Robert Watt,
Director

Since his early career, Mr. Robert Watt has been involved in promoting, protecting and preserving Inuktitut. He organized and facilitated terminology workshops, created databases for translators and interpreters, and personally helped develop and teach the Adult Education Translator/Interpreter Program. His vision is shaped by his determination and his Inuit heritage at the Kativik School Board Adult Education Department.

As elected President of the Avataq Cultural Institute from 1998 to 2001, Robert co-created and initiated the commercial production and marketing of Avataq’s five blends of herbal teas. He ensured that all proceeds would be used for the protection and preservation of Inuit Culture and Language.

Robert also facilitated the first-ever national gathering of Canadian Inuit throat singers, organized by the Avataq Cultural Institute. This event paved the way to the Government of Quebec granting throat singing special cultural heritage status.

Co-Director of the Inuit Sub-Commission at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he visited numerous Canadian communities, collecting almost 800 statements from residential school and intergenerational trauma survivors. Hearing the hurts and hopes conveyed by these testimonies has increased his own sense of heritage and identity.

More recently, Robert was President and Commissioner of Kativik Ilisarniliriniq, a school board created under the James Bay Northern Quebec Agreement. In this role, he actively supported initiatives to advance the protection, strengthening and development of the Inuktitut language through educational programming rooted in the Inuit identity and worldview.