Arctic Bay (Feb 10/03) - Nunavut Youth Consulting is sticking to its promise to promote literacy.

It's producing three commercials, all with the intent of getting people interested in books and Inuit culture.

Jimmy Enoogoo is making literacy commercials in Arctic Bay and learning to use the video equipment at the same time. - photo courtesy of Ron Elliott

At present, the story boards for two of the commercials are complete.

Jimmy Enoogoo, a volunteer for NYC, said they're starting with something simple and working their way up. He said he's made home videos before, but nothing like this.

"We're still learning how to use the camera. Making the commercial is part of the process," said Enoogoo.

The first commercial will be a collection of still images with messages like "Inuktitut -- share your language" running across the screen. In the background can be seen two young girls from Arctic Bay throat singing.

"We took the pictures from the literacy posters we made last year. Every community has one. The words in the commercial are encouraging youth to use Inuktitut more," explained Enoogoo. The second and third commercials will include people from the community telling stories. They will show how elders and families need to work with the young people to preserve Inuit culture and language.

Ron Elliott, chairman of NYC, said the group received $30,000 for the commercials from the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth.

With the money, NYC bought a digital video camera and editing equipment. Elliott said all these purchases were essential for the commercials, and are perfect for future projects.

"Our end result would be something that we could have aired on APTN or CBC North," explained Elliott.