Kitikmeot Inuit Association steps back online with new website
English language site debuts in time for academic year, nearly 2 years after previous site hacked
Kugaaruk residents fish during a cultural program held in that community in August. Kitikmeot Inuit won’t have to go fishing online to find KIA information, thanks to a comprehensive new website launched this month. (Photo courtesy of KIA)
The Kitikmeot Inuit Association’s website is back online after a hiatus that lasted just under two years.
The site, kitia.ca, allows Kitikmeot Inuit to access and apply for programs offered by the regional Inuit association. People can also browse news of KIA events, community visits and other information.
The KIA is a designated Inuit organization under the Nunavut Agreement. Its mandate is to manage Inuit-owned lands in the region, support traditional and cultural values, and provide economic and social benefits to Kitikmeot Inuit.
The new site debuted in English this month and will be available in Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun soon, said Fred Pedersen, the organization’s executive director.
The Kitikmeot Inuit Association’s website was hacked in fall 2022. Visitors at the time were redirected to a different site that asked for credit card information as part of a fundraiser with a dubious source.
The organization seemed to be facing numerous struggles that year. A former executive director left under unclear circumstances in June 2022 and former president Stanley Anablak retired in October, just months before the end of his term.
Pedersen explained why it took nearly two years to get kitia.ca back up and running.
“When we had a security issue with our old website, it took a while to get things sorted out,” he said.
“Instead of just rebuilding the old website, we made the call to build a new, vastly improved website.”
The organization launched a more basic version of its website in the interim, but it provided little more than a home page with contact information.
The KIA unveiled its new site this month because its leaders wanted returning students to have easy access to its information for the start of the academic year, Pedersen said.
One of the new programs highlighted on the site this week provides educational resources for Kitikmeot Inuit children residing outside the Kitikmeot Region.
Registered Kitikmeot families living outside the region with Inuit children heading into their first school year are eligible to apply online to receive items such as northern-themed books and culturally based puzzles and games. Applicants must have a child born between Jan. 1, 2019 and Dec., 31, 2019.
People can also apply for academic, training, harvesting and hunting support on the site or get assistance for requesting a legal pardon through the Parole Board of Canada.
Kitikmeot Inuit Association also now maintains one Facebook page, after a number of previous KIA pages on the platform went silent throughout the last quarter of 2022.
Aren’t children born in 2020 heading into their first year of school? Is KitIA wrong? Am I wrong? I though kids start Junior Kindergarten in the year they turn 4?
2 Years!! What does their IT staff do? Maybe get a trained IT, not one who did a 1 day course online to get the job, Wish I had a job and got paid for just showing up to work and installing a mouse.
Why should the IT department have any more training than most of the rest of the staff?
You’d think they’d have their website available in inuktitut. Can NTI sue them about this like they like to always sue the GN?
As private organizations, NTI and the three RIAs are not subject to the same requirements as government when it comes to the Nunavut Agreement, which is the basis for NTI’s ever-present lawsuits.
Which is why NTI is very quiet about all the empty positions in its organization because it doesn’t have sufficient qualified Inuit to fill them while complaining the government isn’t filling all its positions with Inuit.
I am more tan little sceptical that this website will be kept updated with meaningful information. KITIA has a long history of operating behind a veil of secrecy. Their IIIBA’s are not shared with public, Kitikmeot Corp’s financials statements are kept internal, bankruptcies, hiring, firings, board resignations, new construction of assets all are kept silent. Even their office in Kugluktuk is a mystery, no sign on the building to identify it, and no one knows what they do in there, other than it is a small club who hire from within their little group and force out anyone who doesn’t belong.
Kiss it all good bye…the IIIBA’s
The k i a under the land claims agreement have to pay out its beneficiaries the inuit impact benefit agreement from all the mining. Look at lupin mine ,over 45 yrs pulling over 4 million ounces if gold from our lands and not a penny to its beneficiaries. Only kia keeps the peoples money and then they hand out gift cards ! Not since the covid pandemic has they help since. Seems nobody is allowed to even go into their buildings without an appointment either and when people enter they are ushered out !