IKALUKTUTIAK/CAMBRIDGE BAY - When asked what human rights topic was most important to her, there was one event in global history that stuck out in Beverly Uvilluk's mind – the Rwandan genocide in Africa in 1994 where hundreds of thousands of people were killed.

Cambridge Bay's Beverly Uvilluk was the winner from Nunavut of a national human rights art competition. She went to Winnipeg and as part of her prize got to meet the Queen at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in early July. - photo courtesy of Beverly Uvilluk

Channelling what she had learned in school about the genocide, Uvilluk expressed herself through art and ended up winning the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and TakingItGlobal – EVOKE – Uncover your Human Rights Perspective art competition.

"I was really excited to hear that I won and I've always wanted to do something involving human rights," said Uvilluk, 22.

She was one of 12 winners from the across the country who got to go to Winnipeg at the beginning of July to see their work on display and attend a ceremony for the museum, which is under construction and opens in 2012.

Uvilluk said she first heard about the contest in May from family and friends. It was after talking to her old social studies teacher that she decided to enter.

After learning about the genocide in school, Uvilluk said she spent a lot of her own time reading, watching shows on television and taking in as much information as possible on the topic.

Using oil pastels on paper, Uvilluk drew a Rwandan flag, a sun, a sky and a mother and child being watched by soldiers with machetes. She said she chose to make the poster very colourful as muted colours would have symbolized what they would have seen.

"Human rights could still be doubted in any day and age," Uvilluk said, adding she included the same comment in a description accompanying her picture.

During her time in Winnipeg, Uvilluk said she and the other winners took tours of historical monuments and museums. At a ceremony at the museum site, Uvilluk said it was neat that she got to meet the Queen. She said they also took a graffiti tour where they went to an older building dedicated to graffiti art. There one of the artists taught Uvilluk a lesson: "paint with your feelings."

She said her interest in art really peaked in Grade 10 when her art teacher taught her more about the use of colours and how she should feel when she paints.

"It seems I'm getting into art more and more," she said.

Now back in Cambridge Bay, Uvilluk is doing some volunteer work and waiting to see if she got into the University of Ottawa theory and history of art program.

She said in the future, she hopes to pursue a career in art such as art therapy.

For now, she said she will see where the next stroke of her pastel or paintbrush will take her.