Rankin Inlet woman to represent Nunavut on world stage

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

Ashley Paniyuk-Dean, Nunavut’s first official beauty queen, used to have a huge problem catching and keeping the spotlight — she was painfully shy.

Paniyuk-Dean, recently crowned “Miss Nunavut” by a southern entertainment firm, remembers crumbling under the pressure of reading an announcement over the intercom at her high school in Rankin Inlet. She stuttered so much that the principal had to make the announcement over again so students could understand.

But now, as the 21-year-old Arctic college student heads to a national beauty pageant in Toronto next week, she can proudly say she’s stepped out of her shell, and become an ambassador for the territory.

During a break in college orientation in Iqaluit, Paniyuk-Dean, a tall, short-haired woman with funky rectangular glasses, was modest about her chances about winning, but billed the trip as an opportunity to improve southern Canada’s knowledge of its newest territory.

“I’m happy [the event organizers] are trying to get someone from every region of Canada,” she said. “People always think the centre of Canada is Saskatchewan. But really the geographical centre of Canada, it’s Baker Lake.

“You’ve got to think about the North.”

On Monday, Paniyuk-Dean will start handing out Nunavut flags and pins to other women from around the country as they meet and compete in this year’s Miss World Canada contest.

The winner in Toronto will head to China to represent the country in an internationally televised event in December. Organizers boast that the annual competition, renowned for its toothy smiles, flashy evening gowns, and skimpy swimsuits, is the most widely seen event in the world, next to the Olympics and World Cup soccer.

Even if she doesn’t win in Toronto, Paniyuk-Dean will make her mark as the first Inuk to walk the runway in Canada’s competition.

“Just for them to acknowledge that, that we’re a different people, makes a big difference,” Paniyuk-Dean said. “Because we’re not like the rest of Canadians.

“Our lifestyle is different, our people, and our beliefs are different.”

During the event’s cocktail parties, Paniyuk-Dean will stick out from the other contestants by donning a tuilik, a traditional women’s jacket, instead of a formal dress.

She’ll also add a touch of Nunavut to the competition when she visits Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children with other contestants.

Most competitors will hand generic stuffed animals to the young patients. Paniyuk-Dean will take advantage of her old high school connections in Rankin Inlet, and give away a small, stuffed polar bear signed by Nunavut’s hockey star, Jordin Tootoo.

Paniyuk-Dean said the competition doesn’t fit the stereotypes of beauty pageants, where emaciated white women are all beauty and no brain.

“It’s more than beauty they’re looking for,” she said. “They’re not looking for a stuck-up pretty face.”

Paniyuk-Dean’s already proven herself more than skin deep.

She’s gone to numerous youth conventions around Canada as a representative of Nunavut, including an anti-racism conference in Germany. After studying in the Nunavut Sivuniksavut program in Ottawa, she’s started up her own business as a hairdresser in Rankin Inlet.

She said government and Inuit organization support, such as the Kivalliq Inuit Association buying her plane ticket to Toronto, has helped her make it this far in the beauty business, but suggested that Nunavut’s future beauty queens should come equipped with self-initiative.

“Since we became a new territory, there’s a lot of new interest in the North,” she said. “There are a lot of opportunities. Inuit need to take advantage of them, especially youth.”

Contest judges will pick this year’s Miss World Canada from 28 contestants on Sept. 9, though the event won’t be broadcast until December.