Name: Annie Aningmiuq
Occupation: Executive director
Location: Iqaluit
Aqqusariaq refers to a place that you go on your way to somewhere else—not the final destination. That’s the intention of Iqaluit’s new addictions treatment centre, and it means Nunavummiut will no longer have to travel down south for treatment. The centre doesn’t have a scheduled opening date yet, but Annie Aningmiuq’s work has already begun. Supporting Inuit has been a throughline in her career, and as the executive director, she’ll do the same as she oversees Aqqusariaq.
Heal The centre will offer cultural programming—hunting seal and caribou, creating traditional tools and sewing mitts and parkas—in addition to clinical treatment such as counselling. “It recognizes,” says Aningmiuq, “that our healing happens in a way that’s really deep with our relationship to our culture and identity.”
Learn Aningmiuq grew up in Pangnirtung, hunting and camping with her family and listening to her parents sing Inuktitut songs and her aunts tell traditional stories. Inuktitut is her first language.
Sing When she was in her late teens, a friend taught her how to throat sing. She’d seen Elders perform on CBC and thought it sounded magical. Since then, she’s sung on stages in Ottawa, Germany, England and the United States.
Armour After making earrings to wear during her performances, Aningmiuq started crafting pairs for her family and friends and selling them on Instagram (@piujutit). A First Nations woman messaged her to say the earrings made her feel like she was wearing armour; they made her more comfortable being visibly Indigenous.
South Aningmiuq spent a decade living in Ottawa with her son, where she worked for the National Association of Friendship Centres, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Carolyn Bennett.
Mother She and her son moved back to Nunavut a few years ago. He’s 13 now, and in the past year, he harvested his first caribou and ring seal. They also like to pick berries and fish for Arctic char together.
Solutions “I really do understand our challenges as Inuit. But, more importantly, I believe so much in our strengths and our abilities, and I truly believe that we are the ones who are going to create the solutions together for ourselves.”
