Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Oct 29/01) - When the formation of Nunavut two years ago sparked international interest in Inuit culture, Tracy Wallace saw an opportunity to present her people to a captive audience.

Wallace lived a traditional Inuit lifestyle until she left to study overseas and in southern Canada. She felt the experience gave her a good grasp of cultures outside her own, allowing her to work in an interpretive role.

She teamed her writing and artistic abilities with the technical skills of her partner, Albert Kimaliakyuk. He had experience working for the Inuit Broadcasting Company (IBC). They created Natsiq Productions, a Rankin Inlet-based video production company.

Wallace's objective is to accurately document her people.

"We want to describe the culture or language that exists here, as well as the land. We think we have an advantage over other filmmakers that come up North because we can communicate in Inuktitut. We also have a close relationship with a lot of the people who live here," she said.

Their idea and business potential were good enough to receive recognition from the Business Development Bank of Canada, which last week named the 26-year-old Wallace Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Nunavut.

Until now Wallace and Kimaliakyuk have spent most of their time doing smaller contract work, including a job for the NWT and Nunavut minor hockey associations making player scouting videos, and various assignments for the IBC.

But she has set a number of long-term goals: a dramatic reenactment of an elder's story, community profiles of different Nunavut locations, and documentaries on elder traditional law and practices, including shamanism.

Although she has already begun script-writing for some of her ideas, Wallace first needs a steady source of income, something more than intermittent contract work.

Recipients of the BDC award are teamed with mentors; in her case, it's Ken Toner, president and CEO of Atuqtuarviq Corp. With Toner she hopes to redo her business plan to work toward more long-term projects.

As for the award itself, "It is sort of like a pat on the back," she said. "It made me feel that this is something worth continuing even on those bad days when you think you might just be better off giving up and finding a real job -- a job that pays on a regular basis."