Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Mary Simon speaks to reporters Wednesday at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

The head of Canada's Inuit organization wants to draw national attention to Inuit culture and issues next year, which has been declared the Year of the Inuit.

Announcing the 12 month-long initiative Wednesday in Ottawa, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Mary Simon said she wants to raise awareness of the challenges Inuit face in Canada.

"The Inuit cannot only be remembered during times of [Arctic] sovereignty issues," Simon said in a news release.

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami is the organization that represents Canada's four Inuit regions – Nunatsiavut (Labrador), Nunavik (northern Quebec), Nunavut and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the Northwest Territories.

Simon said Canadians are sympathetic to Inuit people, but that sympathy is not translating into action on serious issues such as housing shortages and the high cost of living.

Simon noted that the income of an average Inuk is half that of non-aboriginal Canadians while the cost of living in the Arctic is three to four times higher than south of 60.

An Ipsos-Reid online poll done for Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami this month revealed that Canadians don't know much about the Inuit people or the Arctic in general.

According to the poll, only 25 per cent of Canadians knew that Inuit pay taxes, including income tax, GST and, depending on where they live, PST.

Seven per cent of respondents said they have visited Canada's Arctic, but 74 per cent said they would like to learn more about it.

The 1,007 adults who were polled by Ipsos-Reid were given a true or false quiz of 20 questions about the Arctic and the Inuit. About 31 per cent of them scored poorly on the quiz.

Simon said she hopes public events leading up to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics — whose official emblem is the inuksuk, an Inuit symbol — will create more awareness about not only Inuit issues but also their culture.

"Just prior to the Olympics, we will be giving the nation's capital a chance to sample Inuit arts and culture with an event called the Taste of the Arctic, an evening celebrating Inuit culture at the National Gallery of Canada," Simon said.

The Ottawa event, slated for Jan. 14, will raise money for the Arctic Children and Youth Foundation, she added.