Black History Month comes to Iqaluit
From board games to a film festival, here are the festivities happening in Nunavut’s capital
Despite the pandemic, Black History Month festivities will continue on while adhering to public health protocols. (File photo)
February is Black History Month and despite the pandemic, the festivities to honour the legacy and contributions of Black Canadians will go on in Nunavut’s capital.
While some parts of the celebrations will look familiar, including guest speakers and film screenings, the events will all follow COVID-19 public health guidelines, meaning guests will attend via video-conference, masks will be required and physical distancing will be kept.
Here is a full list of the upcoming events:
- Sunday, Feb. 7: The African and Caribbean Association of Nunavut will be hosting an afternoon of board games, including Mancala, Ludo, Dominos and the Inuit-designed Nunami. Due to limited space, festivities will be taking place at both the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum and Ecole des Trois-Soleils between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Refreshments will be served and masks are mandatory.
- Sunday, Feb. 7: The Nunavut Black History Society will be kicking off its month-long film festival with an opening ceremony that will include guest speakers over Zoom, such as the federal minister of diversity and inclusion and youth, Bardish Chagger, as well as Jean Augustine, Canada’s first Black female federal minister, who will be receiving this year’s Sankofa lifetime achievement award.
- Friday, Feb. 12: Screening of Judas and the Black Messiah
- Thursday, Feb 18: Screening of Hero
- Thursday, Feb 25: Screening of Honour Before Glory
- Thursday, Mar. 4: Screening of Queen Nanny: Legendary Maroon Chieftainess
- Thursday, Mar. 11: Discussion on “Colonialism — Haiti, the Blueprint to Black Power,” followed by a screening of a film relevant to the talk.
All Black History Month Film Festival screenings will be held at the Astro Theatre and will begin at 6 p.m.
Hi. Good work. Thank you, Jalen Jung.
Hope to see black history appreciation in Nunavik also soon. The black peoples living here are doing so much for the community. They work as professionals looking after abused and displaced children. They volunteer so much of their time. They set such good examples to direct people who had fallen off the health y social structures of life.
Whoever keeps these events going and highlighting the black community should be commended. I am disheartened every year when overt racism towards black people on this website and on social media shows just how pervasive it is here and particularly amount Inuit. You guys really have a lot of spirit to keep this up in the face of intolerable behavior up here, and I can just imagine how bad things are outside of social media.
Where is the racism against black people on this news site? Honestly.
I know the idea that racism is pervading our society has really caught on in the last year, to the point that people seem to be ‘seeing’ it everywhere. I’d really like to hear more about what you say is racism in the Nunatsiaq News though? It really doesn’t sound plausible to me at all.
As much as there’s lots of racism towards Inuit, there’s more coming from Inuit towards non Inuit. That’s not difficult to see. Black peoples are tolerating too much racism in the north, and so are other non Inuit people. Blacks in Nunavik are not seen in a good way, because many of them have the most difficult job, working with abused kids. Many worked at dyp, and we all know how dyp is seen today, in light of kids being taken away from abusive homes. It’s easy to scapegoat the people that are holding the society when it’s breaking up. Yes to black history.
I agree with you for the most part, I have seen a lot of ugliness toward black people in Nunavut too, more so in the smaller communities than the larger centers, but still in both. My question was about racism in this publication though.
‘this website’ meaning the comments. See also Facebook comments on Nunatsiaq articles. Look no further back than BLM protests to see it in black and white. I am not suggesting reporters engage in it directly.
New articles? No, but the comments section? Whoo boy, the racism and prejudice just oozes.
To be fair, it often stays up for very short times before the moderators take it down.