Winter 2025-2026
December
At the beginning of the month, Inotsiavik held another instalment of the Piusivut Series: Ukiak!
In our Piusivut series, we discuss seasonal terms, activities, animals, and weather. In December’s installment of Piusivut, out participants learned about terms related to November and December.
The men selected for snowshoe filing workshops continued to make great progress in December.
Team members Vanessa, Nick, and Rosie recorded and uploaded some videos to Facebook singing and sharing Inuttut Christmas Carols.
At the end of December, our book club met and having loved Moon of the Crusted Snow so much, decided to pick the sequel, Moon of the Turning Leaves, as the next read!
As usual, Inotsiavik continued hosting our in-person Thursday Sewing Circle, Online Bi-Weekly Drop-In Inuttut Sessions, and our Online Affix of the Day in the Inotsiavik Inuttitut Learners Group throughout the winter.
Snowshoe Making
Inuttitut Christmas Carols
Sewing Circle
January
Book Club welcomed a special guest this past January! The author of Moon of the Crusted Snow and Moon of the Turning Leaves Waubgeshig Rice was able to join us! He spoke about his novels and gave us some exciting insight into his novel writing process and what is yet to come. Nakummek Waub!
We also held yet another successful Caribou Fur Tufting Workshop. Our participants created beautiful art pieces oce again!
January also marked the beginning of Inotsiavik’s Ulu Making Apprenticeship Workshops. Led by Nicholas Flowers, these workshops are one-on-one and allow participants to make their own ulu. Great job to our participants this winter, and we look forward to having more participants for this workshop throughout the spring as well.
Beginner 1 Inuttut Lessons began again this January. Beginner 1 online lessons allow beginners to meet and learn the basics of Inuttut via Google Meets. Follow our Facebook page to see and sign up for more Inuttut lessons in the future!
Another successful instalment of online Uppik Making also took place in January. Uppik making is a beginner friendly sewing workshop that we host online! We mail the materials to our participants. Sign up through our Facebook page.
At our end-of-the-month book club meeting, our participants chose a book that is right on theme for Valentines Day coming up: Niizh by Joelle Peters
Description: “It’s summertime on the rez. The frybread is sizzling, and the local radio station plays bluegrass, Anishinaabemowin lessons, and Friday-night bingo numbers. Lenna, the youngest of the Little family, is preparing to leave home for her first year of college, with little enthusiasm or help from her stubborn father and reckless brother. Amidst lingering doubts about departing the family flock, Lenna collides into a meet-cute with the charming and awkward Sam Thomas, who is returning to the reserve after many years away.
Filled with Indigenous humour, small-town seasoning, and dream-world interludes, this heartwarming love story captures the bittersweet highs and lows of a rural teenage upbringing. A love letter to community, Niizh is a refreshing coming-of-age romcom about two young lovebirds leaving the nest”.
Author Waubgeshig Rice joined our Book Club for an evening.
Caribou fur tufting
Our first ulu apprentice Trevor.
Happens every second Sunday evening online!
February
Throughout the winter, we have been continuing our weekly youth nights. At youth night, young people aged 12-18 can come play games, do activities, and learn about a range of seasonal harvesting activities such as picking and cleaning partridges (local term for ptarmigan). In February, youth had a great time doing just that!
From time to time, Inotsiavik has also been lighting the Kullik on Facebook live. This happens roughly every second Sunday. The times will be posted online the day of.
In February the Piusivut Series continued with a lesson on Ukiuk. In this lesson, participants learned about activities, animals, customs, and weather typical for January and February.
Inotsiavik also hosted a Anânak and Panik sealskin bracelet making workshop for Valentine’s Day.
The book selected this month by our book club is “What I Remember, What I Know - The Life of a High Arctic Exile” by Larry Audlaluk.
Description: Larry Audlaluk was born in Uugaqsiuvik, a traditional settlement west of Inujjuak in northern Quebec, or Nunavik. He was almost three years old when his family was chosen by the government to be one of seven Inuit families relocated from Nunavik to the High Arctic in the early 1950s.They were promised a land of plenty. They were given an inhospitable polar desert.
With refreshing candour and an unbreakable sense of humour, Larry leads the reader through his life as a High Arctic Exile—through broken promises, a decades-long fight to return home, and a life between two worlds as southern culture begins to encroach on Inuit traditions.
If you have taken part in any of Inotsiavik’s Inuttitut lessons - we would love to hear your feedback! Follow the link to fill out out feedback form:
Stay tuned in to our social media to hear about opportunties to participate in our programming as it becomes available.
Thats all for this winter edition of our Quarterly Newsletter.
Nakummesuak taking the time to read our updates!
Youth Night
Valentine’s Day activity for women and girls
Drop-in sealskin cleaning
Storybook reading in the tupik!