Willie Adams, Canada’s first Inuk senator, is invested into the Order of Canada Thursday at a ceremony in Rideau Hall. Adams is pictured with Gov. Gen. Mary Simon during the investiture ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa. Adams was appointed to the Senate in 1977, representing the Northwest Territories. He became Nunavut’s first senator when it split from the Northwest Territories to become a territory of its own in 1999. Adams retired from the Senate in 2009, at the mandatory age of 75. (Photo by Anne-Marie Brisson; courtesy of the Governor General’s Office)
Iqaluit Mayor Solomon Awa, left, city clerk Brianna Longworth, Coun. Simon Nattaq, deputy Mayor Kim Smith, Coun. Sam Tilley and Coun. Amber Aglukark wear orange shirts at Tuesday’s council meeting. The shirts signify a commemoration for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, which is Sept. 30. It’s a day to honour those impacted by Canada’s residential school system. All six councillors who were present, as well as the city staff in the gallery, donned the shirts with the words “every child matters” printed on them. “By teaching our teaching about this history, its impact and significance, we empower them to become advocates for change,” Aglukark said in a statement about the significance of the day. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)
Laipa Kusugak, 11, fixes an abandoned bicycle he found near a playground in Iqaluit on Sept. 22. With his wrench, he’s trying to switch the troubled wheels for the ones on another broken bike of his. “We’ll see how it goes,” he said, adding he hopes to be able to ride this newly repaired bike as soon as possible. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Students show off a mural they painted for Jaanimmarik High School in Kuujjuaq. The mural was installed in July and took 11 days to create. From left are Giovanna Ekomiak, teacher Jamie Boyle, Lucy Saunders and Angusaaruq Gordon, who were part of the group that created the mural. They said their design was inspired by Inuit land and culture. (Photo courtesy of Jamie Boyle)
Revellers of all ages pack Baker Lake’s community hall during the eighth annual Festival by the Lake, which ran from Sept. 13 to Sept. 15. (Photo courtesy of Daniel Tapatai)
Alec Nichol, 9, gets his green thumb on with help from Nancy Fynn-Sackey during the Iqaluit Community Greenhouse Society’s regular youth program. Held each Sunday afternoon, the program allows youngsters to get their hands dirty working in the gardens in the greenhouse and take home what they harvest. Fynn-Sackey is a board member with the greenhouse society, which also hosts weekly Wednesday harvest nights starting at approximately 5:30 p.m. where people can take home the vegetables they pick. (Photo by Gord Howard)
Josephie Naglingniq works on a drawing of a bear eating a seal during a busy lunch hour Thursday at the Black Heart Café. Naglingniq has been drawing for nearly 17 years and often works at one of the tables at the cafe in order to meet potential buyers. He sells his drawings for $20 apiece. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Qalingu Napartuk, also known as Young Black Inuk, brought his cyphers and rhymes to a dancing crowd at Aqpik Jam in Kuujjuaq Wednesday. The energy was high on the second night of the four-day festival that runs until Friday. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)
Beatrice Deer invites William Tagoona, who is considered one of Nunavik’s fathers of Inuit rock, on stage for one song Tuesday during Aqpik Jam’s opening night in Kuujjuaq. The crowd expressed joy at the guest appearance by Tagoona, who had performed earlier on Tuesday’s opening night. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)
Tristan Logan Quasa Duffy Taparti always carries a sword when going out. The 29-year-old Rankin Inlet resident says he owns more swords that he “ever cared to count.” Most of his swords are just for training and are not dangerous to the people around him. On Aug. 5, he performed with his sword at the Jammin’ on the Bay Tribute Fest while singing a song to his father, who carved him his first wooden sword when he was five. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Loron Sharp and Richmond Niviatsiak show off the autographs they collected from performers on their hoodies on the closing day of the Jammin’ on the Bay Tribute Fest in Rankin Inlet on Aug. 5. Sharp, 13, had more than 18 signatures by the end of the day, while Niviatsiak, 11, had around five. “I thought it would be cool,” Sharp said of the project. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
George Satuqsi removes a narwhal’s two-metre-long tusk on a warm, sunny Tuesday near Pond Inlet after the rest of the animal was taken away to harvest. Satuqsi is the father of Henry Maktar, 15, who hunted the narwhal — his first — earlier in the day off the coast of the north Baffin hamlet. It took Henry Maktar 40 minutes to bag the narwhal with his harpoon after it was first spotted, said Maktar’s uncle, Bernard Ulaayuk Maktar. This catch will be the first of many in his lifetime, Ulaayuk Maktar predicted. (Photo courtesy of Bernard Ulaayuk Maktar)
Meadow Mae Hakongak Evans sells lemonade and homemade cookies in front of her home in Cambridge Bay on July 26. The five-year-old entrepreneur is saving up money for her family’s trip to Disneyland in California in October. All told, she earned about $200 for her efforts, all of which went to her Disney trip saving box, said her aunt, Nuka Olsen-Hakongak, who helped with the sale. Olsen-Hakongak said her niece will start kindergarten in the fall, and with all the positive feedback about her lemonade Meadow Mae might have another sale before that. (Photo courtesy of Nuka Olsen-Hakongak)
Isa Oqutaq carves an inuksuk in front of his house in Kinngait on July 20. He is one of the few carvers in Kinngait still making art during the hunting season. Oqutaq says he is planning to sell his inuksuk to the West Baffin Eskimo Co-Operative that sells Inuit art all around the world. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Kate Dalgleish poses next to her creation — a Lego “postcard” of Iqaluit, complete with the old and new Iqaluit airport, an inuksuk, St. Jude’s Anglican Cathedral and the Nunavut legislature building, against a backdrop of the northern lights. A lawyer by trade, Lego builder by night, Dalgleish and her partner Evan are part of a group of adult builders in Ottawa called ParLUGment who display their Lego designs at fairs and hobby events in Ottawa. Dalgleish was inspired by Lego’s postcards, which are 3D buildable sets sold by the company based on iconic landmarks in major cities. Realizing that Lego did not have a Canadian series, Dalgleish began creating her own postcards, starting with Ottawa, where she lives, her hometown of Calgary, and her next travel destination, Iqaluit. She plans to travel through the city this summer, en route to Pangnirtung for a hiking trip in Auyuittuq National Park. Dalgleish’s postcards will be on display at Ottawa’s Lego Store at the Rideau Centre in August. (Photo courtesy of Kate Dalgleish)
Nunavut Premier P.J. Akeeagok, left, receives King Charles III’s Coronation Medal Monday from Nunavut Commissioner Eva Qamaniq Aariak. Akeeagok is one of 30,000 Canadians to receive the medal, which is 32 millimetres in diameter and silver in colour. The medal celebrates the 2023 coronation of King Charles and honours those who “made a significant contribution to Canada or to a particular province, territory, region or community in Canada,” according to the official description by the Government of Canada. (Photo courtesy of Nunavut Premier’s office)
Yannick Perreault pours gravy on poutine in the Perreault Food Truck in front of Nakasuk Elementary School in Iqaluit last Friday. The Perreault family reopened the truck May 30 for the third consecutive season. On an average Friday, the truck sells more than 150 orders of poutine and 110 burgers, Perreault said. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Lymiki Kalluk opens the final concert of Alianait Arts Festival on Tuesday. Aasiva, Debbie and Jeremy Tunaraluk, Kamalukutak Band and Agaaqtoq also performed. Alianait celebrated its 20th year with a daily roster of live entertainment, food and cultural activities that ran from Saturday through Tuesday in Iqaluit. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Tylie Arnatsiaq practises juggling with stones in Iqaluit Square on July 6. Arnatsiaq is a member of Artcirq, a performing arts collective from Igloolik. He was practising for a masterclass he was doing later that day on circus performing, as part of Alianait Arts Festival. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Sebastien Enequist, lead singer of Sound of the Damned, flips his hair during the band’s closing set July 7 at Alianait Arts Festival in Iqaluit. The Nuuk death metal band brought a headbanging performance to the main tent to close out the day’s festivities. The festival continues Monday and Tuesday with more performances in the city. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)
Kinngait Mayor Jimmy Manning, left, and RCMP reservist Const. Dianne Stairs (beside Manning) and Const. Ying Hao Ho, right, joined junior rangers from Kinngait to celebrate Canada Day in the hamlet on July 1. The community met outside the hamlet office to sing “O Canada,” followed by a parade with the whole town. Festivities continued into the afternoon with more than 300 people attending a community barbecue and Canada Day games. (Photo courtesy of Kineta Mathewsie)
More than 300 people join in a Canada Day barbecue in Kinngait on July 1. People in the Qikiqtaaluk region hamlet of 1,500 met outside the hamlet office to sing O Canada, then they held a parade followed by festivities that continued into the afternoon. (Photo courtesy of Kineta Mathewsie)
Iqlauit firefighters take the maple leaf flag off a fire truck after the chili handout they organized for Canada Day on Monday in front of the Nakasuk Elementary School. The chili handout was one of the many events marking Canada’s 157th birthday. The City of Iqaluit organized a parade, a bike-decorating contest and free face- painting. Nunavut Premier P.J. Akeeagok, Nunvut MP Lori Idlout and Iqlauit mayor Solomon Awa spoke a the official ceremony in a tent in front of the school. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Nunavik singer-songwriter Elisapie holds up the Canada Post stamp that commemorates her. The stamp was unveiled in a ceremony in Montreal on Thursday as part of a series to celebrate Indigenous leaders. Elisapie’s 2023 album, Inuktitut, won a Juno Award in the Contemporary Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year category. (Photo by Pinpoint National Photography)
