As such, she authored the Foreword of the Encyclopedia of the Arctic (2005) edited by Mark Nuttall, an important research tool elaborated with a circumpolar approach. In 2002, she became the International Chair of the ICC representing all Inuit of the circumpolar regions and stayed in this position until 2006. The same year, she was elected Canadian President of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC).
In 1995, she was elected to the position of corporate secretary for the Makivik Corporation, an organization responsible for the economic and social development of Inuit communities in Nunavik within the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement. After leaving the Kativik School Board, Sheila Watt-Cloutier became the Inuk advisor to the Nunavik Education Task Force where the committee comprised of other fellow Inuit produced a document entitled, “Silatunirmut – The Pathway to Wisdom” (1992), which testified to the weaknesses of the educational system in Inuit communities. The Kativik School Board administers education for all of the fourteen communities of Nunavik with a focus on Inuit culture, language and values as its intended foundation. Sheila Watt-Cloutier worked as a student counsellor in Kuujjuaq, then in the office of the Kativik School Board in Dorval, Québec, for ten years. She relocated with her husband and children to Montreal in 1977 and took courses with several other Inuit by McGill professors for a specific student counsellor’s training administered by the Kativik School Board. These years away from home were difficult, and she moved back to Kuujjuaq at the age of eighteen, to work in the community’s healthcare centre.
Sheila Watt-Cloutier lived a traditional Inuit way of life until the age of ten, until she was sent away by the Canadian government to attend schools in Nova Scotia, Manitoba, and finally high school in Ottawa. Her brother, Charlie Watt, was appointed to the Canadian Senate in 1983 where he was senator for 34 years and was awarded an Officer of the National Order of Quebec in 1984. Her mother, Daisy Watt (1922-2002), was an interpreter and a great accordion player.
In 1957, her family moved across the river to what was known as Fort Chimo, a former American military base. Sheila Watt-Cloutier, also written Siila Watt-Cloutier, was born in Kuujjuaq, formally known as Old Fort Chimo, in 1953. Environmental activist, essayist and politician born in Kuujjuaq (Nunavik) in 1953.
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