Inuit youth body gets new president

Jennifer Watkins of Kuujjuaq is the new president of the National Inuit Youth Council. (FILE PHOTO)

The National Inuit Youth Council has a new president: Jennifer Watkins of Kuujjuaq.

“Jennifer brings exceptional experience to this role,” said Mary Simon, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, in an Aug. 16 news release from ITK. “She is a proven leader in her region and I know that her talent for building unity will serve her well in this national role.”

Watkins, 27, who speaks Inuttitut, English and French, is a past president of Nunavik’s Saputiit Youth Association. She will serve a two-year term as president of NIYC and as a member of the board of directors of ITK.

“I enjoy speaking with young people and hope to share my knowledge and skills,” Watkins said in the ITK news release. “I also prefer to speak Inuktitut and want to help preserve our language and reinforce it.”

This week as the National Inuit Youth Summit got underway in Inuvik, outgoing NIYC president Jesse Mike of Nunavut handed off her duties to Watkins.

The gathering, which wraps up Aug. 19, is intended to develop leadership skills and set out the priorities of NIYC, an organization for Inuit youth 13 to 30 from Nunavut, Nunatisavut, Nunavik and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region of the Northwest Territories.

About 80 participants plan to take in workshops on topics including printmaking and Inuit history, post-secondary education and aboriginal health human resources.

The NIYC’s new magazine, called Nipiit, which means “Our Voice” or “Voice,” was also launched in Inuvik, with its cover story, “The Darling of Mittimatalik,” an interview with Nunavut actress Abbie Ootova, star of the play “Night,” which saw performances in Ottawa, Whitehorse, Yellowknife and Ootova’s hometown of Pond Inlet last year.

A second issue of Nipiit is planned for next spring, ITK says.