Murray Angus

Murray Angus CM is a Canadian activist for First Nations causes, and the co-founder of Nunavut Sivuniksavut, a college program that provides instruction to Inuit youth in Inuit history, politics, and culture, specifically on the politics and ramifications of Indigenous land claims agreements. He taught for 31 years at Nunavut Sivuniksavut, while also publishing on topics relating to land claims policy.

Angus has said that he "grew up with one foot in the reserve, one foot out", which made him aware of inequalities in how First Nations people were treated in Canada, and how limited and unenforced land claims agreements are. This awareness motivated him to work as an anti-pipeline activist, which was a salient issue while he was a university student during the 1970s. Angus received a Master of Social Work degree from Carleton University in 1980. His studies there focused on land claims agreements, with a concentration on policy and administration.

In 1985, Angus co-founded Nunavut Sivuniksavut, an independent accredited eight-month college program in downtown Ottawa affiliated with Algonquin College that exists to instruct Inuit youth from Nunavut about Inuit culture and history. The program is frequently referred to as both a college program and a silattuqsarvik ("a place and time to become wise"), and its primary purpose is to provide college-level instruction in "Nunavut's history, politics and culture". Originally the program also focused on instruction in the ongoing Nunavut Land Claims negotiations; since the successful completion of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, Nunavut Sivuniksavut now also focuses on preparing Inuit youth for evolving "educational, training, and career opportunities" in Nunavut. The Office of the Governor General of Canada has described Nunavut Sivuniksavut as a "unique college program" which "brings students to Ottawa to experience life in southern Canada and to study Inuit history and land claims." As of 2010, about 22 students were admitted to the program every year, with the requirement that they had already graduated high school, and by that time the program had graduated about 300 students total. Angus taught at Nunavut Sivuniksavut for 31 years, until his retirement in 2016.

Angus has also written several articles on Canadian land claims policy, as well as the 1991 book And the Last Shall Be First: Native Policy in an Era of Cutbacks. His works on topics like the impact of worldwide fur trade policies and the political economy of land claims have been published by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, and in French by the Montreal publishing house Écosociété (fr). For this reason, Murray has been cited as a political analyst.

On November 4, 2009, Murray was named a member of the Order of Canada, and he was invested into the order on September 12, 2014. The award was granted for "his varied contributions to building awareness and respect for Canada's Native people and their traditions, and for the role he has played in empowering Inuit youth as founder of Nunavut Sivuniksavut." In addition to his role as the founder of Nunavut Sivuniksavut, he was also recognised for his work as a grassroots activist working on topics like anti-pipeline activism.

• Member, Order of Canada