Music and culture for 40th anniversary
Kitikmeot Inuit Association continues celebration on Nunavut Day
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Saturday, July 2, 2016
IKALUKTUTIAK/CAMBRIDGE BAY
Year-long 40th anniversary celebrations for the Kitikmeot Inuit Association continue in Cambridge Bay on Nunavut Day weekend with a two-day music extravaganza.
Alice Ayalik drumdances at the Kitikmeot Inuit Association's 40th anniversary celebrations in Kugluktuk May 5. KIA will host similar celebrations in each of the region's communities, with Cambridge Bay up next July 9 and 10. - David Ho/DnV photography
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"What a better way to celebrate a birthday than organizing a celebration of music and culture," asked Jason Taloganak, who was tasked with organizing events and fundraising over the past two months.
"KIA was incorporated as a non-profit organization on November 15, 1976 with its first board of directors, representing the interests of the Inuit in the Kitikmeot region. To celebrate this milestone birthday the KIA board directed my department, the social and cultural development department, to coordinate 40th anniversary celebrations."
Celebrations began in Kugluktuk May 5 and will continue throughout the region, culminating in Taloyoak in January 2017.
Taloganak applied for funding and developed a sponsorship drive - which overall raised $285,000 in private-sector donations and $75,000 of in-kind donations.
"We received generous support to host the music festival," he said.
More than 50 performers from across the Kitikmeot will grace the purpose-built stage at the ball field during the weekend, kicking off July 9, Nunavut Day.
These will include performances by Colin and Gustin Adjun, the Gjoa Band, Kugaaruk Gospel Band, the Anguti Brothers, the Taluqruak Band, the Kiilinik Band, Joseph Quqqiaq and Fred Bob Novoligak, and a variety of fiddlers, drum dancers and throatsingers. Celebrated Nunavut band The Jerry Cans will travel from Iqaluit to play on both days.
People from across the region and dignitaries from across Nunavut will fly into the community to take part in celebrations. But for those who can't travel to Cambridge Bay, no worries - events will be broadcast widely, with several ways to watch and listen.
KIA is using this historic moment to launch a couple of projects a few years in the making, one of which is the Isuma channel 51 cable TV network, in collaboration with Isuma Productions.
"This provides a local TV channel in Taloyoak and Cambridge Bay. We will be expanding that project into all five communities in the Kitikmeot region. All that will be in place by July 9," said Taloganak.
"We are filming the entire two-day music festival in high definition video and we'll be streaming it through a delayed broadcast to channel 51 in all Kitikmeot communities."
Artless Collective out of Yellowknife will handle the filming, and will be training local videographers during the week prior to the event. Multiple cameras will capture the festivities.
Also launching is the first ever broadcast of a pilot project: the Kitikmeot Regional Radio Network - 101.1 FM on the dial. For now that will be available in Cambridge Bay and Kugluktuk.
And for those who happen to be elsewhere in the world, the event will be live streamed on the Internet - the link will be available sometime this week.
"Anybody anywhere in the world can click on this link and listen to the live stream," said Taloganak.
"A lot of people are excited."
