This year marked the final Billy Quak Memorial Ball Hockey tournament in Makkovik.

This tournament was held on Friday February 8th to the 9th.

We spoke with Paul Andersen the new Recreation & Youth Coordinator for Makkovik.

Andersen says with great support from volunteers, this tournament was a great success.

He says four teams were registered for this final year.

They were: Labrador Winter Games team, the Mighty Kuaks, JCEM Wolverines and the Hat Trick Swayze.

Andersen says the prizes were t-shirts for those who placed in 1st, 2nd & 3rd.

He says Jessica Winters received the MVP female award, and Shane Winters received the Male MVP award, and top Goalie went to Shane Winters.

And the Memorial Award for high skill and great sportsmanship award went to Alder Ford.

The top sportsmanlike player of the tournament went to Ruth Broomfield and is known as the Billy Quak award.

The Traditional Girl’s Day will be taking place in Nain on March 6, 2019.

Silpa Suarak and Maria Dyson are organizing the festival.

They will be having their day at the Pentecostal Church.

So far, they have 10 girls who will be having their day.

They will meet up for breakfast at 7am, dinner for the girls at 12, dinner for parents at 3 when the girls are in church, the closing service will be at 5, and supper at 6.

The Church Services will be at 10am, 3pm, and 5pm.

Dyson said they are still waiting for donations.

She also adds that they are looking for a Captain, cooks, and helpers.

The fee for first timers is $15, and for second timers it’s $25.

Their next meeting will be on Friday, Feb. 22 right after school.

For more information, you can contact Silpa Suarak or Maria Dyson.

The upcoming Nain festival days at the Moravian church for this month and March 2019 are as follows:

Thursday, February 28 – Married couples day

Sunday, March 3rd – Estomichi

Wednesday, March 6th – young women’s day, and it will be the beginning of Ash Wednesday

Saturday, April 13th – Start of holy week

Sunday, April 14th – Palm Sunday

The deadline date for post-secondary funding with the Post-secondary student support program (PSSSP) and Inuit Pathways for the 2019/2020 academic year is fast approaching.

If you wish to be considered for funding to attend post-secondary studies during the 2019/2020 academic year, your completed application form must be received by the PSSSP/Inuit pathways offices no later than 4:30pm on March 1st 2019.

Applications received after March 1st will not be considered until all on-time applications and renewals are processed.

Applications can be picked up at your local Nunatsiavut Government building, and is available on www.nunatsiavut.com under beneficiary information.

If you need assistance or have any questions please contact Bobbi Shiwak at the PSSSP office in St. John’s NL toll free 1-877-777-2589 or 1-709-754-2587 or fax 1-709-754-2364 and/or email psssp@nunatsiavut.com

For more information, please refer to the Department of education & economic development or to contact the Inuit pathways office please call 1-877-923-2171 or fax 709-923-2347.

The Nain Moravian Church will be celebrating its annual anniversary tomorrow Tuesday, February 19, 2019.

This year marks its 248 years of the Nain Moravian Church, where it was established in 1771.

Most town businesses are closed for this special day, and OKalaKatiget Society is one of those.

There will be Church Services for everyone, the first being at 10am.
Lovefeast follows at 3pm, and the closing service is at 5pm.

The Nain Department of Health and Social Development is accepting for all seniors for each of the five Inuit communities, North West River, Happy Valley Goose Bay, and the Canadian Constituency to attend the bi-annual Elders Conference that will be held in Nain from April 8-13th, 2019.

Applications forms can be picked up at your local Nunatsiavut Government office as well as any NDHSD office in your area.

Any Elder interested in attending can fax their completed forms to:

Beverly Hunter at (709) 933-3330

The deadline to submit will be March 29, 2019.

The Nunatsiavut Government is looking for expressions of interest, for Nunatsiavut beneficiaries from the Labrador Inuit Land claims agreement to attend the Iqaluit event,
of which whose families who were impacted by the decision to send their loved ones to southern institutions for treatment from the 1940s to the 1960s.

Tuberculosis affected many Inuit during the early part of the twentieth century, with number of cases increasing in the 1940s.

Many Inuit were sent to larger centres for treatment and in many cases; it was difficult for family members to get information on relatives including whether or not they survived.

In 2008, Nunavut Tunngavik inc. continued to receive an increasing number of requests from Inuit for help with finding lost loved ones who had died in southern treatment facilities from the 1940s to the 1960s.

In early March 2019, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will issue an apology and officially launch the Nanilavut initiative, aimed at helping families to find out what happened to lost loved ones. The event will take place in Iqaluit, Nunavut.

If you are interested in attending or if you would like more information, please contact your NG community liaison officer.

• Nain – Rutie Dicker @ (709) 922-2942
• Hopedale – Ethel Hunter @ (709) 933-3777
• Makkovik – Carol Gear @ (709) 923-2365
• Postville – Gillian Gear @ (709) 479-9880
• Rigolet – Paula McLean-Sheppard @ (709) 947-3383

The deadline to apply is tomorrow Tuesday, February 19 2019.

The OKalâKatiget Society would like to apologize to our listening audience for the lack of phone services we are providing here at the office.

It’s now been over 11 weeks since our phone lines were down, since December.

On Sunday December 9, 2018, we discovered that our phones were completely dead.

We have been in contact with Bell Aliant every day, concerning our phone lines.

And according to Bell Aliant, there will be no technician traveling to the North coast communities due to weather.

But we are happy to finally have an update about our phone system.

According to Bell Aliant our new phone system arrived to Happy Valley on January 17, 2019, and we were not notified until today.

Due to poor weather Bell Aliant will be only be making their way to Nain on March 4-8, but they are not guaranteeing OKalaKaltiget Society will have the phone system running by then.

And the earliest date Bell Aliant could give us to repair and install the phone lines is March 22nd.

We would like to thank our audience for your patience; this has been very difficult for our staff and audience alike.

The Labrador Winter Games 2019 are selling tickets for this year’s LWG events.

To purchase tickets for the opening ceremony, Northern games and closing ceremony you need tickets.

So if you want to purchase tickets to attend please check out their website.

LWG Website is: www.labradorwintergames.ca

The Jens Haven Memorial Primary School is raising funds for the Janeway Children’s Hospital again this year.

We spoke with Shirley Harris the Receptionist at the Primary School.

She says students and staff were raising monies and holding different activities throughout the week.

Students had Dress up days for each day, and a movie day, a bake sale, a classroom challenge, a family challenge and today they had a Jersey day, students were able to use their favorite jerseys at school.

This afternoon a Heart bingo is scheduled, students pay a small fee of 50 cent per child to participate, and parents or guardians can also come by and play bingo and contribute a $1.00 to help raise funds.

The family challenge is when your child donates $10.00 and their name is entered in a draw to win a Valentines cake, and if your child donates $20 their name gets put into the draw twice.

The cake draw will be drawn today Feb. 15 at the end of the school day.

The JHMS Primary students would like to extend their appreciation to students, staff, parents and grandparents.

We will get another update later next week to find out how much the students have raised for this great cause.