Aaju Peter

{{Short description|Inuk lawyer, activist and sealskin clothes designer}}

File:Aaju Peter at the Opening ceremony at Riddu Riđđu 2019 (cropped).jpg 2019.]]

Aaju Peter {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|CM}} (born 1960 in Arkisserniaq, Greenland){{Cite web|title=Peter, Aaju {{!}} Inuit Literatures ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᐊᓪᓚᒍᓯᖏᑦ Littératures inuites|url=https://inuit.uqam.ca/en/node/36|access-date=2021-01-10|website=inuit.uqam.ca}} is an Inuk lawyer, activist and sealskin clothes designer. In 2012, she received the Order of Canada.{{cite news | access-date=2016-09-24 | archive-date=2016-10-12 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161012071749/http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674aaju_peter_will_be_invested_into_the_order_of_canada_nov._23/ | url=http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674aaju_peter_will_be_invested_into_the_order_of_canada_nov._23/ | title=NunatsiaqOnline 2012-11-22: NEWS: Aaju Peter becomes member of Order of Canada Nov. 23 | url-status=dead | work=Nunatsiaq News}}

In the 1980s Peter married a Canadian and moved to Frobisher Bay, now Iqaluit. She raised five children on her own and still resides in Iqaluit.

She has travelled across Greenland, Europe, and Canada, performing modern drum dance and traditional singing and displaying sealskin fashions. She graduated from Akitsiraq Law School in 2005 and was called to the bar in 2007.

In 2019, Aaju Peter was a guest of the Université du Québec à Montréal, and a video was produced about her visit.{{Cite web|url=https://inuit.uqam.ca/en/node/273|title=Video: Inuktut, the language of the Inuit | Inuit Literatures ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᐊᓪᓚᒍᓯᖏᑦ Littératures inuites|website=inuit.uqam.ca|accessdate=Mar 8, 2023}}

She has appeared in the documentary films Arctic Defenders (2013) and Angry Inuk (2016).{{cite news|last1=Mullen|first1=Patrick|title=Review: 'Angry Inuk'|accessdate=9 September 2016|url=http://povmagazine.com/articles/view/review-angry-inuk|work=Point of View|publisher=Documentary Organization of Canada|date=11 May 2016}}{{cite news|last1=McLaughlin|first1=Paul|title=Interview: sealskin clothing designer and lawyer Aaju Peter|url=https://this.org/2010/02/17/aaju-peter-interview/|accessdate=24 September 2016|work=This magazine|issue=January–February 2010|date=17 February 2010}} She was also profiled in the 2023 documentary film Twice Colonized.Guy Lodge, [https://variety.com/2023/film/reviews/twice-colonized-review-1235597618/ "‘Twice Colonized’ Review: An Indigenous Activist Defends Her People’s Rights While Tending to Personal Wounds"]. Variety, April 27, 2023.