Kunuk made officer of Order of Canada

Zacharias Kunuk, the filmmaking genius from Igloolik who directed Atanarjuat, has been made an officer of the Order of Canada, only one step below the rank of companion of the Order, the country’s highest civil honour.

Kunuk, whose Inuktitut-language feature-length film wildly exceeded all expectations after its release in 2001, will receive his insignia from Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson later this year.

Three other Nunavut residents were made members of the Order, one rank below that of officer. They are: Elisapee Ootoova of Pond Inlet, Helen Maksagak of Cambridge Bay, and Tagak Curley of Rankin Inlet.

Ootoova, honoured by the Governor General last year for outstanding work on behalf of women’s equality, is the creator of an Inuktitut dictionary and co-author of an encyclopedia of traditional Inuit knowledge.

Maksagak was the first Inuk commissioner of the NWT and the first commissioner of Nunavut, while Curley was the founding president of the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada and founder of the Inuit Development Corporation, which later became Nunasi Corporation.