Positively affected by prize
Laureates speak on importance of Arctic Inspiration Prize
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
KANGIQLINIQ/RANKIN INLET
A solid crowd came out to a reception for the Arctic Inspiration Prize this past week in Rankin Inlet.
Translator Emily Tagoona looks on as Kathleen Merritt makes a point while describing her role on the Qaggiq: Nurturing the Arctic Performing Arts team and what winning a $600,000 Arctic Inspiration Prize has meant to it this past week in Rankin Inlet. - Darrell Greer/NNSL photo
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The gathering heard keynote speakers Adriana Kusugak and Kathleen Merritt address what winning the prize meant to their organizations.
Kusugak was a member of the Ilitaqsiniq Nunavut Literacy Council team awarded a $300,000 Arctic Inspiration Prize in 2012 for its efforts in embedding literacy into high-quality, culturally-based programming for the benefit of individuals, families and communities across the North with the Miqqut Project.
Merritt was a member of The Qaggiq: Nurturing the Arctic Performing Arts team awarded $600,000 in 2015 to promote engagement in the arts in the North.
Kusugak said the Miqqut Project has been offered once in Baker Lake and twice in Rankin Inlet.
She said winning the prize validated the work being done with the program, and acted as leverage to get other funders and partners on board.
"The prize helped make a difference in the lives of the women who participated in the program, as well as the elder instructors who taught," said Kusugak.
"The Arctic Inspiration Prize allows for additions and training for our people and our communities to become a reality.
"It allows us to carry out the work we feel is most important and very much needed.
"Since the Miqqut Project received this prize, we have been able to evolve the Miqqut learning model to new traditional concepts and a wider audience of participants."
Kusugak said the literacy council is currently running the Niqitsialiurniq Project: a food preparation program in Rankin.
She then informed the crowd that program participants had catered the food for the reception they were attending.
"Niqitsialiurniq embeds literacy into traditional and contemporary food preparation.
"This coming fall, we will be running the Miqqut Program for people with disabilities, which is a problem that is often forgotten.
"This is what the Arctic Inspiration Prize provides: the opportunity to build a legacy.
"We are thankful to the Arctic Inspiration Prize for helping us to believe in ourselves."
Merritt said this past January, Qaggiq was quite happy to receive $600,000 of the $1.5 million the Arctic Inspiration Prize awarded in 2015.
She said, for herself, it's always been a dream to see a strong team of support for Nunavut performing artists.
"The Arctic Inspiration Prize is helping us realize this dream," said Merritt.
"Since we started to put the proposal together just this past year, we had a very strong team of support around all of the Arctic, but, also, in southern Canada through institutions like the National Arts Centre, The Banff Centre and the National Theatre School of Canada.
"The Qaggiq Project is led, and is being moved forward, by Northerners across the Arctic.
"If you look at the awards for knowledge to action for the benefit of Arctic communities, we know Inuit and Northern peoples have always celebrated life through art, but, without proper training and support, there's a real risk of that being lost or never fully realized."
Merritt said Qaggiq is a team of very creative people who are putting their minds together to reach the next level of exposition, clarification and research for the Arctic performing arts.
She said the efforts are happening through training.
"We're training, or teaching, artists -- and looking at how all artists grow and train to be able to teach their talent, skill, and cultural practice within the classroom through the collaboration of bringing performing artists together.
"But the scale of the dream is much deeper than that.
"Most people think of entertainment when they think of performing arts, which is always really nice, but the arts are more than entertainment.
"They're a way of healing and for people to provoke thinking, as well as a way to connect people."
Merritt said there are a lot discussions in Canada around the reconciliation between aboriginal and non-aboriginal peoples.
She said the main question surrounding that is how to have the conversation in a meaningful way.
"How do we reach out and tell our story in a way that connects with other people?
"The performing arts are an excellent way of reaching for the heart.
"When we connect heart to heart, then we can start to have a discussion in a meaningful way.
"The performing arts are also an excellent way of motivating our youth to use our Inuktitut language and cultural practices, and to learn the lessons and purposes of those practices.
"We're very thankful and grateful for the Arctic Inspirational Prize and what it's enabling us to do."
