The real winner in this year’s Arctic Inspiration Prize is the developing fabric of Nunavut’s infrastructure.
Four projects, two of which were exclusively based in territory and at opposite ends of the traditional gender work spectrum, resulted in a total of $1,246,000 in prize money from Canada’s largest competition that will directly benefit Nunavummiut in a variety of ways, particularly food sovereignty and labour training.
Nunavut News spoke with the exclusively Nunavut-based projects- Learning, Harvesting, Earning, which won $425,000 in the AIP Category Finalists level, and Investing in the Futures of Inuit Women, an initiative associated with the One Plane Away non-profit organization that received around $98,000 in the youth category- about their plan for the winnings.
“The ceremony was unbelievable,” said Aneeka Anderson, team lead of Investing in the Futures of Inuit Women. “Sylvia Coutier was the artistic director, so there were lots of amazing performances, lots of Inuit represented which was awesome to see, as well as some local First Nations representation- song and dance and speakers- just so incredible. Just life changing and impactful, really.”
Sam Arfin: Learning, Harvesting, Earning
The program has experienced male Elders in Iglulik teach young men traditional hunting and fishing skills out on the land. The Elders are paired with their teen-aged counterparts in a ratio of one Elder to one or two youngsters, so the learners have close supervision and an intimate learning experience. “We have three hunters, so they’re going to be doing the bulk of the fishing and training who are going to pair up with young men and show them how to fish,” says Sam Arfin, the project coordinator.
“So I’ve known Teman [Avingaq, team lead in Iglulik] for 10 years now ... I was very impressed with his selflessness. He’s been doing this kind of stuff already for a very long time. He trains young men just because he was trained when he was a youth, and it’s in his culture to pass on that knowledge. He’s been giving away his catch to people who want it and need it for a very long time. We thought that with a little more equipment, he might be able to do this on a larger scale, and really create a good income for people, hopefully train more youngsters, and hopefully let it grow that way.”
Arfin also plans to help youth in the future by advising them on the paperwork with applications for the AIP.
“We feel that Arctic food security is not just hunting country food, but greater income for the fishers. So our intention is to take some of these char, to flash freeze them, and to sell them [in the south], as they’re already some proven demand there ... There’s so much biomass demand [for fish from] Nunavut.
“Basically we want to sell the fish in southern Canada to high-end restaurants and by doing so pay the fisherman a greater price for their catch. It’s our intention with this program with the higher prices in the south and the ability to freeze the stored char that these guys [collect] fishing all year round.”
The initial investments for Learning, Harvesting, Earning with their $425,000 windfall are going to go into the purchase of a large fishing boat for char catching, two wide track snow machines (used for ice fishing, and two large sea-can style reefer freezers (one in Iglulik and Iqaluit to meet supply and demand). “If the hunters have a load of fish, there won’t be immediate pressure to get them all the way to southern Canada. They’ll be able to freeze them and send them as needed. The rest of the funds will be spent on smaller miscellaneous items such as a dinghy, nets, safety equipment, and other stuff like that.”
We’re going to be careful to run a tight ship- pun intended.”
Aneeka Anderson: Investing in the Futures of Inuit Women
“Receiving the award was absolutely incredible -- I feel like I’m still in shock ... It was amazing to be in Whitehorse at the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre to receive the award alongside my team members. It was great to be together and accept the award in the spirit of the award, as a team,” says Aneeka Andersen, team lead on Investing in the Futures of Inuit Women. The project, which received just shy of $100,000, grew out of the Nunavut-based non-profit One Plane Away and aims to train as well as provide employment and skill building opportunities for young Inuit women in remote communities.
Nunavut has the highest birth rate in Canada. At the same time, accessing baby supplies is extra challenging in northern communities due to the high cost of shipping. Prices are sometimes two to three times higher than in southern Canada, and come from an already low supply of these essential items in most communities. Investing in the Futures of Inuit Women would train and pay local women to both make supplies and run the organization.
Anderson emphasizes that her team will “be jumping right into it” -- getting the project off the ground with the funds in the coming summer months. “We’re feeling really inspired to get started in June with our our youth employment and mentorship program at One Plane Away, our partner organization.”
The priority will be making sure that the two to three youths that they hire, including current high-school student Geena Veevee, who will be working from Iqaluit, begin to be paid right while simultaneously training in the non-profit sector. “The first thing we’ll do is start paying our youth,” says Anderson. “Start rewarding them and compensating them for all that their contributing to the day to day operation of the charity.”
Supplies for the sewing program as well as costs incurred for transportation -- all operating in conjunction with One Plane Away, a registered charity that sends baby care boxes to mothers in need in Nunavut communities, will come a bit later down the road.
Currently, One Plane Away has an online fundraiser for Mother’s Day continuing to the end of the month. Help support a Nunavummiut mother by sending a donation e-card on https://www.oneplaneaway.ca/mothersday. You can also donate new and used items or make a simple monetary donation through the website or social media accounts.
The team spirit of the AIP
“Receiving the award was absolutely incredible -- I feel like I’m still in shock,” says Anderson, speaking with Nunavut News while waiting for her plane back to Nunavut the day after the awards ceremony. “It was amazing to be in Whitehorse at the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre to receive the award alongside my team members. It was great to be together and accept the award in the spirit of the award, as a team. It was so inspirational to hear about all the other projects -- to connect with the other teams and to hear about what they have in store in the next few months.
“I think the key descriptor of the whole experience was just ‘inspiring’. I feel inspired to do my project, but also just in general to keep dreaming. You know, if you have an idea, find ways to make it happen. We can do anything, we can find ways to make change in our communities. It all starts with a dream.”