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Cartoon illustration of author wearing a red parka with a fur-lined hood, sitting in a small boat surrounded by stacks of books. The boat is floating on calm blue water, with distant hills visible on the horizon.

On Seal Hunting and Archie Comics

By Article, Featured

I REMEMBER WELL the feeling the rugged land of home evoked in me at a young age. I had no tools then to convey this feeling, other than the word “cool.” In retrospect, I know that the warm greens of grass and lichen contrasted with the brilliant blues of sea ice just under the snowy top layer in a way that created a sense of forceful beauty. I’ve since fallen in love with being able to communicate those kinds of experiences, a passion that has led me to study English literature in university. I love how language, whether Inuktut, English, or any other, might capture what goes on in one’s head, when core memories are made, or remembered.

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August 29, 2024
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Sandi Vincent holding a traditional Inuit drum against a clear sky, wearing a light-colored parka, during a performance in Iqaluit.

Live by the Drum

By Article, Featured

AS A DRUM DANCER LIVING IN IQALUIT, with family roots in Iglulik, I am most familiar with traditional drum practice of the Nunavut area, which usually entails a man composing his own song, and his wife and family singing while he drums. One song many Nunavummiut may be familiar with, Anirausilirlanga, is about when two specific stars become visible again, signifying the imminent return of the sun after the season of 24‐hour darkness.

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August 22, 2024
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On the Fire Line

By Article, Featured

WHEN NOEL COCKNEY heard the news of wildfire evacuations in the Northwest Territories last summer, he went straight to the Inuvik wildfire office to see how he could help. A volunteer firefighter of four years, Cockney was already trained in fighting wildland fires. Here he two-week deployment combatting one of many fires that devastated the western Canadian territory over the summer of 2023.

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August 15, 2024
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Inuktitut - Issue 131-132-img

Inuktitut – Issue 131-132

By Inuktitut Magazine

THIS SUMMER ISSUE of Inuktitut magazine travels across Inuit Nunangat. In our cover feature you’ll find a success story that merges Inuit self‐determination with food security, thanks to an Inuvik‐based country food processing plant. Also from the West, we’ll hear the firsthand account of an Inuvialuit wildfire fighter who battled one of the many blazes that raged through the Northwest Territories in 2023.

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July 29, 2024
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Food Security For Inuvialuit

By Article

IT WAS “A BIG STEP” FOR INUVIALUIT, says Brian Elanik, when—over the course of a week in September 2023—he and his team butchered the first 50 reindeer harvested from the regional herd. “That’s our herd that will supply the Inuvialuit Settlement Region with traditional meats and hides,” says Elanik, an operator at the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation’s Inuvik‐based Inuvialuit Country Food Processing Plant. “We brought them into the plant, hung them up, let the blood drain overnight. We made roasts, diced meat, ground meat, sausages, ribs. We try to utilize everything from the animal to provide for our people.”

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May 18, 2024
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A colorful vintage hockey card collection featuring players from teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens. Each card displays an illustration or photograph of the player, with some cards flipped upside down, creating a puzzle-like appearance. The names of the players, their teams, and stats are shown below their images. The layout gives a nostalgic glimpse into the classic era of hockey trading cards.

Natan Obed on Hockey Cards and Pandemic Puzzles

By Article

IN 2020, when the COVID‐19 pandemic shut everything down, Natan Obed, President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, like many people, went searching for a distraction. What he chose would take him 18 months to complete and solve a 70‐year‐old mystery connected to his favourite set of hockey cards from 1955. Obed has been collecting hockey cards since his uncle Andy bought him his first packs when he was a child in Nain, Nunatsiavut. He’d lose himself in those uniformed faces, sorting and re‐sorting them according to statistics and scenarios. He probably owns about 100,000 cards today and still finds joy when he pulls them out.

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May 17, 2024
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A close-up image of Elisapie, a woman with braided hair, looking directly into the camera. Her hands are raised, framing her face. She wears a colorful outfit made of pink, blue, and white elements, adding an artistic and vibrant touch to the photo. The image conveys a sense of strength, culture, and individuality.

Like Elisapie, Through the Heart

By Article

IN BETWEEN CONCERTS and amid fine‐tuning for her national and international tours, Salluit songstress Elisapie Isaac found time to chat about her newest album Inuktitut, released in September 2023. The album is a collection of classics from the ’60s through to the ’90s, reimagined in Elisapie’s mother tongue and unique voice.

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May 16, 2024
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Participants seated in a circle during an Inuit Nunangat University workshop, engaging in discussions about Inuit-led higher education initiatives.

Inuit Nunangat University

By Article

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami is spearheading the establishment of a university in Inuit Nunangat. There is a great deal of work to make this vision a reality, but we are guided by our mission for a future in which Inuit students earn degrees in areas such as education, history and governance, health, medicine, and Inuktut, as well as environ mental sciences and engineering, all based upon Inuit ways of knowing and being.

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May 15, 2024
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A small group of people in a motorized boat on a calm body of water, heading towards a rocky shoreline. The passengers are dressed warmly and wearing red life jackets, with inukshuks visible in the background on the rugged terrain

Kuuvik Bay, Where Aukkautik Lived

By Article

Kuuvik is the northernmost major river of the west coast of Nunavik, Québec. Several islands are at its mouth, including Aqiggituut which means abundant with ptarmigans. Inuit knew of the abundance of seals and whales in this area, making it an ideal place for Inuit families to winter.

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May 14, 2024
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amautik-katherine-takpannie

Katherine Takpannie’s Life in Pictures

By Article

When Katherine Takpannie was 15, she took a point‐and ‐shoot camera she got from her uncle and began a project where she took a photo every day for about nine months: people, nature, buildings. She still has those photos and when she looks at them now, she sees how the seeds of curiosity and wonder bloomed into a career in photography.

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May 12, 2024
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