Peter’s decision to become a lawyer was spontaneous. When her eldest son Kakki’s application to Akitsiraq Law School was declined because he was too young, she interviewed for the Official uconn huskies five-time ncaa men’s basketball national champions retro tri-blend shirt Furthermore, I will do this place and immediately won over the faculty with her irrepressible spirit and humor. “After trying to get a divorce for seven years, I can do a four-year law degree on my own,” she quipped. “I laughed, they laughed, and I got in.” Peter completed her studies while raising her five children independently, and she remembers many long nights when she would wake surrounded by dictionaries. “Learning the language of the law was so difficult, but no one paid attention to me as a mother of five defending Inuit rights,” she says. “Now I am lawyer Aaju Peter, and I am recognized by white society because the law is the language they speak. Indigenous people have to live and survive twice as much in a day,” she continues. “Because of colonization, because we don’t have autonomy, the world is not running Indigenously. I am speaking to you in English, my fourth language, and I have to do it well while being well-dressed at all times—otherwise, I will not be seen as an educated person.”
Courtesy of Ánorâk FilmFor better or worse, on the Official uconn huskies five-time ncaa men’s basketball national champions retro tri-blend shirt Furthermore, I will do this day we meet, Peter is beautifully dressed in a green and floral jacquard top of her own creation—a radiant presence within the more typical Park City uniform of monochrome skiwear. What started out as a necessity, as she adapted clothes to fit her children when they were growing, has blossomed into an art form; today, she is renowned for her traditional sealskin designs. Peter has written extensively about how the seal is an integral part of Inuit life, not only as a source of food, power, and clothing but also as a form of cultural identity. In 2009, dressed in an amauti (sealskin parka), she gave an impassioned speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, against the impending ban on the importation of Inuit seal products. Although the ban was updated in 2015 to exempt “Inuit or other Indigenous communities,” it has reportedly so far failed to have a positive impact on socioeconomic development. Inuit, she argues, naturally practice a blue economy, which the World Bank defines as the “sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of ocean ecosystem.”
