4 Nunavut groups honoured at Arctic Inspiration Prize ceremony

Four Nunavut groups were awarded a combined $723,000 in prize money Tuesday night at the Arctic Inspiration Prize awards ceremony in Whitehorse.

Nunavut-based Learning, Harvesting, Earning was awarded $425,000.

Its work involves improving people’s secure access to food by teaching boys and young men traditional skills involved in fishing for Arctic char in winter and summer conditions, according to a news release issued by contest organizers.

The goal is to help the participants get employment opportunities while learning sustainable fishing skills.

Three other groups working in Nunavut were recognized in the youth category.

Investing in the Futures of Inuit Women received $98,000 for its work in helping Inuit mothers and women learn skills to improve their earning potential while gaining confidence in themselves.

L.O.V.E. Inuktut was awarded $100,000. The organization’s efforts involve safeguarding and revitalizing 11 dialects of Inuktut through beginner-level immersion-style videos.

It’s also working on producing an app that’s able to integrate language-instruction videos into daily life for the user, with links to Inuktut resources.

Also winning $100,000 was the Youth Coalition 4 Food Security North, whose goal is to get youth engaged in food production across the North and help them share their experiences and knowledge.

The Arctic Inspiration Prize is a charitable trust that provides seed money to help community-based northern groups grow. It bills itself as the largest annual prize in Canada.

The biggest prize, for $1 million, was awarded to Inotsiavik Centre, based in Labrador. It works to revitalize Inuttitut language and culture through education and programs.