The Tikigiaksaugusik Festival started yesterday, March 27 and runs until March 30th.

Their opening ceremony took place at 6:30pm along with square dancing.

Today marks day 2 of the festival. They had a feast for International Women’s Day that started at 12 noon.

Starting at 1:30- 4pm is Senior’s 55 & up 120 card game and will take place at the Seniors Building.

At 3:30-5, they will be holding games for ages 0-4 and Grades K-12 at the hall.

And at 6:30 this evening will be games for the adults at the hall. Babysitters are provided.

The Nunasi Corporation and the Canadian North are presenting a film to Nain residents this evening; this film is based on true story, titled “The Grizzles”.

This free screening will be take place at the Jens Haven Memorial School gym tonight March 28, starting at 7pm.

Ms. Juanita Skanes is the Vice Principle at the JHM School.

Skanes says this film is an inspiring and uplifting movie that contains scenes of suicide, and physical violence.

She says children under the age of 13 must be accompanied by an adult.

And this film is an inspiring story about Inuit youth starring young actors from Nunavut; this film opens nationwide this April.

Featuring music on the film are music artists such as Tanya Tagaq, Jerry Cans, 666 God, Hyper-T, Nelson Tagoona and Misterlee.

The “Life on the Edge Program” is still seeking youth to take part in the program.

Heather Angnatok is the Youth Administrator with DHSD.

She says right now they are looking for youth between the ages of 15 to 25.

Youth will experience and learn about winter safety, and during the classroom sessions they will learn topics such as: Ice Safety, Avalanche Safety, and basic GPS and how to read maps.

Angnatok says after classroom session’s youth will have the opportunity to travel to the ships track; and watch the Umiak 1 sail into Edwards Cove, and watch the Sikumiut team assemble the ice bridge.

Youth will also learn how to make an emergency shelter.

She says later they will have a boil up, she hopes to get 12-15 youth involved.

And they are still looking for volunteers to drive them to the ships track.

If you are interested in this Life on the Edge program you can contact Heather Angnatok at the DHSD building at 922-2126 ext: 241 or by email at heather.angnatok@nunatsiavut.com.

The SHIELD project is a youth led and adult supported program that is funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada and established as a partnership with the Community Youth Network of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Denise Cole is the Coordinator with the Labrador Friendship Center.

The SHIELD program stands for Sexually Health Information Exchange Labrador District.

Cole says this program will encourage youth to have positive sexual health.

There are ongoing projects and if you want to find out more please visit their Facebook page at LFC Shield Project or their instagram account at Instagram@lfcshieldproject.

For more information, you can contact Denise Cole at 709-896-8302 ext. 224.

To find out more about this SHEILD Project, click here.

It is good to hear stories from Elders on what they used to do when they were growing up.

Rosina Howell is an elder from Nain.

She says in the spring time they used to go to Natsatok on motor boat to fish cod.

Howell also says that she use to go bake apple and berry picking with her siblings.

To hear more from Howell this afternoon, click here.

Election for the Ordinary member for Hopedale will be April 9, 2018.

Nanette Blake is the Election Officer for Nunatsiavut government.

She says there three candidates that is running for Ordinary Member for the community of Hopedale.
And they are:
James Abia Tuttauk
Charlotte Lucy-Piercy and
Gregory Flowers

Blake says the Advance Polls will open April 5, 2019 from 8am-8pm at the Council Office.

She says the Polling day will be on April 9, 2019.

The 2019 Ethel Pijogge Memorial Festival will be starting on April 10 and runs until April 13 in Hopedale.

The four day festival will have such events as; Community feast, Beauty Pageant, Bingo, Target Shooting and the Ethel Pijogge Memorial Dog Team Race.

The race will start at the Hopedale Harbour at 9am on that day.

The prizes for this year’s race will be;

For 1st place, the prize will be $500, 2nd Place – $300, 3rd Place – $200
Participants prize will be $100, and the best looking dog team prize will be $200.

To register your team, you can contact Danielle Pottle or Boas Mitsuk at (709) 933-3387.

This year marks the second year for the Pan Labrador Choir that is being held in Hopedale.

Eileen Flowers is the Vice Principle at the ACM School.

She says the Pan Labrador Choir will take place this Saturday March 30.

Students will be arriving to Hopedale tomorrow.

Flowers says students will be in workshops tomorrow and the workshops will be finished this Sunday.

Six students from all five coastal communities will take part in the Choir.

This is a great way for all students to work together and to get to know each other, learn new songs.

And on Friday students will have a fun day of games.

Performances will be done at the school 7pm Saturday and is open to the public.

The closing ceremonies for the Labrador Winter Games took place on Saturday evening, March 23, 2019.

We spoke with Paul Motty who was the Executive Director for this year’s Labrador Winter Games.

He says Goose Bay came 1st with 269 points; Labrador City came in 2nd with 260 points, and Cartwright 3rd with 246 points.

They had 15 or 16 awards to give out, one of them was to Jessica Dahn, who was the most standing athlete, and the most outstanding athlete male went to Trent Pottle.

He said on Saturday, the winner for the dog team race was Dwayne Russell of Charlottetown.

The Labrador Duathlon and the Labrathon went ahead as well. The Duathlon, female winner was Jessica Dahn, and the male was Rich Lewis from Cartwright. And the Labrathon winner for the females was Nikki Brown Dyson, and the male was Guido Rich from Rigolet.

The premier’s cup was presented to Sheshatshiu for the best dressed traditional team.

They had Labrador flags presented to all of the community coordinators, and had the lieutenant governor in attendance as well as other dignitaries.

And all the athletes managed to get home on Sunday with all of their earnings of this year’s Labrador Winter Games.

Motty also wanted to add that they helped in every way that they could and enjoyed every moment of this year’s Labrador Winter Games.

Air Inuit is again offering the Special Easter flight schedule between Nain, George River and Kuujjuaq for April 2019.

According to the Air Inuit website, the first flight is scheduled for Thursday, April 18, 2019.

The first Air Inuit flight will depart from Kuujjuaq at 11am, and arrive in George River at 11:40am, departs George River at 11:55am, and is scheduled to arrive Nain at 2:20pm (Nain local time), and then departs Nain back to George River at 2:50.

The second flight is scheduled for Tuesday, April 23, 2019.

The flight will depart from Kuujjuaq at 8:50am, arrive George River at 9:30am, departs George River again at 9:45am, and arrives Nain at 12:10pm.

The flight then departs Nain at 12:40 back to George River, departs George River for Kuujjuaq at 1:20pm and makes the last flight back to Kuujjuaq at 2pm.

All times listed are local times.

And please note that Air Inuit is offering an Easter promotion of 30% off of reduced travel fares between April 5 & 26.

To make reservations or for more information, you can check out their website at www.airinuit.com or call 1-800-361-2965.