DEI Initiative / People / Helen Mamayaok Maksagak
Helen Mamayaok Maksagak
Helen Mamayaok Maksagak was born on the land near Bernard Harbour. In the 1960s and 1970s, she managed an Outreach Centre for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. She also completed service work on various committees, including the Drug and Alcohol Board, Housing Association Board, Social Assistance Appeal Committee, and Northwest Territories Round Table on the Environment. Maksagak was the deputy commissioner of the Northwest Territories and then commissioner; the first woman and first Inuk to hold the position. (See also Territorial Government in Canada.) In 1999, she became commissioner of the newly created Nunavut. She also served on the Nunavut Status of Women Council, on the Board of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, and, in 2005, as Nunavut’s deputy commissioner. She consistently supported those in the north who wanted to live according to their ancestral lifestyle.