Yellowknife (Aug 11/03) - Charlie Cahill and his brother Bob, who lives in Newfoundland, have talked to thousands of students across Canada about Nunavut.

News/North: Tell me how it all started, when you and your brother decided 'Let's tour schools and talk about Nunavut.'

Charlie Cahill: When Nunavut started, there was very little information about it. For us living up here since 1990 we knew about it for 10 years and it was a big deal. Especially those of us in the Eastern Arctic. But down south it only became a reality probably in 1999 when it was in the news, you know, 'The map of Canada is changing.'

So we were down in Edmonton, my kids were in school, and their teacher called me and said, 'would you mind coming in and talking to the Grade 5 class about Nunavut?

I had loads of pictures. So I put together a little presentation and they just loved it. Students were just in awe of the landscape, the lifestyle.

The teacher said people give presentations to schools all the time, and they get paid for it. So I ended up visiting about 100 schools in five weeks.

N/N: You used all your own money for that?

CC:I did get government funding this past year to make another CD (ROM). But all the presentations we did on our own.

Last year we brought two Inuit guys down to do soapstone carving workshops and talk to the kids. We did all that on our own as well.

Every year we send out 10,000 letters. It's a real juggling act getting 300 to 500 schools scheduled for a season. My wife and kids help out, writing out the envelopes, licking the stamps and folding.

N/N: How much does it cost you to do this?

CC:We try to keep it affordable. For schools in Edmonton we charge $95 for an hour. It covers everything.

Travel, presenters fees. When we're outside Edmonton we charge $125 which is pretty reasonable.

We don't do it as much to make lots of money as we do it to get the information out there. It's really rewarding.

N/N: What do you say to people who say you guys aren't Inuit. Why are you the ones talking about Nunavut?

CC: We're trying to bring Inuit people into it for that very reason. So this past year we flew two guys down to present with us. The response was good. The kids loved hearing stories about growing up on the land and camping in igloos.

N/N:What kinds of questions do you get?

CC: We get all kinds of wild questions, like "how do people breathe up there? There are no trees. So where do you get your oxygen." And with the permafrost, "what do they do when people die in the winter?" There are a lot of good questions.

Sometimes a kid will ask a question and everyone will laugh. Then I give them the answer, and they're like "wow, that was a good question!"

N/N: Do you think Nunavut does enough to promote itself to the rest of Canada?

CC: Nunavut Tourism is mandated, they do a lot in that area. Where it is lacking is in the everyday lives.

When we first started in the schools we noticed that there was just no information. And a lot of the material being used in the schools was from the 1960s. Really outdated stuff about life in the North. So we talked to some librarians. And they recommended a CD-Rom about Nunavut. And we did. It's now part of the curriculum in Western Canada.

We paint Nunavut in a really positive light. I think it's a great place to live.

And we have two more coming this month. "Welcome to Nunavut" is geared for the tourist market. The other is "Arctic Canada and the Inuit."

It's mainly pictures and video, in five languages: English, French, Mandarin, German and Japanese.