Nunatsiaq News nominated for National Newspaper Award

Nunatsiaq News has earned its first National Newspaper Award nomination.

The newspaper has been recognized in a category honouring journalism in a language other than French or English, for former reporter David Venn’s Our Home series, which is available in both English and Inuktitut through the work of translator Maaki Kakkik.

The National Newspaper Awards announced this year’s finalists on March 18.

The four-part series, published in March 2023, explores the benefits and challenges of the former Homeownership Assistance Program, or HAP, administrated by the Northwest Territories between 1983 and 1992, before the creation of Nunavut.

• Part 1: When northern hands build northern homes
• Part 2: The high cost, low return of public housing
• Part 3: Building people, building homes
• Part 4: HAP’s end, and prospects for a new legacy

People across N.W.T. could access the materials to build their own houses through the program. Some who built their homes still live in them today.

Since the series was published, the Nunavut government has announced a facsimile program, dubbed HAP 2.0, which offers forgivable loans toward the purchase of a materials package.

The other finalists in the category of journalism in a language other than French or English are:

• Singtao, for a four-part series called Embracing Canada that examines the challenges faced by immigrants from Hong Kong;
• Joe Volpe, Francesco Veronesi, Mariella Policheni, Corriere Canadese, for a portfolio of work that includes the “harrowing story” of a Toronto couple’s experience in the hospital system after the birth of their baby.

The National Newspaper Awards bills itself as a way to encourage “excellence in daily journalism and to celebrate the vital role that strong journalism plays in society.”

Winners are to be announced Friday evening during the National Newspaper Awards gala in Toronto.