Ann Meekitjuk Hanson

Who is Ann Meekitjuk Hanson?

Ann Meekitjuk Hanson was the Commissioner of Nunavut. She served from April 21, 2005 until April 10, 2010. Hanson, like all Inuit born between the 1940s and the 1970s, was labelled with a disc number by the Government of Canada, which, in her case was E7-121.

She spent the first 11 years of her life speaking only Inuktitut and living in Qakutut and Kimmirut. She attended schools in Iqaluit, Baker Lake, and Toronto, where she was known as Annie Cotterill. She studied community development at Saint Francis Xavier University, geography at the University of Windsor and received a diploma with honors in journalism from Nunavut Arctic College.

Hanson's career has been diverse. She has been a civil servant, broadcaster, journalist and author. She has used her skills in Inuktitut throughout her career. Joining the federal government in 1964, she served as a secretary and interpreter/translator in the office of Northwest Territories MP Eugène Rhéaume.

She joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a receptionist, later becoming an announcer and producer in Inuktitut broadcasting. Hanson was the first editor of the Iqaluit community newspaper Inukshuk, which later became Nunatsiaq News. She is the author of Show Me, a book written in Inuktitut and English.