Iqaluit group gains ground in hopes of opening local Inuktitut radio station

Less than two weeks into 2024, the new year is looking good for the Iqaluit Tassiujaqjuaq Tusaut radio society and its goal of eventually starting an Inuktitut radio station in Iqaluit.

But there’s much work ahead, says its president Noah Papatsie.

He said Iqaluit is the only community in Nunavut that does not have its own local Inuktitut radio station. Getting one, he said, is important “for a better future and keeping Inuktitut alive and strong.”

Last June, Iqaluit city council voted to throw the municipality’s support behind the venture.

Papatsie said Pairijiit Tigummiaqtikkut Iqaluit elders society has left space for a radio station in its design for when the new Iqaluit elders complex is built.

“This is great news. It is good that they have asked if we are interested in the space,” he said. “We will write a proposal and see what will happen in the coming months.”

As well, the radio society received a $29,000 grant from the Telus Friendly Future Foundation, a registered charity dedicated to funding health and education-focused charitable programs for youth in communities. From about a thousand applications, only seven were selected and Iqaluit Tassiujaqjuaq Tusaut was among them.

“The grant for the equipment has been approved for $29,000 like any radio society such as an antenna, audio booth, console, microphones stuff like that. The is great we will have that for the society noted Papatsie.

“The future looks bright for the Tassiujaqjuaq Tusaut,” he said.

“Right now, we are setting up a website and people will be able to donate. The more we work together, it will be more successful for all”.

The next big hurdle for the society is to get a radio licence from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the agency that regulates broadcasting and telecommunications in Canada.

Papatsie said “our goal was to get the radio society going. But even larger, our bigger goal was to have our own building.

“The community needs a community centre and if we work together on this, that way people can go to the station and make announcements of any kind.”