Trent alumna Sarah Arngna'naaq heard her name ring out across the famous floor of the House of Commons in Ottawa on October 29, 2013. The milestone moment came as Ms. Arngna’naaq was announced as one of this year’s recipients of the annual Indspire Awards (http://indspire.ca) which recognize the outstanding efforts of inspirational Indigenous individuals in their communities who are leaders in their respective fields.
Representing the Inuit community, Ms. Arngna’naaq was honoured as one of the 2014 Indspire Award Laureates in the youth category. She will attend the nationally-televised 21st Annual Indspire Awards national gala in Winnipeg in March 2014.
Ms. Arngna’naaq’s unique journey to the halls of federal parliament has led her away from the far north and back again. She spent her first years in Baker Lake, Nunavut and then lived in Yellowknife for a period before moving to Kingston, Ontario at fourteen years of age. After high school she attended Trent University and completed a joint Honours B.A, International Development and Business Administration in 2009. After completing her Juris Doctor in Victoria in 2012, she was called to the Bar in September of this year.
Currently living in Yellowknife, Ms. Arngna’naaq works as a lawyer for the Department of Justice Canada, though she expects to begin work in the area of criminal law with the Nunavut Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC) office in December. Among other forays into the legal community, Ms. Arngna’naaq has worked with the Legislation Division with the Nunavut Department of Justice in Iqaluit as well as the Northwest Territories PPSC office in Yellowknife. She is also currently an on-call firefighter.
Nominated for the Indspire Award by her sister Laura, who is also a Trent graduate, Ms. Arngna’naaq was thrilled to receive the award. “It is incredibly humbling to receive this award. For my name to be listed among the other recipients I am honoured,” she said. “These awards are an opportunity for the Indigenous community to identify excellent and inspiring individuals on a national level. It is quite an honour to be named among those thirteen other recipients."
Looking back on her Trent experiences, Ms. Arngna’naaq says her time in the Trent-in-Ghana study abroad program in 2007/2008 had a profound impact on her future career path. While in Ghana, she had the opportunity to study at the University of Ghana and work with a small organization beginning a project involving individuals accused of practicing witchcraft in the north eastern corner of Ghana. A few years later in law school, she completed an internship in Wellington, New Zealand with the Waitangi Tribunal, which is a commission of inquiry charged with investigating and making recommendations on claims of Treaty breaches brought forward by different Maori groups. These eye-opening experiences in foreign countries caused Ms. Arngna’naaq to further reflect on the issues facing Indigenous people in Canada.
“My time at Trent absolutely contributed to what I am doing today and my time abroad really drove home for me the close similarities between the circumstances of Canadian Indigenous people and the Indigenous people of developing nations,” she said. “Because I am Indigenous and Canadian I thought that for now my efforts would be best spent working closer to home.”
Posted on Thursday, November 28, 2013.