Agguttinni Uumajunut Pimmariuninginnut


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Landscape view of Agguttinni Uumajunut Pimmariuninginnut

“Our dream saw protection of the land as the best way to show our respect to our ancestors that lived on the land for hundreds of years.” — Looseeoosee Aipelee, Chair, Clyde River Joint Planning and Management Committee
(Image: P. Graillon)

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Quick Facts

 

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Name
Agguttinni Uumajunut Pimmariuninginnut

Type of Landscape 
Territorial Park
Ethnographic Landscape
Cultural Landscape  

Location
Clyde River, Nunavut 
GPS 700 29’29”N 710 34’07’W

Designation
Agguttinni Uumajunut Pimmariuninginnut, Nunavut’s largest territorial park, officially designated in 2019

Stewards
Government of Nunavut, Nunavut Parks and Special Places
Clyde River Community Joint Planning and Management Committee

Legacy
Indigenous Planning
Master Planning 


Introduction

Image: John Laird

An Inuit homeland with thousands of years of rich cultural heritage, Agguttinni holds one of the most magnificent fiord landscapes in the Arctic. Rising hundreds of meters from the ocean are sheer rock walls, ice-topped mountain ranges, and glacier tongues dropping into the valleys below. This remote region lies midway along the east coast of Baffin Island. Colonies of birds nest on the cliffs in spring and summer; caribou, polar bear and wolves inhabit the tundra plains and coastline. The massive Barnes Ice Cap feeds fresh water into lakes and rivers teeming with fish.

Cultural sites abound along the coast, in valleys and at inland hunting grounds. Since the 1980s, the Inuit of Clyde River dreamed of a park to share this landscape with the world – a unique park that would respect and honour their heritage. The creation of Nunavut Territory in 1999 provided a historic opportunity. Just three years later, the Clyde River community and the Nunavut government had signed an agreement, launching a twenty-year collaboration that would allow the community to realize its dream.

Image: P. Graillon

Working with landscape architects Chris Grosset and John Laird, joint community planning teams pioneered a wholly-new, culturally-derived approach to park development.  Over the decades, more than 45 residents provided in-depth direction which informed every stage of the LA’s work, blending traditional Inuit knowledge with contemporary technical expertise.

In 2019, Nunavut established its largest Territorial Park, named Agguttinni (meaning “where the prevailing wind originates”). The massive 1,646,500 ha park is a ground-breaking achievement in shaping a park that will draw visitors to this region, while protecting and celebrating the Inuit way of life.          

Learn More About Agguttinni Uumajunut Pimmariuninginnut

The Agguttinni Story: Using IQ Principles

Image: C. Grosset

Clyde River is a small northern hamlet of just 1250 people. In Inuktitut, the first language of most of the residents, the town is named Kangiqtugaapik, “a nice little inlet”.  Yet Agguttinni Uumajunut Pimmariuninginnut, the territorial park the community set out to jointly plan and manage, today covers an enormous landscape of more than 16,000 square kilometres.

Nunavut’s largest territorial park, named Agguttinni (where the prevailing wind originates), would take over a generation to establish. This first-of-its-kind initiative would require the joint dedication of the community, Nunavut Parks and Special Places staff, and two determined landscape architects who would led the teams from 2002 to 2021: John Laird (from 2002 to his death in 2010) and Chris Grosset (2002 to the present).

The planning demanded some radical thinking.  Since the new Nunavut park program was to be grounded in Inuit culture, the landscape architects and the community first established a Joint Planning and Management Committee. The first task: to define “park” – a word that does not exist in the Inuit language – to recognize the innate relationship between the Inuit and their land, water, air and wildlife. 

But how would this Nunavut-specific definition play out in the real world of feasibility studies and mapping inventories, master planning and park operation?  Ground rules for “meaningful engagement”  between the local joint planners and Nunavut Parks and Special Places staff were founded in Inuit cultural practices: respect and care for the land, animals and environment; consensus decision-making; and fostering “good spirit” (being open, welcome and inclusive).

Over two decades, more than 45 northern residents were directly involved with the joint planning committees, and many other community elders, hunters, trappers and cultural groups contributed Inuit Quajimajatuquangit (IQ), or Inuit knowledge. IQ principles informed every step of the process, from the first formulation of goals in the initial Development Study, through the completion of a Feasibility Study, Inventories, a Master Plan, and finally a comprehensive, long-term Management Plan. 

First Clyde River CJPMC members (Image: NVision Insight Group)
Second Clyde River CJPMC 2019 to 2022 (Image: NVision Insight Group)

Grounded in Indigenous Culture: The Legacy

Image: C. Grosset

Agguttinni Uumajunut Pimmariuninginnut, the park that was grounded in Inuit culture, was pioneered by a community determined to protect the region’s landscape, its wildlife and the Inuit way of life.

This Nunavut experience was the first to demonstrate the power of linking Inuit Quajimajatuquangit (IQ), or Inuit knowledge with technical expertise of landscape architecture.  Its success will inform park planning for years to come.

The park’s landscape architect, Chris Grosset, meticulously documented the process, and its principles have been formalized in Kajjausarviit, Nunavut’s Park Program.

Kajjausarviit defines the teams’ cooperative approach, and incorporates the lessons learned in Clyde River: honoring culturally-derived engagement guidelines, co-creating all training programs, and respecting the principles of IQ in planning and design. The document sets the standard for new park planning in Nunavut and provides a new model for Indigenous co-planning and co-design in Canada. 

Image: John Laird

 


Image: John Laird
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The Cultural Landscapes Legacy Collection highlights the achievements that have made a lasting impact within the field of landscape architecture and on communities across Canada.

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