Daron Letts
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Jan 16/06) - A travel show recorded by a high school student and videographer in Sanikiluaq will air on the Aboriginal People's Television Network later this month.

Jessie Fraser of Sanikiluaq met with residents of a Mayan community along the Yucatan Peninsula last summer. She filmed a travel show that will air on APTN later this month. - photo courtesy of Road Scholars Productions

Jessie Fraser shot footage in Mexico and Nunavut for an episode of Road Stories, a series that looks at international travel through the eyes of Canadian youth.

Fraser learned about the show from her media teacher, Tim Hoyt, at Nuiyak school. She already knew how to use a video camera from her media class, so she applied.

She was one of six young people to be selected.

Fraser flew to Toronto last June to meet with the trip organizers. After an orientation period and some sightseeing, she returned to Sanikiluaq with a new video camera and an assignment to capture footage of her community.

Back home, she shot scenes of her father, Bill Fraser, kayaking along the coast, while ice still floated in the water. The two started kayaking together when Jessie was 10 years old. The video also featured picnic lunches with country food.

She also included scenes of hanging out with her friends and lots of images from her school, as well.

"My school is really in tune with the culture here," she said. "The lobby is filled with bear skins, seal skins, clothing from a long time ago, framed pictures of our ancestors and stuff like that."

Later in the summer she returned to Toronto and handed her footage to the organizers.

While in Mexico, Fraser completed a Grade 10 science credit course through the Toronto-based Blythe Education international summer program.

The course wasn't her only learning experience.

"It was culture shock," she said. "You come from one place where you've lived all your life, a place you're so familiar with, and then you're dropped off in a place where you have no clue what you're looking at. It was just amazing. I saw so many different things."

Despite the differences of climate, architecture and geography, she found things in common with the people she met.

"I got to meet the Mayan people who live there," she said. "They spoke some Mayan to me and I spoke some Inuktitut to them. I saw some similarities."

Fraser experienced more excitement than she was prepared for during her trip. Hurricane Emily chased the delegation off the island and onto the mainland for a few days.

They had to scramble to pack food and clothing as they left for the mainland to avoid the hurricane. They then hunkered down in a hotel and then in a cement bunker.

"I heard a lot of wind and lots of rain," she said. "It was really wet."

Fraser was thankful to return home in July, but she found the weather a bit cold.

"I was so relieved to get back," she said. "It was really fun, but the hurricane shook me up."

Fraser continues to work with video. Last fall she started work at the Sanikiluaq Community Television station.

Fraser's Road Scholars episode will feature four weeks of filming edited into 22 minutes.

"My family is really excited," she said. "We're going to watch it all together. I think they want to record it."

When asked if she plans to pursue a career in broadcasting, Fraser says she might.

"But I've also been looking at medicine and becoming a doctor," she said. "It's something that interests me, too."