Laura Power
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 24, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Nunavut is about to compete with the NWT and Yukon in a battle of literacy.

The Read For 15 challenge is an annual event that takes place during Nunavut Literacy Week, which coincides with Literacy Week for the other two territories. On Monday, Oct. 1, readers all across the North will once again hit the books in a bid to help their territory come out on top.

The challenge, which counts the number of readers in each area who spend at least 15 minutes that day reading, has been going on for years. Nunavut has, in the past couple of years, developed a reputation for having the most participation.

"We've always had a really good response, like the last couple of years we've had over 8,000 participants," said Kim Crockatt of the Nunavut Literacy Council.

According to Cayla Chenier, also of the Nunavut Literacy Council, Nunavut beat the NWT by a slim margin last year, but as her colleague Crockatt explained, it was basically a tie.

"I know that Nunavut really gets behind the challenge," said Brenda Green of the NWT Literacy Council, who is encouraging the competition.

This year, the premiers of the two losing territories will wear the winning territory's literacy T-shirt for a day. Chenier, who is confident that it'll be premiers Joe Handley (NWT) and Dennis Fentie (Yukon) wearing the shirts, joked that "either one of them is going to look great sporting a Nunavut Literacy Council T-shirt when they lose."

The reading challenge isn't restricted to novels alone. Anyone who reads for 15 minutes or more, whether it's a newspaper, documents at work or a book is able to take part.

Crockatt said that in previous years, funding allowed the Nunavut Literacy Council to send packages and prizes to communities wishing to take part in literacy activities.

"Unfortunately this year the funding hasn't come through yet, so we're just going to be, as I say, providing online resources and trying to get people to participate," she said.

There is a range of events and activities that people can set up, she said. In the past, libraries have held family literacy nights and schools have invited elders to come and read to the children.

"Some schools have writing contests and they get pretty creative," she said.

Crockatt said the literacy council aims to promote literacy in any language, depending on the needs of the community.

"If a community feels that they want more of their programs to be in Inuktitut then we support that. We don't try to be prescriptive at all," she said.

Nunavut Literacy Week takes place between Sept. 30 and Oct. 6.