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INUVIK
Last Sunday, Inuvik hosted anniversary celebrations for the Gwich'in Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement, two decades to the day after the original document was signed.

Denita Frost-Arey works on a female mannequin during last week's territorial Skills Canada competition in Yellowknife. Frost-Arey brought home a gold medal from the event and will represent the NWT in the national competition in Edmonton in May. - photo courtesy of Dave Brosha Photography

Eight Inuvik competitors participated in the territorials, with most entering the cooking or baking category, one in hairstyling, one in workplace safety and one who travelled to demonstrate cultural sewing.

Inuvik's Denita Frost-Arey won gold in the territorial hairstyling competition, winning the right to represent her territory in the nationals, in Edmonton from May 13 to 15.

"It's remarkable for her to have come in first because she was competing against girls who were trained by licensed hairdressers who work in salons in Yellowknife," said Danny Jellema, instructor at Samuel Hearne Secondary School who will be accompanying Frost-Arey to Edmonton. "She had no coach and practised on her own, under her own motivation and was extremely successful."

Inuvik's Luke Terry earned silver in the workplace safety competition, but since only first-place finishers move on to the nationals, he won't be attending.

At the nationals, the winner of each category moves on to the world competition, scheduled to be held in Germany in 2013.

Frost-Arey had previously travelled to the nationals two years ago. Last year, she came in second place in the territorial event.

"It's an intense marathon session," said Jellema, who also served as the tech chair for baking at this year's territorial championship.

For example, during the six-hour baking competition, youth made a lemon meringue pie from scratch, glazed cream puffs filled with pastry cream, one loaf of bread and six buns. They also took a prepared cake, made it into three layers and iced and decorated it, said Jellema.

Frost-Arey can expect an even more intense time at the nationals, where the competition consists of two six-hour days.

Inuvik also made an impact at the territorial event with the Beaufort Delta cultural sewing team.

"(Cultural sewing) is kind of something we created four years ago, when I was first involved with organizing the regional competition in the Beaufort Delta," said Dave Halpine, an Inuvik high school instructor who served as the technical chair for cultural sewing for the championship. "Since then, we've tried to encourage it to catch on territorially."

Halpine has been involved with Skills Canada for the past four years. This was his first time he had travelled to the territorials in Yellowknife.

During the regional competition in Inuvik, cultural sewing enjoyed one of the largest groups of competitors with about a dozen students from six or seven communities participating in that event, said Halpine. However, so far it is not a sanctioned territorial event, so when Halpine and his team from the Beaufort Delta travelled to Inuvik last week, it was to demonstrate the skill and not to compete.

Cultural sewing is hand sewing, working natural materials like fur and hides and sinew, said Halpine.

"It's something that seems to be growing in interest and people are really eager to try it out," he said.

One of the main benefits for students travelling south to compete in the territorials, and then possibly the nationals, is the exposure they get and contacts they make, said Jellema. As an example, the judge for the cooking competition teaches the culinary arts course at NAIT. He is very interested in the cooking practices of the high North and has kept in touch with students from Inuvik and encouraged them to apply to his program.

"He has often intervened on behalf of kids from here in their applications and assisted in that process," said Jellema.

The competition also takes a lot of courage by placing students in a position to be judged on their skills, according to Jan Fullerton, executive director of Skills Canada NWT.

"It certainly builds confidence," said Fullerton. "It also helps students believe that this is something they can pursue as a career rather than something they may be just trying."

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