Nunatsiaq News - Nanisiniq film premier at 18th Inuit Studies Conference
A research team of Inuit youth from Arviat screen their film “Nanisiniq” to an audience of conference-goers at the 18th Inuit Studies Conference, which took place this past week in Washington D.C. Hosted by Curtis Konek, Amy Owingayak and Jordan Konek from Arviat, the première of the film drew a large crowd to the Smithsonian Institute. The film documents two years of travel and work by the research team of the Arviat Nanisiniq history project as they interviewed elders in Arviat and traveled to the U.N. climate change conference in Durbanm South Africa to talk about climate change and its impacts on Inuit and Inuit culture. Asked how she felt about the film, a member of the audience said “it moved me to tears to understand how much these young people overcame to do this work and to see what a great job they have done of representing their history and culture.” The conference, which drew researchers from Greenland, Russia, Alaska and Canada, wraps up this weekend. (PHOTO BY FRANK TESTER)
To purchase a copy of the film or host a screening in your community contact Nanisiniq@yahoo.ca today!
Ashoka Presentation: “Filming for our Future” Socio-historical, Cross-generational, and multi-media approaches to Inuit youth mental health and wellbeing
Presented in Arlington Virginia at the office of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public on October 26 2012
The Beginning of “OUR ELDERS” Picture Series
Elder Timothy Taleriktok
We enjoyed interviewing Timothy on his experiences working at the Rankin Inlet Nickel Mine. To read the blog on the interview with Timothy, click here.
Mutna to our Elders!
Mutna to our Arviat coordinator, Tamar Mukyunik, for the idea of the Elder picture series :)
Mutna to Curtis Konek for taking the pics!
Inuit Survival Skills that will Save your Life in the Arctic
by Curtis Konek
My name is Curtis Konek. I am an Inuk from Arviat, Nunavut and I am also in the Canadian Rangers.
This video clip is for people who are going to experience the Arctic for the first time. This is a good way to show how Inuit survived and continue to survive in the Arctic for so many years. I want to share Inuit knowledge and survival skills, and show people that traditional Inuit clothing is very reliable and important to Inuit.
Special thanks to the Nunavut Research Institute, Nunavut Arctic College, and Jamie Bell!
Camera one operator: April Dutheil
Camera two operator: Amy Owingayak
A Journey to Discover
by Jordan Konek
September 6, 2011
There are some times when I really don’t feel like doing anything and want to stay away from certain things going on. During the long weekend there was Maguse Reunion going on and during the night before I was staying up all night doing editing.
I went home around 10AM after doing some editing for the September 27, 2011 Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Film Festival. But anyways I got up at 3PM after I went home and got to sleep, I was still feeling that I don’t want to go. But I decided to go to my grandparents to see if they got anyone to bring them to Maguse and they had my uncles but there was one ATV that still needed to get there and I was the only person to be driving it for grandma. It takes approximately 1hour 30minutes to get there one way which made the day even longer. When we got to Maguse, my grandmother found out that she got the wrong tent, so I had to take the trip back to Arviat and get the right tent.
Instead of being angry and lazy all day, I decided that I wanted to learn from this trip. My grandparents had to survive the Arctic by keeping active and working hard, I wonder if they ever got tired and felt they wanted to just stop working. There hard work obviously keeps them alive and I’m here alive because of their hard work.
Anyways, on my way back to Arviat to go get the tent, I started looking at how our group can learn from this Maguse project. I started thinking about how our team needs to stick together to make sure we’re all in the same page and that we are safe. We also need to look at the people driving behind us to make sure they’re not stuck of their ATV stopped working for some reason, Inuit are constantly looking back to make sure the person behind is ok. The other thing that I thought about is that sometimes we need to take our own routes sometimes for the team and maybe even split for a while. Like the time I had to return to go get the tent by myself and my grandma trusted me to be able to cross the mud that could get me stuck.
On my way home I reached the mud and I started thinking about how sometimes we have to make quick decisions so that we don’t get stuck on the mud, if I choose the wrong path, I can get stuck so making a quick decision also needs to be a wise one, too. I accidentally chose the wrong path of the mud and half the ATV was stuck in the mud. I was thinking of going back to my uncles by walking about 2 miles to ask them to help me, but I also remembered my grandpa told me “don’t think or say it’s impossible if you haven’t tried…”, so I tried to pull the ATV off the mud, then I lifted the ATV on the front and back then pulled it out by myself and I felt good for being able to do that.
The team has been doing some great things and I’d like to thank the team and April for being awesome and hardworking. We have gone a long way, and still have some things to do, but because we’re a team, we’ll reach the destination we’re trying to reach.
Gut the char and then eat the caviar fresh
