By Stephen Hendrie

While researching this article, “Wish Song” from Elisapie Isaac’s 2009 album There Will Be Stars started playing on the stereo, late at night. It was a bit like a bolt of lightning, helping to shed light on a “mission impossible” situation faced by young Inuit leaders back in the early 1970s. They literally had to fight for Inuit rights against a colonial society bent on bulldozing land they thought they owned via historical acts, such as the Rupert’s Land Transfer in 1870, and the 1912 Quebec Boundaries Extension Act.

As the 2016 documentary film, So That You Can Stand showed, a young Charlie Watt read a newspaper clipping from the Montreal Star tacked onto a public bulletin board at the Kuujjuaq post office. It started a struggle that won back Inuit rights, and lead to Canada’s so-called “first modern treaty.” It was the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (JBNQA) officially signed on November 11, 1975, late at night in the amphitheatre of “Complexe G,” a government building in Quebec City.

In fact, it was signed closer to 2 am in the early morning hours of November 12, following some late-night drama over words such as “ratification” or “confirmation” by the Inuit and Cree communities. There were also threats by the Cree that if it wasn’t signed that night, they’d immediately fly back to Eeyou Istchee and there would be no deal. Quebec checked and the Crees had two planes waiting at the airport. Finally, Canada’s signatory, Indian Affairs Minister Judd Buchanan, hadn’t arrived by midnight and was at the London, Ontario, airport.

The signing was captured by the media, some with vintage film cameras, making news across Canada over the following days. For the 11 Inuit signatories, it unleashed a torrent of emotions, after months of gruelling talks with officials in the Quebec and Canadian Governments, Hydro-Québec, and the Socièté d’énergie de la Baie James (SEBJ).

Getting to the JBNQA signing ceremony involved playing the “white man’s” game in court to stop Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa’s “project of the century” in its tracks. Young leaders from the Inuit and Cree communities collaborated in court proceedings against Hydro-Québec. Following months of testimony from Inuit and Cree hunters, youth and elders, brought to a very foreign Montreal courtroom environment, they won. Judge Albert Malouf, agreed with the Inuit and Cree that they had “aboriginal rights,” completely opposite to what Quebec had argued – “you have no rights!”

“It was a big victory,” said Charlie Watt from his home in Kuujjuaq in October 2025. “It was so important for Inuit rights.” The historic Malouf decision on November 15, 1973, was over-turned in the Quebec Court of Appeals a week later, but Quebec had to acknowledge the key ruling, that Inuit and Cree had “aboriginal rights.” They decided to make a deal and thus began the negotiations leading to an Agreement in Principle (AIP) a year later, November 15, 1974, and ultimately the JBNQA on November 11, 1975.

The Inuit negotiating team lived in a three-bedroom apartment in Montreal and had a separate apartment for their small Northern Quebec Inuit Association (NQIA) office, created in 1971 to fight the James Bay project. Charlie Watt and Mark R. Gordon were the chief negotiators, along with Zebedee Nungak, and Greg Fisk, from Alaska. William Tagoona had been drafted from the feds by Charlie Watt to work on communications. Originally from Baker Lake, NWT, William readily agreed to the mission. “We lived in the same apartment, two beds in each room, just like a residential school, so we were used to that already. Mark R. was my roommate,” said William from his home in Kuujjuaq in early October 2025.

“They would take off at like eight in the morning, get into a cab, and we’d stay behind and take care of the office. After every night, we’d do a debrief with the handful of staff, and they asked for our opinion, and that’s why we felt we were a part of it, even though we were not in the actual negotiations, our thoughts mattered to them.”

Decades later, following a career at CBC Northern Services Radio, William was an Executive Producer of the documentary film, So That You Can Stand. It does an excellent job of portraying the battle between Inuit negotiators and Quebec.

The final JBNQA included 31 chapters covering areas such as land ownership (Category I lands for exclusive use), shared management of other lands (Category II), substantial financial compensation, and exclusive hunting and fishing rights over vast areas. It established new governance structures such as the Kativik Regional Government (KRG), and Makivvik, giving Inuit control over health, education, social services, and environmental protection, and a partnership with government for resource management and development.

Both the Inuit and Cree had lawyers. Max Bernard was an NQIA lawyer. He spoke about what Inuit went through to prove their rights in the film, So That You Can Stand.

“They came and they really poured their hearts out. That was the beauty of it. They told us about their lives, how the land was part of their culture, identity, and soul.”

James O’Reilly was a lawyer for the Cree. Still active on Indigenous legal rights, he spoke about what was at stake more than 50 years ago from his office in Montreal in late October 2025. “For the Inuit it’s the first treaty in which they were actually involved and where the federal government and the Quebec government recognized that they should be “Treatied” with, because they had rights, aboriginal rights,” he said. “It was not a given more than 50 years ago. The attitude of Quebec was they didn’t have any rights, they had ‘privileges,’ and Canada of course was taking the position that, in the White Paper, that all the aboriginal peoples should become like ‘the white man.’ This reverses all of that in a big way. But it’s been a big fight from the very beginning. It just didn’t come by snapping the fingers.”

Makivvik President Pita Aatami might agree with that attitude.

“Inuit basically were told, here’s what’s going to happen, and here’s the lands that you’re going to be getting. Here’s how much money you’re going to be receiving,” he said in an interview from the Makivvik head office in Kuujjuaq. “It was a one-sided agreement in my opinion. It’s stolen land from the Inuit, and the right thing to do is give it back.”

So, on November 12, 1975, Inuit and Cree negotiators flew back to Nunavik and Eeyou Istchee. Governments went back to their offices following the signing. It was a new era in the landscape of comprehensive claims agreements, Indigenous rights, and the development of the regions. The “to-do” list was huge. In Nunavik major institutions needed to be created – the Kativik School Board (now Kativik Ilisarniliriniq), the Kativik Regional Government (KRG), and the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services (NRBHSS).

Don Allard who worked in the Makivvik President’s department as of the late 1970s under Charlie Watt remembers those days. “KRG started with two employees and a budget of $100,000,” he said. “You know it was the transfer of all the schools, the houses, the power stations, the administrative buildings, everything was being transferred to the government of Quebec, it was a huge job.”

The task was more difficult because of politics. “There was a major change of government from the Liberals of Robert Bourassa to the PQ of René Lévesque,” said Allard. “You remember in 1975-1976 the Bill 101 fiasco. And they were basically battling and fighting the PQ government right through to the 1980 referendum, and constitution, so it was a constant clash between the two groups.”

For Inuit in other parts of Canada, the JBNQA was important in other ways. “I do believe, quietly behind the scenes, that the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, the text itself, is fully utilized by those groups that have entered into an agreement after us, such as the Inuvialuit for example, and Nunavut, and including Labrador,” said Charlie Watt.

There’s also an argument to be made the JBNQA unleashed tremendous political progress in Indigenous rights. It’s a long list, including the repatriation of the Canadian Constitution with section 35 on Aboriginal Rights in 1982, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples in the 1990s, the Ottawa Declaration creating the Arctic Council in 1996, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, Canada’s Apology to Victims of Residential Schools in 2008, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) from 2008-2015, the Pope’s apology to victims of residential school in 2022, Canada’s 2024 apology to Nunavik Inuit for the dog slaughters in the 1950s and 60s, and the first Indigenous Governor General in Canadian history – her Excellency the Honourable Mary Simon, from Kangiqsualujjuaq, Nunavik.

As a “development tool” the JBNQA had a major influence. “It dealt with a new constitutional regime for northern Quebec, which nobody can ignore now,” said James O’Reilly. “In effect it’s a particular constitutional regime.”

Nunavik signed a second Agreement called the “Nunavik Inuit Land Claims Agreement” (NILCA) on December 1, 2006, with the Government of Canada. Lorraine Brooke worked on the agreement, assisting Chief Negotiator Johnny Peters, Makivvik’s Vice-President of Renewable Resources at the time. Peters said in November 2025 in Kuujjuaq, “We got those subsurface rights this time.”

Meanwhile Lorraine Brooke said together, the JBNQA and NILCA does a lot for Nunavik. “One of the big shortcomings of the JBNQA is that it didn’t deal with the offshore, which for Inuit is one of the key areas of culture and livelihood. So together it basically provides a significant degree of protection and respect for what can be described as the entirety of the Inuit homeland.”

Inuit received $85.6 million from that agreement after repayment of loan funding. NILCA also set a precedent in that Inuit in Nunavik and Nunavut share some offshore islands 50-50. “They are shared areas, and both treaties apply,” said Lorraine.

Today in 2025, 50 years after signing the JBNQA, Makivvik has been very successful. The organization is worth over $1 billion, and $173 million has been contributed to Nunavik communities since 1978.

“We’ve been able to accomplish a lot with the compensation dollars we received,” said President Pita Aatami. “We created our own airlines. We created our own shipping company; we’ve got our shrimp fishery. I mean there are good things that came out of the agreement, if you look at what we’ve been able to do as Inuit in control of our own economic development in the region.”

The requirement for “extinguishment” (cede, release, and surrender) of aboriginal right and title to lands in the JBNQA caused deep divisions in Nunavik. It led to the dissident movement, when Eliassie Sadlualuk quit NQIA and helped create Inuit Tungavingat Nunamini (ITN) in opposition to the James Bay Agreement. “Three communities didn’t agree with the JBNQA, so it divided Inuit at that time,” said Pita Aatami. “It was very hard on families that had members from those communities.”

“There’s a sensitivity to this whole issue,” said William Tagoona. “We will never forget it, but we don’t really talk about it. And I think both sides were right. If you really look at it, both sides were right.”

“I think that both sides have to come to realize that this is an issue that is beyond our own control, on account of the fact that we were under the extinguishment,” said Charlie Watt. “Inuit as a whole, should not go through what we have went through, that should have never happened. How can you actually extinguish a person that has been living here since before anybody else? So, I don’t think the government has the right to extinguish people.”

In the new documentary, Nunavik at 50 – A Nation in the North, former Makivvik Constitutional Advisor Gary Yabsley said, “Extinguishment has no place in the current era of reconciliation. It should be seen as offensive to governments.”

This is partly why when the time came to mark the 50th anniversary of the JBNQA, Makivvik carefully chose the word to use to describe the event. “We’ve been using ‘commemoration’ instead of ‘celebration’,” said Pita Aatami.

So, at the Katittavik Town Hall in Kuujjuaq on November 11, 2025, a remarkable ceremony took place, mostly in Inuktitut, bringing together the living signatories of the JBNQA – Charlie Watt, Zebedee Nungak, Sarolie Weetaluktuk, Peter Inukpuk, and Charlie Arngak.

Family representatives of the signatories who have passed away – Johnny Williams, George Koneak, Putulik Papigatuk, Tommy Cain, Robbie Tookalook, and Mark Annanack – were on hand to receive posthumous awards.

The film, Nunavik at 50 – A Nation in the North, was shown, and then Elisapie and her band took to the stage to vividly illustrate the road forward for Nunavik – one with creativity, innovation, positivity, and so much promise. Self-Government is on the horizon. Last words to Elisapie:

“I wish you, I wish you hope,
I wish you love and tenderness
I wish you strength,
I wish you dreams and happiness.”

“Wish Song” lyrics, from Elisapie Isaac’s 2009 album There Will Be Stars, used with permission. Nakurmiik Elisapie!

Further browsing:

So That You Can Stand is online here:
https://vimeo.com/167871953
Nunavik at 50 – A Nation in the North is online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRXSe1B9dj8
The 50th Makivvik JBNQA commemoration at the Katittavik Town Hall is here:
https://www.youtube.com/live/jKhre5yD-qw
The 1973 Malouf Decision is online here:
https://www.cngov.ca/wp-content/ uploads/ 2023/11/1973-11-15-malouf-judgment-kanatewat-v-jbdc-et-al.pdf
The JBNQA is online here:
https://caid.ca/AgrJamBayNorQueA1975.pdf
The Nunavik Inuit Land Claims Agreement (NILCA) is online here:
https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/DAM/DAM-CIRNAC-RCAANC/DAM-TAG/STAGING/texte-text/ldc_ccl_fagr_nk_lca_1309284365020_eng.pdf

Inuit Signatories to the JBNQA:

Charlie Watt
Zebedee Nungak
Peter Inukpuk
Sarollie Weetaluktuk
Charlie Arngak
George Koneak
Johnny Williams
Putulik Papigatuk
Tommy Cain
Robbie Tookalook
Mark Annanack