AKLAVIK
The community of Aklavik will given a global platform to discuss Northern culture and issues when the internationally recognized TEDx Talks visits the community next year.

Josh Fix performed at a TEDx talk in Vancouver, BC in 2010. The international conference will be bringing Northern culture and issues to the international stage when it comes to Aklavik next March. - photo courtesy of Shane Douglas

The one day conference will be taking place on March 7, 2015, thanks to the initiative of teacher Shane Douglas at Aklavik's Moose Kerr School, who is organizing the event.

"I've been a big TED Talks fan for about six or seven years. I recommend them, I watch them all the time," said Douglas.

Douglas, who has been teaching in Aklavik for the past two years while working towards his masters of education, said he was inspired to organize a TEDx talk of his own after the death of four elders in Aklavik in September sent shock waves through the community. He hopes the conference will encourage dialogue around the gradual disappearance of Northern culture and the importance of preserving it.

"If you go on Google and you type in Aklavik you're going to find the weather, you might find something on the Mad Trapper and you're lucky if you find something on drum dancing," he said.

"My vision for this conference is that it's like a giant town council meeting except that it's structured through TED so we can generate meaningful dialogue on how to make our communities better up North."

TEDx Talks are a smaller, community-based offshoot of the global TED (technology, entertainment and design) Talks conferences held annually in a larger centre. Since its 1984 debut in California, TED Talks - whose slogan is 'Ideas Worth Spreading' - have taken off as a platform for promoting outside-the-box thinking and innovative ideas.

"TED is a global community, welcoming people from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper understanding of the world," reads a statement on the TED Talks website.

Although the day long conference in Aklavik is not scheduled to take place until next March, Douglas has already received the go-ahead to organize the talk from TEDx's headquarters. Douglas said he hopes to have at least 70 per cent of the speakers and performers represented from Aklavik, but he is also trying to recruit some household names.

"We're soliciting everyone from A Tribe Called Red to Tanya Tagaq, Richard Branson, Neil Young, Jordan Tootoo," he said. "All these guys we've either contacted or are about to contact."

One person who has already agreed to speak at the conference is Moose Kerr's principal, Velma Illasiak. Although she doesn't know what topic she will discuss at the conference yet, Illasiak is looking forward to taking part in the event.

"The whole process is an excellent way to open dialogue," she said. "I'm hoping that it will bring a lot of attention in a positive way to our community, to our school, to the culture, to the whole aspect of what community means, and really put our community on the map," she said.

Illasiak, who is the first aboriginal principal at Moose Kerr School, said Douglas has showed lots of initiative since coming to teach in Aklavik. She said organizing the TEDx talk was just another example of how much he cares about the community.

"That's an immense undertaking and I think for him to have such enthusiasm and to co-ordinate such a high-scale event, you got to commend the guy for doing that," she said.

With several months until the conference takes place, Douglas is hoping to spread the word as much as possible.

"The message we want to send is the culture is here, the culture is alive, the culture is a beautiful dynamic, diverse culture that needs to be preserved, and having people in over 100 countries watching our amazing speakers is going to I think resuscitate Aklavik," he said.