Founding Chairman of the Katuaq Cultural Centre, and Co-founder of
the Siumut Party. During these early years of the Siumut party, Ingmar developed
and articulated his ideas of Home Rule, which Greenland achieved in 1979 through
lengthy negotiation with Denmark.
In 1997, Ingmar brought together 17 international experts on human rights
and indigenous issues, a meeting that resulted in founding the International
Training Center of Indigenous Peoples (ITCIP) in Nuuk, Greenland. Ingmar became
the Center’s founding Chairman, in which role he organized a series
of highly-regarded training courses to enable indigenous peoples from around
the world to better participate in global affairs affecting their nations.
A recent Ford Foundation evaluation of ITCIP activities notes that many participants
in these training programs have become highly effective human rights workers
in the international system. In 2001 Ingmar was nominated for UNESCO’s
Peace Education Prize for his vision and dedicated leadership of ITICP and
though its program, promoting the peaceful resolution of conflict.
The Premier of the Greenland Home Rule Government and two former Greenland
Premiers (together with other parliamentarians) nominated Ingmar for the 2003
United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights for his lifetime of solid
accomplishments in this field.
In a tribute to Ingmar shortly after his death, Mr. Knud Vilby, Chairman of
the Danish Writers’ Association, noted that having spent the years of
World War II being educated in Denmark, Ingmar had the option of choosing
his own country, people and cultural identity: “He could have chosen
to become a Dane but chose instead to become a Greenlander... Ingmar Egede
had a strong and natural feeling for his own strength and his own worth, and
that gave him a strong and unmeasurable belief that even difficult plans can
be implemented, and ideas can become reality. He did not mind fighting against
strong odds, for he could cooperate, he could produce... Ingmar Egede was
a fine representative of his people.”
If you wish to post a message of condolence or a personal story about Ingmar’s
life on this site please send it to wcw@island.net
Condolences for Ingmar
A presentation given by Ingmar Egede, Chair and Director,
International Training Center of Indigenous Peoples, Nuuk, Greenland
"Inuit Cultural Dependency on Hunting,
- Animal Protectionists and Global Ethics"