{"id":646642,"date":"2026-05-04T06:36:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T06:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/646642\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T06:36:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T06:36:46","slug":"allen-maghagak-remembered-as-diplomatic-but-firm-negotiator-for-inuit-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/646642\/","title":{"rendered":"Allen Maghagak remembered as \u2018diplomatic but firm\u2019 negotiator for Inuit rights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Allen Maghagak is being remembered as a strong leader for Kitikmeot, a diplomat for Inuit rights and a lover of music.<\/p>\n<p>Maghagak, 73, died last week in Ottawa.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was a determined man, so that Inuit can define their own future for their children, their grandchildren and their grandchildren\u2019s children,\u201d said Piita Irniq, a former commissioner of Nunavut.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very sad. I think he was getting very sick in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Maghagak and Irniq worked together negotiating the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement between 1982 and 1987, which eventually led to the creation of Nunavut in 1999.<\/p>\n<p>Maghagak was chief negotiator for Tunngavik Federation of Nunavut, which later became Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the legal representative for Inuit in Nunavut.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis has been a long struggle arising from a dream, a dream that just couldn\u2019t go away,\u201d Maghagak <a href=\"https:\/\/nunatsiaq.com\/stories\/article\/nunavut_the_dream_that_just_wouldnt_go_away\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">wrote<\/a> in a column for Nunatsiaq News in 1999 about the work that went into creating Nunavut as Canada\u2019s newest territory.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/nunatsiaq.com\/ads\/260424-urrc\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"373\" height=\"331\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1777876605_93_A-14743.94.gif\" class=\"no-lazy-load wp-post-image\" title=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Dennis Patterson, a former Northwest Territories premier and longtime Nunavut senator, said \u201cAllen was known then as a great team leader who brought his team together and made maximum use of folks from other regions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And things weren\u2019t easy. Maghagak and other Inuit negotiators had to travel across the country and be away from home for weeks on end without pensions or benefits, Patterson said.<\/p>\n<p>But no matter what, Maghagak was \u201cquietly authoritative as a negotiator,\u201d he recalled. \u201cDiplomatic but firm. Never losing his temper or his focus on the strategies of the negotiating team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Later, Maghagak served as president of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, the organization promoting the rights of Kitikmeot Inuit. He also worked as a member of Nunavut Impact Review Board studying the environmental and socio-economic impacts of major projects as they were proposed in Nunavut.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAllen will be greatly missed,\u201d said Dionne Filiatrault, the review board\u2019s executive director, in a statement released Monday.<\/p>\n<p>An avid songwriter, Maghagak once mused about writing an Inuit rock musical some day, Patterson said.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/nunatsiaq.com\/ads\/260417-kitikmeot-law-centre\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"373\" height=\"331\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/260417.100.92.png\" class=\"no-lazy-load wp-post-image\" title=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>That never happened, but Maghagak \u2014 who Patterson said was a \u201cgifted musician\u201d \u2014 often performed at Umingmak Frolics, the spring festival held in Cambridge Bay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Allen Maghagak is being remembered as a strong leader for Kitikmeot, a diplomat for Inuit rights and a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-646642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}