December 19, 2024
OTTAWA – Ceporah Mearns is a life-long learner, knowledge keeper, tireless advocate for incorporating Inuit traditional knowledge into work and research, and now, recipient of the 2024 Inuit Recognition Award.
The Inuit Recognition Award, adjudicated by ArcticNet’s Inuit Research Management Committee, is presented annually to an Inuk who promotes Inuit self-determination in research. The many letters of support the committee received as part of Mearns’ nomination package provide proof of her merit.
Originally from Pangnirtung, Mearns is Director of the Nunavut Network Environment for Indigenous Health Research (NEIHR) which is under the Qaujigiartiit Health Research Centre (QHRC) in Iqaluit. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Carleton University, a Bachelor of Education from Nunavut Arctic College/University of Regina, and is currently earning a Masters in the School of Arctic and Subarctic Studies at Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Mearns’ work has focused on early childhood education, curriculum development, and youth mental health and wellness and she strives to incorporate the transformative power of Inuit Ilisaijjusiit (Inuit methods of teaching) into academia.
Support for Mearns came from academic institutions such as McMaster University, the University of Alberta and Toronto Metropolitan University, the Government of Nunavut and organizations in Canada and abroad.
“I am honoured to recognize, with this award, the substantial contributions Ceporah Mearns has made toward changing the narrative within academia, centring Inuit knowledge and building parity and equity for Inuit within research communities in Canada and elsewhere,” said ITK President Natan Obed. “Alongside her esteemed nominators and colleagues, I thank her for her perseverance and service to improving the lives of Inuit.”
As University of the Arctic Research Chair in Inuit Pedagogies at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire – one of Mearns’ many leadership roles – she develops graduate certification programs and courses that reflect and centre Inuit ways of knowing. Mearns was recently named a Senior Arctic Fellow at Dartmouth, “to recognize the Inuit knowledge she has so kindly shared – and we hope will continue to share – with our Dartmouth community,” wrote Melody Brown Burkins, Director of the Institute of Arctic Studies at Dartmouth.
Mearns first joined Qaujigiartiit in 2012 as a Youth Research Associate and quickly became “indispensable to our team,” said Gwen Healey Akearok, Executive and Scientific Director of the QHRC, which nominated Mearns for this award. Since then, Mearns has become a skilled and renowned facilitator, educator, researcher, author and public speaker, with a particular interest in children, youth and mental health.
“Ceporah has been a teacher to me and undoubtedly other non-Inuit researchers and health professionals working within Nunavut, opening my eyes and enlightening my perspective on many aspects of Inuit health, well-being and research practice,” wrote Amy Caughey, Adjunct Professor at the University of Alberta.
Mearns received the Inuit Recognition Award December 12, 2024, at the annual ArcticNet gala in Ottawa. She now joins these past winners:
- 2023 Eric Oliver, Nunatsiavut
- 2022 Jean Allen, Nunavut
- 2021 Frank and Nellie Pokiak, Inuvialuit Settlement Region, and Elizabeth (Liz) Pijogge, Nunatsiavut
- 2019 Robert Way, Nunatsiavut
- 2018 Michelle Wood, Nunatsiavut
- 2017 Lucassie Arragutainaq, Nunavut
- 2016 Inez Shiwak, Nunatsiavut
- 2015 Doug Esagok, Inuvialuit Settlement Region
- 2014 Joey Angnatok, Nunatsiavut
Media inquiries:
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