Kiviaq (born as David Ward in 1936) is a Canadian Inuit lawyer, politician, and former sportsman. He was the first Inuk to become a lawyer, and is responsible for several important advances in establishing the legal rights of the Inuit people; in 2001, he won the legal right to use his single-word Inuktituk name.[1]
Born outside what is now Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut, he was raised in Edmonton, Alberta. He served on the Edmonton City Council as an alderman, and (unsuccessfully) ran for mayor in the 1970s; in 2003, Edmonton mayor Bill Smith declared March 14 "Kiviaq Day".[2]
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In Edmonton, Kiviaq took to boxing to deal with racially-motivated abuse from other children. He won his first Golden Gloves championship at age 13, and later became a prizefighter, winning 102 of 108 fights. In 1955, aged 19, he became the first Inuk (or "Eskimo") to play on the Edmonton Eskimos football team.
Kiviaq has Ménière's disease, and is unable to ride on an airplane without becoming physically ill; consequently, he is unable to return to the Arctic, and remains in Edmonton.
He is the subject of the documentary film Kiviaq vs. Canada, by award-winning producer Zacharias Kunuk.