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February 6, 2004

Sila at the Canadian Museum of Nature

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Nunavut Sivuniksavut students performed at the opening of the Sila exhibition at the Canadian Museum of Nature last week. (PHOTO COURTESY OF NUNAVUT SIVUNIKSAVUT)

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The Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa opened a new traveling exhibition on climate change last week, called "Sila: Clue in to climate change."

The exhibit combines western science and traditional knowledge, focusing on the Arctic, and features Inuktitut information on each display.

The trilingual exhibit (English, French and Inuktitut) contains real-life examples of climate change in different parts of the world, and shows how some areas are trying to reduce their use of fossil fuels, using solar walls, for example, to heat some schools in northern Canada and relying on solar energy for cooking in India instead of burning wood or kerosene.

The exhibit is compact (16 feet by 16 feet) and geared to 10- to 15-year-olds.

It will be on display until March 28 at the CMC. Then, copies will be presented simultaneously on April 22, Earth Day, in several major Canadian cities at the co-launch of the National Film Board's documentary series, "Arctic Mission."

"Sila," or weather in Inuktitut, was produced in collaboration with the Centre for Traditional Knowledge and with support from the federal Canada Climate Change Action Fund and the Canadian International Development Agency.

February 6, 2004

Kunuk gets Native American film honours

Zacharias Kunuk's documentary film Atanarjuat was screened in Boston this week, where Kunak received the first-ever Sun Hill award for excellence in Native American filmmaking from the Harvard Film Institute.

Also shown at the awards were Kunuk's most recent documentary, "Shaman's Stories," as well as an animated film by his sister, Mary Kunuk, and the opening episode from the television series, "Nunavut."

Kunuk and cinematographer Norman Cohn also discussed their work and that of other Isuma-Igloolik filmmakers.

February 6, 2004

Body of missing Baker Lake woman found

A small search party finally located the body of Joan Arngnanaaq of Baker Lake on Jan. 29 near a cabin 25 kilometres east of the community.

Arngnanaaq, 39, had been missing since Dec. 2, when she left the community to go hunting alone.

A land and air search, which was frequently hampered by cold weather and poor visibility, continued for 15 days without success.

On Jan. 28, Baker Lake Search and Rescue team members and the RCMP met after a local resident reported finding clothing identified as Arngnanaaq's at the cabin. The next day, her body was found.

February 6, 2004

Ottawa abandons NIHB consent forms

Pierre Pettigrew, Prime Minister Paul Martin's new health minister, has cancelled a much-criticized scheme that required Inuit to surrender their privacy rights to receive health care benefits under the NIHB.

Jose Kusugak, the president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, praised the move in a press release this week.

"No other Canadians have to provide consent of this nature, in turn providing personal information to a number of health professionals and government agencies. It was an invasive solution, and we are pleased that the requirement to sign a consent form will not come into force," Kusugak said.

Called the "NIHB Program Consent Form," the document would have given Health Canada bureaucrats - and numerous Health Canada agents and contractors - permission to look at sensitive personal information contained in medical files.

All Inuit and status First Nations people ran the risk of being denied NIHB benefits if they refused to sign the forms by March 1, 2004.

The intent of the scheme was to track prescription drug abuse among aboriginal people, following a prescription drug scandal in western Canada, when it was revealed that some aboriginal NIHB recipients were using NIHB money to supply their addictions.

But privacy advocates, aboriginal leaders, and northern politicians all denounced the scheme, saying it violated the privacy rights of aboriginal people.

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