Nunatsiaq News earns national recognition for Nunavut Quest coverage

While prizes were being handed out for this year’s Nunavut Quest on Friday in Igloolik, Nunatsiaq News was being recognized in Montreal for its coverage of last year’s race during the National Newspaper Awards.

A special section, published last June in Inuktitut and English, was a finalist in the newspaper awards’ category Special Topic: Journalism in a Language other than French or English.

“The Nunavut Quest is an important part of keeping the Inuit dogsledding tradition alive so I’m glad we were able to cover it this way,” managing editor Corey Larocque said after the awards ceremony.

An entry from Sing Tao, a Toronto-based Chinese-language newspaper, won the category for a month-long series it published about mooncakes — a traditional pastry — that were labelled and sold as products of Hong Kong but were actually produced in mainland China.

It was the second year the National Newspaper Awards included a category for journalism in languages other than English or French. It was the second year Nunatsiaq News has been a finalist, and the second time a Sing Tao entry won the category.

Nunatsiaq News’ entry was a 20-page special section that compiled all of the stories and pictures produced by a group of young correspondents from Igloolik who travelled with Nunavut Quest in April 2024. Last year’s race covered a 370-kilometre route from Arctic Bay to Pond Inlet.

The correspondents who contributed to the project were Cadence Arnatsiaq, Kenneth-Owen Angilirq, Leonard Siusangnark, Bernice Satuqsi, Dylan Kayotak and Riley Qamukaq.

“Judges enjoyed the collaboration and applauded the documenting of an important Inuit tradition,” the awards ceremony’s program said.

The project started with Shanshan Tian, an educational consultant in Igloolik, who pitched the idea to Larocque.

The correspondents filed daily updates at the end of each day’s racing along with pictures taken at race checkpoints and the camps where mushers, their support teams and the race organizers rested at the end of each day.

The content was compiled by editor Gord Howard for publication in print.

Translators Ruth Kadlutsiak, Therese Okkumaluk and Maaki Kakkik were responsible for providing Inuktitut versions of the stories.

Designers Krista Klassen and Andrea Gray packaged the work into an attractive 20-page section that was included with Nunatsiaq News’ regular print edition on July 5, just ahead of the Nunavut Day holiday on July 9.