by Peter Twitchell
It was in 1981 I was invited to go to Greenland to meet with the leaders of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference Commission. After I met with the I.C.C. President, and his team, I was chosen to chair the I.C.C. Broadcasting Commission. From 1981 to 1983 to unite and work with the Tribal Chiefs of the Greenlandic people, the Canadian Inuit Tribe leaders, and the Alaskan representative of the northern, southern, western and interior regions – the Athabascan people of the Interior and the southeastern region to the Kenai Peninsula, Yukon-Kuskokwim regions, and Nunivak Island.
At the beginning of the trip, I boarded a Swiss Airline jet in Anchorage. This was going to be a 12 hour direct flight to Greenland, so I understood. As the Swiss aircraft approached the north pole, the sun began to set. An hour later the sun began to rise. It was the strangest experience I ever had. The sun set twice and rose twice before the Swiss jet flew over Greenland heading overseas on its last leg of the flight to Copenhagen, Denmark.
Exactly 12 hours in to the flight, the Captain of the Swiss jet announced we were approaching Copenhagen airport, it was night. The pilot of the Swiss aircraft overshot the airfield and proceeded to circle back around and landed.
I hadn’t slept the entire flight and looked forward to going to the hotel along the water canal of Copenhagen, Denmark.
When we landed in Greenland we held meetings with the Natives and discussed their priorities they had for programs on their satellite to present to broadcasters at our Ottowa, Canada meeting setting forth programming feeds for Greenland’s, Canada’s, and Alaska’s programming needs of educational, news feeds, public affairs, health and human services, religious nature, and to address native concerns for all tribes to include the Indians of the lower 48 contiguous states.
Within those three years 1981-1983, we had tribal gatherings encouraging tribes to discuss the successes and unmet needs of their priorities. I met with Indian representatives in Alaska, Dallas-Fortworth, and Tampa, Florida and California. Commercial broadcasters came through with everything they promised us.
In my mind what the Inuit Circumpolar Conference accomplished was historical. We tried to communicate with the Siberian Eskimos, without a commitment, but had some cultural exchange of traditions.
In Tampa, Florida, I met actor Gary Farmer of the movie “Smoke Signals” fame. We exchanged a good conversation.
