Inuvialuit Regional Corporation marks the loss of Randal “Boogie” Pokiak

Press Release

August 08, 2020

Inuvialuit Regional Corporation is remembering and honouring the life of Boogie Pokiak. Our thoughts at IRC go out to his family at this time and to the community of Tuktoyaktuk on all their recent losses.

Boogie will be known for a life of political activity defending the rights of Inuvialuit since the early days of C.O.P.E. in the 1970s and as strong participant in negotiations and land occupancy work leading to the IFA.

Randal Boogie Pokiak was the first Chair of the Inuvialuit Development Corporation.

He continued to speak to government officials and researchers, giving his time and showing persistence with them over the decades, and always took the opportunity to attend and participate fully in meetings to advance Inuvialuit interests.

Boogie remained strongly adamant about respect for traditional knowledge, and especially Inuvialuit harvesting rights and long argued for the role of traditional hunting, fishing and trapping in regional food security.  He cared deeply about Inuvialuit lands and the protection of our lands for this use. As recently as July, Boogie was educating a Federal Minister over teleconference about these issues.

He challenged us all to keep working hard and to improve our work. It is good to hear Boogie was also able to spend time on the land with family keeping up the proud work of traditional harvester during these recent seasons.

Randal Boogie Pokiak’s keen interest in Inuvialuit history, his strong belief in the possibilities for future generations of Inuvialuit along with insistence for cultural traditions and passing this knowledge on to youth … all his wisdom will be missed as we continue the work of implementing the Inuvialuit Final Agreement.

IHT5