Regional projects get go-ahead

At last week’s Kativik Regional Government council meeting in Kuujjuaq, councilors gave their approval to three regional projects, which will receive money from the regional development fund.

Nunavik Faces, a book project by photographer Heiko Wittenborn, will receive $25,582. This book, which has already received promises of financial assistance from Makivik Corporation, Nunavik Tourism and the Kativik School Board, will be a trilingual volume, highlighting the people who live in Nunavik.

“Nunavik Elders Telling their Stories” will receive $50,000. The goal of this project, sponsored by Taqramiut Nipingat Inc., is to interview elders and package their interviews in a digitized format.

Funding for these two projects depends on whether they are able to raise all the money they need — more than $100,000 for Faces and $500,000 for TNI’s recording project.

The Nunavik Elders Committee also received $41,170. The seven-member committee on elders’ concerns came after a report was presented at last June’s KRG council meeting in Kuujjuaq, which showed Nunavik’s 419 elders are in need of urgent assistance.

Through the KRG and Makivik Corporation, each community is also receiving all-terrain vehicles, as well as wireless telephones for each community’s elder van.