On Friday, Iqaluit, the capital city of the Inuit-governed territory of Nunavut in northern Canada, will be the final stop of the pope's six-day visit, focused on apologies for abuses of Indigenous youths at Catholic-run boarding schools.
He said only a handful of his parishioners are Inuit. Most of the others hail from Africa, South America, Asia and other faraway places, have no links to the past problems of the boarding schools and would like to welcome Pope Francis joyously on Friday, Perreault said.
“It will be very exciting for the people,” Awa said. “I hope that this will get us moving forward to lift ourselves as Inuit, to the point where we say, ‘Yes, we had many downsides in the past but we must move on.’” Iqaluit is by far the largest municipality in Nunavut, a vast territory straddling the Arctic Circle. It is roughly the size of Alaska and California combined, with a mostly Inuit population of about 40,000.
The mild forecast reflects some serious concerns about the far-north climate. According to Canadian government data, average temperatures in Nunavut have increased far more sharply than in Canada as whole over recent decades. Akeeagok is pleased and grateful that Iqaluit was chosen as one of the three main stops on the pope’s itinerary.
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