Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, June 6, 2007

CHESTERFIELD INLET - A Grade 12 graduate from Victor Sammurtok school in Chesterfield Inlet will be going on a most excellent adventure this coming September.

Doriana Sammurtok, 17, has been selected to take part in the Cape Farewell project - a global project to highlight the issue of climate change.

A total of 12 schools from England, Canada, the U.S.A. and Germany are participating in the endeavour.

Victor Sammurtok joins schools from Calgary and Montreal as the Canadian participants.

Cape Farewell is a charitable organization which promotes the understanding of climate change through students learning more about science and art.

The project brings artists, scientists and educators together to collectively address and raise awareness concerning climate change.

The project was created by David Buckland and has led three expeditions into the High Arctic on board the 100-year-old schooner, the Noorderlicht.

Sammurtok will be on board when the group leaves on a two-week cruise to Svalbard, Norway, this coming September.

A group representing the British High Commission and the Cape Farewell project were in Chester this past January.

The group returned this past week to interview students interested in making the trip and select the lucky youth who will travel to Svalbard.

Group member Rebecca Zalatan said the group looks for inspired students who have the ability to inspire others who participate in the project.

She said they want students involved who have a willingness to learn about climate change, and will take what they learn from the experience back to disseminate among their community, teachers and classmates.

"Doriana had all these qualities and she was very confident throughout the process," said Zalatan.

"Doriana's also quite artistic, intelligent and well spoken, and that's important because we anticipate lots of media attention on the project and the students have to be able to explain themselves and their project ideas.

"She also throat sings, which is unique to Inuit culture, so she will be able to bring a different angle to the project that could inspire a lot of the other kids."

There will be 11 other students on the trip, as well as eight teachers and science mentors.

Svalbard is an island located in the Norwegian Arctic.

The students have to bring their own individual science projects that pose a question on climate change.

Zalatan said the students can either conduct a small experiment or test their question by collecting data, using lab equipment, measuring glaciers, etc.

Then they have to express what they've learned through some type of art form.

"Doriana has suggested she may write a unique piece of throat-singing music to represent her experience and some form of climate change that inspires her.

"She may also do a painting to represent some aspect of her project related to climate change."

The students may also do a project on climate change together to gain a group perspective on the issue.

Zalatan said the group liked Sammurtok's idea of having the students go on the land and build an Inukshuk.

"We'd be able to take a nice photograph of that to put on the Web, which would fit in nicely with the project because the students are going to act as messengers for climate change and the Inukshuk represents a messenger.

"We'd like to see the Canadian students become ambassadors and voices of climate change in Canada to the point where people become quite familiar with their faces and their message.

"We hope this will become a big enough project to inspire people to change the way they live and treat the Earth.

"That's our big hope."