NUNAVUT - With talk of Arctic sovereignty at the forefront of many recent discussions in Nunavut, a youth group in the territory has decided to launch a sovereignty campaign of its own.

Bookmarks depicting the past, present and future of Nunavut are being used by Nunavut Youth Consulting for its sovereignty campaign. - photo courtesy of Ron Elliott

Arctic Bay's Nathaniel Chouinard has been a member of Nunavut Youth Consulting, a non-profit literacy promotion group, for the past eight years. Last year, the group decided to come up with its own sovereignty campaign using posters, bookmarks and postcards to promote what Chouinard believes is the most important aspect of the Arctic sovereignty discussion: the people.

"Everyone talks about military that and military this," he said. "We're trying to give more awareness that it should include people."

The images on the posters and other material represent Nunavut's past, present and future and serves to humanize the Arctic sovereignty issue, Chouinard said.

"I thought it was cool that there was an elder representing the past, a kid representing the future and a hunter representing the present," he said.

Ron Elliott, a director of NYC, said the group decided the images and theme that would best describe their message.

"Youth came up with the idea," said Elliott. "The idea was 'Arctic Sovereignty Includes Me'."

Elliott said originally the group was only going to do one poster, but the idea expanded to include the themes of past, present and future.

"We went with a poster then expanded to bookmarks with the three themes then we went with postcards," he said.

"We talked about branding and our sovereignty logo is the Inuk with the kakivak."

Chouinard said the emphasis on strengthening Canada's military might in the Arctic has pulled focus away from the social problems many Nunavummiut living in the territory face.

"Let's improve the living [conditions] in the Arctic," Chouinard said. "Get more housing, get a better education."

Elliott agreed.

"The idea was to try to tell people the other side of sovereignty," he said. "What we wanted to say with the posters is we're here and whatever happens with sovereignty and whatever people think sovereignty is, is going to affect us."

Funding for the campaign was provided by the Department of Economic Development and Transportation, Elliott said.

The group had planned on handing out their material during the unveiling of the Arctic exiles monuments in Grise Fiord and Resolute this month, but will now have to wait. However, the group did manage to display their campaign to Defence Minister Peter MacKay during his recent visit to Resolute earlier this month.