Photo: Cape Dorset high school gets gift from Australia

South Baffin MLA David Joanasie, centre, presents a new digital video camera to Susan Rowsell and Joseph Pinguartuk, students at Peter Pitseolak High School in Cape Dorset. The camera was one of many gifts sent to Nunavut by philanthropist Bob Carveth. Although he’s never set foot in Canada, let alone Nunavut, Carveth, a 72-year-old retired labourer and former English teacher in Australia, developed an interest in Inuktitut culture and language preservation after learning about how Melanesians, who live on Australia’s Norfolk Island, are trying to preserve their indigenous language. He has been sending video recording equipment, still cameras, and other tools to Nunavut communties for two years now, in the hopes that students will use them to record their language and culture. (PHOTO COURTESY DAVID JOANASIE)