The Nunatsiavut President Johannes Lampe announced yesterday that Beneficiaries of the Labrador Inuit Land Claims Agreement residing in the Constituency of Hopedale will head to the polls this April for a by-election.

According to the Nunatsiavut News Release, this by-election will take place on April 9, 2019 to elect an Ordinary Member for Hopedale to the Nunatsiavut Assembly.

Nominations will close on March 25th at 2pm.

The nomination forms can be obtained from the Nunatsiavut Electoral officer, Nannette Blake.

You can contact her by phone at (709) 899-0369 or by emailing her at Nannette.blake@nunatsiavut.com.

Tuberculosis rates in the North are 290 times higher than in rest of Canada.

The reason why is because of Social Sharing.

Infection rates in the North are similar to those in the developing world; the rate of tuberculosis infection in Canada is very much higher in the North.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plans to apologize for the way the Canadian government treated Inuit patients with tuberculosis in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s.

In actions reminiscent of the Sixties Scoop, and of the government forcibly sending Indigenous children to residential schools, thousands of Inuit patients were taken from their communities by the government and brought south for treatment.

But many of them died, and no one ever told their families what happened or where they were buried.

Canadians may think of tuberculosis as a disease of the past, but it is still one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide.

And it is still a serious disease in this country especially for people living in the North.

Tuberculosis, or TB, is a highly infectious and contagious disease caused by a germ called Mycobacterium tuberculosis that mainly affects the lungs.

According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms include: Coughing for more than three weeks, coughing up blood, Chest pain with breathing or coughing, Weight loss, Fatigue, Fever, Night sweats, chills.

Story Courtesy of CBC.

The fourth annual Nain Wing Bee went ahead yesterday at the Nunatsiavut Government boardroom.

We had one of our radio producer’s pop by to see what this Wing Bee was about.

And we spoke with Regina Wells is the Environmental Protection Officer with Environmental Services Based in HVGB and Carla Pamak the Inuit Research Advisory with Nunatsiavut Government.

They held an open house, and this Wing Bee was a way to help gather data on Migratory birds that are harvested in Nunatsiavut.

They will be going to the Jens Haven Memorial School today to give the high school biology class more insight about what data they are doing.

They are going to Makkovik and Hopedale to also host the Wing Bee end of February.

To find out more about this Wing Bee, click here.

On Wednesday February 27 the Jens Haven Memorial School held their annual Pink Shirt Day.

This pink shirt day is celebrated all throughout Newfoundland and Labrador.

We had one of our Radio Producers there to record the event.

And the students MCs were Thomesa and Emelia Angnatok and Samantha Saksagiak.

Pink Shirt Day is a day where students and staff hold a celebration to learn more about Violence Awareness Week and the main goal is to raise awareness around all forms of bullying, and how they can be prevented.

This year Students sang the song: “Brave”.

Pink Shirt Day also builds on activities which have taken place in February as part of Violence Awareness month.

To hear the Pink Day celebration at the JHM School, click here.

Lengendary singer-songwriter Charlie Panigoniak has died.

Panigoniak, who was born near Chesterfield inlet, Nunatvut, with many considering him the father of Inuktitut music.

He had been in poor health, battling Parkinson’s disease for many years, and had been living in Ottawa at the Embassy West Senior Living home.

Panigoniak was also a longtime broadcaster at CBC.

According to the Nunavut Commissioner’s press release, in the 70’s and 80’s Panigoniak was one of the first to write, perform and record music in Inuktitut.

Story courtesy of CBC north news

The Craft Labrador Product Development is looking for Craft producers to take part in their workshop this month.

We spoke with Janet Skinner a Volunteer for the Craft Labrador Project development.

Skinner says today is the deadline date to apply.

Successful applicants will travel to Happy Valley on Friday March 15 for this 2 day workshop.

To find out more about these workshops, click here.

The Nunatsiavut Government released the 2019-2020 budget yesterday, March 6,
during the sitting at the Nunatsiavut House of Assembly in Hopedale.

Of the $112, million 450,000 budgeted for 2019-2020 fiscal year, which begins April 1, a total of $58 million is received under the Fiscal Financing Agreement (FFA) which negotiated between the Nunatsiavut Government and the governments of Canada and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Finance topics include Housing, Children and Families, Language Culture and Tourism, Food Security, Land and Natural Resources and the Investments in their employees.

We will speak to Tyler Edmunds the Finance, Human Resources and Information Technology Minister for Nunatsiavut Government tomorrow, March 8, about the 2019-2020 Budget

It is always good to hear stories from Elders.

Andrew Piercy is an elder from Hopedale.

He says there is a lot of snow this year compared to recent years.

Piercy says it seems that this year it’s always snowing and windy.

He adds that when he was twelve years old, he made a snow house, in Hebron.

To hear more from Piercy today, click here.

The very first annual Illuvigak building workshops will be held in Nain, Hopedale, Makkovik, Postville and Rigolet this year.

Brenda Jararuse is the Director of Cultural and Tourism with the Nunatsiavut Government.

Jararuse says they are looking for 10 participants from each community.
Five per age group of youth ages 16 years to 19 years and five adults ages 20 years and older

The workshop will take place for youth at 8am and for adult’s starts at 2pm.

Participants will learn about Illuvigak knowledge and building.

This event will be followed by an optional community Illuvigak competition.

If you are interested and want to find out more information about this workshop, contact Brenda Jararuse at (709) 922-2942 ext: 239 or by email at: brenda.jararuse@nunatsiavut.com

The Labrador Friendship Centre Sheild Project held a Metal Art Fabrication course this past weekend in Happy Valley.

Peyton Barrett, who is the instructor, said the weekend was an exciting one and the youth came up with great ideas on which to base their artwork.

Shield is an acronym for sexual health Information Exchange Labrador District.

The Project encourages positive sexual health, personal wellness and healthy relationships through art, culture and technology, and is in partnership with Community Youth Network NL.

Barrett is teaching 3 courses which will take place at the College of the North Atlantic.

The first course was to teach the teens on how to work with copper and bronze to design pieces of jewelry.

During the second course the participants explored copper and brass and created pieces of art including a pendant, ring, and a cultural copper wire design.

And the final course, which will take place on March 9&10, will be to focus on metal tooling and pop can art. The youth will complete 2 deigns; one on metal to be framed with matte board and copper leaves with soldered wire stems.

These courses run from 9am to 4pm each day.

Denise Cole, who is the coordinator for this project, says that it was intentional to bring up those conversations to talk about the importance of their culture and how that connects and reflects back to the art that they create.

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