The Dominion Institute, an organization whose mission is "to build active and informed citizens through greater knowledge and appreciation of the Canadian story", has many projects that seek to build on pride in our stories, our history, and our accomplishments.
One of the those projects, Our Story, seeks to engage aboriginal youth in writing about a moment in aboriginal history. An annual event, it is juried by an impressive group of aboriginal authors. There are two categories, one for 14-18 year old aboriginal youth, the other for 19-29 year olds. The creative writing is to capture moments from any point in history, including legends and recent events. For more details you can check out the website.
Inuit youth have been under represented in the contest and so they are seeking your help in spreading the word in your communities, and through your blogs. I'm learning more and more that through writing, I'm discovering more about myself, my family, and my countries history. Encouraging youth in Nunavut to write may help them discover something similar, and win some great prizes, including $2000.00 in cash, and publication in The Beaver; Canada's history magazine.
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Nunavut (and the NWT too for that matter) really needs a writer’s union. I’ve read a lot of Canadian poetry and short story anthologies, even Native Canadian collections, and the Inuit are so underrepresented. Surely Michael Kusugak isn’t the only Inuk currently writing?
I think that would be a good idea John. There are others. I know that Rachel Qitsualuk writes some stuff. I think she is part of the jury for this contest. But there are so few getting stuff out there.
When I was in Iqaluit I was even trying to find some kid’s lit for Travis in inuktitut and could only come up with one small book.