Bantam gold
Rankin Inlet/Winnipeg
Kadin Eetuk’s goal with less than a minute to play propelled the Rankin Rock to a 1-0 win over the Selkirk Fisherman and the Bantam A1 Division championship at the Winnipeg Jets Challenge Cup tournament in Winnipeg on Dec. 30.
Rankin’s A1 Division featured Selkirk and eight teams from Winnipeg.
The Rock were in the middle bracket of the tournament, which also featured action in bantam AAA, AA, A2 and A3 divisions.
Students record songs
Rankin Inlet
Grade 7 and 8 students took part in the Four Directions Project led by Darkspark – a not-for-profit arts organization that uses songwriting and recording to engage youth and promote cross-cultural understanding – at Maani Ulujuk Ilinniarvik (MUI) in Rankin Inlet in December.
The program helps participating youth discover how colonial prejudices and stereo prejudices were created, are maintained and may be broken.
Hamlet takes control
Arviat
Arviat’s hamlet council announced the creation of the Nalauttaq Fund to replace the Bingo lottery system that was in place.
Mayor Bob Leonard said the fund was created so that hamlet council can support grant funding to support various community-based volunteer groups.
He said hamlet council will, through an application process, award grant funding four times per year to successful applicants.
Holiday spirit
Naujaat
Naujaat’s annual holiday activities were all about Christmas spirit, a sense of community, quality time with the family, a few good laughs with friends and neighbours, and taking the time to really celebrate life, said then SAO Rob Hedley.
He said those who happened to win a few times during the eight days of games and activities, or had their ticket pulled on New Year’s Eve received a prize.
Holiday giving
Naujaat
Students at Tuugaalik High School picked-up in 2019 right where they left off in 2018 – busy, creative and recognized.
The students began their Christmas holidays on a festive note when, on Dec. 12, school staff members distributed the Christmas gifts donated to them by the Lion’s Club of Edmonton and Bev Mitchell on behalf of Hands Up Canada in Toronto, Ont.
Peddling their wares
Baker Lake/Rankin Inlet
The Nunavut Development Corp. (DevCorps) outlets of Ivalu Ltd. in Rankin Inlet and Jessie Oonark Centre in Baker Lake completed their second year of bringing their wares to the masses by spending afternoons at the Meliadine gold mine site near Rankin Inlet and the Meadowbank gold mine near Baker Lake.
Nursing shortage
Arviat
There is no magic bullet to solve the problem of nursing shortages in communities across Nunavut, said Arviat North Whale Cove MLA John Main in January.
Main, speaking to Arviat nurses being terribly overworked due to a shortage of staff and a nasty flu bug on the go, said the staffing-and-capacity issues at the Arviat health centre are nothing new, and the nurse shortage is very concerning for local residents.
Qajaq boost
Chesterfield Inlet
The qajaq program at Victor Sammurtok School (VSS) received another boost with the covering of five new qajaqs in Chesterfield Inlet in January.
The qajaqs were built this past May by VSS students and staff members, and students from Grade 9 to Grade 12 worked on sewing the new covers for the qajaqs from Jan. 7 to Jan. 10.
Apology given
Arviat
The long-awaited apology to the Ahiarmiut for their forced relocations by the federal government from 1949 to 1959 finally happened in Arviat on Jan. 22 when federal Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada Carolyn Bennett publicly apologized to the Ahiarmiut on behalf of the Government of Canada.