How Ottawa's only Inuk reverend is fostering traditional Inuit culture

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When she finally agreed, it was an emotional moment for Briggs, who said it was an answer to “over 30 years of prayer,” according to a 2014 press release from the Anglican Church of Canada. (Briggs died in 2024.)

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From that point on, Attagutsiak’s theological and bible training started in earnest, and she met with Rev. Briggs every Friday for about a year, though she says she never fully arrived at a place of feeling “ready” to lead as a reverend.

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‘A regular person’

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Despite being a first point of contact and a welcoming figure for many Inuit arriving in Ottawa from the North for things like medical care and education, Attagutsiak sees herself as “just a regular person.”

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Others in the community see it differently.

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Attagutsiak has created a warm space to “meet your fellow Inuit” and speak his own language, says hunter and carpenter David Erkloo. When he visited Ottawa in 2015 during a holiday from Nunavut with his wife Asenath Kannutaq, he called a taxi and asked the driver to take him to a local Anglican Church.

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“We were surprised there was an Inuit church here in Ottawa,” he says. “He brought us to St. Margaret’s.”

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In a typical week, Attagutsiak not only delivers her sermons, but administers to the spiritual needs of the community by visiting people in their homes and at their hospital beds to offer comfort and advice. She is also skilled at traditional crafts.

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“I taught her sons in preschool many, many years ago,” recalls Inuit cultural educator Lynda Brown, who came to Ottawa from Nunavut. “She made me a pair of caribou kamiik (boots) when I first started performing, and I still have them.”

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Rev. Colin McFarland poses for a photo at St. Margaret’s Church in Ottawa. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Ottawa Citizen

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Working in partnership

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Last February, Attagutsiak was awarded the Governor General’s King Charles III Coronation Medal for the church’s weekly communal meal program and her dedication and compassionate pastoral care.

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“It’s been a privilege to work with her side-by-side for the last five years, and I’ve learned so much. She’s shared who she is, her wisdom, teaching me her language and about her culture,” says Rev. Colin McFarland, who presides over the English-speaking congregation and has been with St. Margaret’s since 2021.

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“I’ve watched her strong ability to connect with people in their pain with prayer and with faith in a way that’s not abstract and not distant, but very real and grounded.”

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One of Attagutsiak’s most significant roles is in bringing the two congregations together in partnership, and on a path of friendship, forgiveness and reconciliation, says McFarland.

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“Recognizing what God’s bringing together that we’ve messed up and torn apart,” he says. “All of us have a responsibility to remember the past rightfully and truthfully and accurately, and because we remember it, we’re choosing to act in ways that offer a new way forward.”

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When asked if she’s proud of what she has created at the church, Attagutsiak smiles and shakes her head.

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“We never have to be proud,” she says. “Proud is not good for anyone. That is not our traditional way of living.”

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This story was produced in partnership with the Reporting in Indigenous Communities course at Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communications.

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