Welcome to Igloolik
Ullaakkut. Good morning. Over a cup of coffee, I write to you from wintery Igloolik as I look out of my window as snowmobiles go by and as a red orangy sky begins to form over the ocean water of the bay. We're definitely on the top of the world, Arctic sunrise in October is at 9:22 AM.
We arrived here a couple of days ago and are settling into a very sweet yet rustic house that Isuma has provided for us. We're now in Isuma territory, given that Igloolik is Zacharias Kunuk's home and where Isuma's main office is located.
The office is minutes away and I'll be heading there today to help set up our editing station for the upcoming work on the "Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change" film/research project. It promises to be an exciting and productive couple of months.
Indeed, this whole trip we have pumped out the video and research action, and we worked right up until the last minute in Pangnirtung. On Friday night, Julie and I stayed up late finalizing the edit to her silent film "Speaking out on climate change", which I'll be uploading in the next day or so. It worked out brilliantly.
The whole trip to Pangnirtung was awesome!!! To recap: we worked in the high school with youth helping them to tell their climate change stories; we facilitated a workshop with students and elder Joannasie Karpik about climate change; we took students out "on the land" to take photos and video about climate change impacts; and we worked with committed local filmmakers Julie Alivakutuk and Roselynn Akulukjuk to develop two short Inuit-focused films about the climate change. Our field team - Qajaaq Ellsworth, Stacey Aglok MacDonald, Nathalie Pambrun and I - all believe the trip to be a huge success.
No doubt, we have to thank the community of Pangnirtung for hosting us, as well as all the staff at Auyuiituq National Park and Attagoyuk High School for their support. Collaboration leads to success.
Now that the sun is up - LET THE DAY BEGIN!!! Stay tuned as I'll be uploading more video content soon. Taima.
