Kiviaq (also known as David Charles Ward;
January 23, 1936 – April 24, 2016) was a Canadian
Inuk
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and ...
lawyer, politician, and former sportsman. He was raised in
Edmonton
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
,
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
.
In 1968, he became involved in politics, being elected to
Edmonton City Council. He had won the Vanier Award as one of Canada's "Five Most Outstanding Young Men," for his work as a public relations officer and recreational director for the city. He served two terms on the council as an
alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...
, and ran for
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...
in the 1970s with an unsuccessful outcome.
As a personable politician, he successfully lobbied for the
Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...
to be held in Edmonton. He ran his own open-line radio show at
CJCA
CJCA is a Canadian radio station. It operates at 930 AM branded as ''AM930 The Light'' in Edmonton, Alberta.
History
It was first licensed in 1922, and it first broadcast on May 1, 1922, becoming Alberta's first radio station. It was an affili ...
and
CJOI-FM, with interview subjects such as
Muhammad Ali. After attending law school, Kiviaq was the first Inuk to become a lawyer, and was responsible for several important advances in establishing the legal rights of Inuit. He was called to the bar in 1983,
a moment recognized in a letter from then-Prime Minister
Pierre Trudeau as a "solid and progressive achievement in the history of your people." In September 2000, Mr. Ward made the initial application to change his name back to Kiviaq, the single-word
Inuktituk name that his mother and Caucasian step-father gave him at birth. In 2001, he won that right.
In 2003, Edmonton City Council and mayor Bill Smith declared March 14 "Kiviaq Day".
Athletic career
Growing up in Edmonton, Kiviaq took to
boxing
Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermine ...
to defend himself against racially motivated abuse from other children.
He won his first
Golden Gloves
The Golden Gloves is the name given to annual competitions for amateur boxing in the United States, where they are awarded a belt and a ring. And the title of nations champion is awarded. The Golden Gloves is a term used to refer to the Nation ...
championship at age 13. He later became a
prizefighter
Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...
, winning 108 of 112 fights, capturing a string of provincial and Golden Glove championships.
In 1955, aged 19, he became the first Inuk (or
Eskimo) to play on the
Edmonton Eskimos football team. However, Kiviaq never played a regular-season game: before the season started, he had an accidental slip on the wet field which was followed by concurrent hits from three opposing players.
However, despite his severe injuries, he subsequently made a full recovery.
He later won a scholarship to play football at Northwestern State College in Louisiana. He was still eligible to play college ball because he had never earned a salary playing for the Eskimos.
Health
Kiviaq had
Ménière's disease
Ménière's disease (MD) is a disease of the inner ear that is characterized by potentially severe and incapacitating episodes of vertigo, tinnitus, hearing loss, and a feeling of fullness in the ear. Typically, only one ear is affected initi ...
, and for much of his life was unable to travel on an airplane or be a passenger in a vehicle without becoming ill. However, by 2009, surgeries to treat his cancer also resulted in him no longer being afflicted by travel sickness.
He battled cancer for many years until he died on April 24, 2016, in an Edmonton hospice.
Documentary
He is the subject of the
documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...
''Kiviaq vs. Canada'', by award-winning producer
Zacharias Kunuk
Zacharias Kunuk ( iu, ᓴᖅᑲᓕᐊᓯ ᑯᓄᒃ, born November 27, 1957) is a Canadian Inuk producer and director most notable for his film '' Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner'', the first Canadian dramatic feature film produced entirely in Inu ...
.
See also
*
Indigenous Canadian personalities
References
External links
Kiviaq interviewed on Sounds Like Canada(requires
RealPlayer
RealPlayer, formerly RealAudio Player, RealOne Player and RealPlayer G2, is a cross-platform media player app, developed by RealNetworks. The media player is compatible with numerous container file formats of the multimedia realm, including MP3 ...
)
''Kiviaq vs Canada'' at Isuma.tv
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kiviaq
1936 births
2016 deaths
Canadian male boxers
Edmonton city councillors
Edmonton Elks players
Inuit politicians
Lawyers in Alberta
Northwestern State University alumni
Players of Canadian football from Alberta
Sportspeople from Edmonton
Canadian football people from Edmonton
Sportspeople from Nunavut
Washington State University alumni
Canadian Inuit sportspeople
Inuit from the Northwest Territories
People from Chesterfield Inlet
People with Ménière's disease