RANKIN INLET - Youth from across the Kivalliq region gathered in Rankin Inlet's community learning centre the week of July 6 to participate in a media workshop designed to promote healthy living.

Participant Randy Kataluk from Coral Harbour studies his video camera during the Inuusivut workshop in Rankin Inlet on July 8. - Kassina Ryder/NNSL photo

The Inuusivut Workshops have been travelling throughout Nunavut since January 2008, according to trainer Qajaaq Ellsworth.

"The Inuusivut project kind of focuses on helping young people to promote mental health, we use multimedia as a way to help young people express themselves," Ellsworth said. He said participants learn photography and filmmaking skills to create photo slideshows and short films, as well as learning editing software.

"We've trained over 100 young people in photography and film production," Ellsworth said.

Fellow trainer Stacey Aglok MacDonald said she and Ellsworth had discussed the idea of starting a project, which they called the Youth Media Team, about two-and-a-half years ago. Ellsworth was able to secure funding for the project through the Embrace Life Council, Health Canada and community and regional organizations and the Inuusivut workshops were born.

MacDonald said she became interested in filmmaking while attending Nunavut Sivuniksavut. Her classmates were part of a filmmaking project that involved interviewing leaders involved with creating Inuit land claims agreements. She said the project helped her to realize the endless creative opportunities filmmaking offers.

"At first, my interest wasn't really in filmmaking, but while on the project it really quickly occurred to me that OK, I'm interested in their story, obviously, and a great way to tell that story is through film," she said. "If next week I'm interested in traditional knowledge, I can make a film about that too. It's so limitless, whatever I'm interested in I can follow that and do a film or a media project on it."

MacDonald said this is the reason the workshops are so important.

"It's a really great way for someone to gain experience and get more information on the things they are really interested in," she said. "The goal is to promote healthy living and to focus on the good things in life, even if that means putting a microscope on some of the negative things."

She said filmmaking and photography allow youth to take an active role in dealing with societal problems many communities in Nunavut face.

"Obviously we need to pay attention to those problems, but we should do it in a way that's not passive or in a way that makes them feel like victims," she said. "It should be done in a way that makes people feel they're coping and like their doing something about it."

Rankin Inlet participant Eugene Kabluitok is the programs co-ordinator for the Kivalliq Inuit Association. He said the workshops are a way to help introduce young people to the digital age.

"We're all transforming to a digital world and it teaches youth leadership skills," he said.

He said he would like to make a film about his two-year-old son.

Twenty-one-year-old Randy Kataluk travelled from Coral Harbour to participate in the workshop. He said his goal is to "learn how to make the nicest video possible."

Seventeen-year-old Mavis Nakoolak, another participant from Coral Harbour, said became interested in film while making home videos of her baby. She said she would like to produce a film about her soccer team in Coral Harbour.

"I always play with cameras, getting videos of my baby, and I'd like to film when I'm playing soccer with my teammates," Nakoolak said. "I'd like to learn more about filming, editing and all those things."

Ellsworth said at the end of the week-long workshop, participants will have created their own media project using either photography or film, or both. He said the next step will be to train youth so they can then create self-sufficient media workshops in their home communities.

"We've had a couple young people so far who have gone through the program that accompany as trainers and we want to do more and more of that," he said. "To kind of start phasing ourselves out and having people who have taken the project become trainers in their communities."

Ellsworth said after the workshops are completed, equipment is left with a community organization to be used by youth for future projects.

"When we leave, we leave the community with a video camera and at least one still camera," he said.

Rankin Inlet's equipment was left with KIA.

The Inuusivut workshops are scheduled to run until March 2010.