NWT Residents Honoured at Cultural Circle Ceremony

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Purpose: To provide lasting recognition and gratitude towards those who contribute to the preservation and promotion of cultures and heritage in the Northwest Territories. The Cultural Circle helps build awareness amongst all northerners about the importance of promoting, protecting, preserving and celebrating our unique culture, heritage and ways of life.

Eligible Recipients:
Youth Category - Youth, 25 years of age and under, who demonstrate a strong commitment to engaging in the arts, cultural learning and cultural practices.
Individual Category - Individuals who demonstrate a strong commitment to preserving and promoting culture through participation in various arts, culture and heritage related activities.
Elders Category - Elders, 50 years of age and older, respected for their contributions of practicing, promoting, guiding, teaching, leadership, vision, or hands-on participation in the areas of art, culture, heritage and language.
Group Category - Any organization, corporation, institution, organizing committee or social club that plays a lead role in developing and supporting activities that celebrate, promote or preserve the arts, culture and heritage.

Criteria:
• Must be a current resident of the Northwest Territories (except where awarded posthumously)
• Must have made a significant, long-term contribution to the arts, culture and heritage.
• Must be independently motivated by a genuine desire to make a difference.

2011 Minister’s Cultural Circle Award Recipients:

Fourteen year old Evan Tordiff prides himself in his Métis heritage. He loves being on the land, learning new things and is very active in his community of Fort Smith. Evan demonstrates a strong commitment to cultural learning and practices through numerous activities, including going hunting every fall, setting and checking his own traps, taking part in Traditional Trapping workshops on his own time and practicing building shelters and setting up camp on his own in the bush. He received the first Junior Trapper award at his school’s Spring Camp at Hanging Ice for his remarkable harvesting skills and was recommended to be a local guide for his knowledge of the land for a documentary on the Slave River. Evan is well respected in his community.

Elder Abel Tingmiak, of Inuvik, is an Ambassador for the Inuvialuit culture. He spends his time revitalizing and teaching Inuvialuit traditions to younger generations. He is a founding member of the revitalization of the Inuvialuit/Inuit games, demonstrating them locally, regionally, nationally and internationally, and offering lessons to youth to learn the different games. Abel teaches drum dancing skills and songs to students at Sir Alexander Mackenzie School, including teaching grade 5 students to make Inuvialuit drums. He ensures to pass on not only the skills and traditions, but the history behind each of them. Abel is a staple of the North and is well respected by all in his community, region and across the territory.

Ben Nind of Yellowknife has served as the Artistic Director of the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre (NACC) for the past nine years. His dedication to the arts in the North has seen many professional musicians, theatre productions and artists come North to perform. Ben devoted many hours to expanding NACC’s outreach program to 22 communities across the territory. He personally takes the time to assist Northern artists and performers achieve their visions and dreams. He was also instrumental in developing an NWT Arts and Culture Strategy. Ben is well respected in the greater arts community of the Northwest Territories.

The Aklavik Delta Drummers and Dancers have been performing for more than 30 years. Originally formed by Inuvialuit elders to revive the songs and dances taught to them by their elders, they travelled to Inuvialuit communities to encourage others to take part. Now, though many of these elders passed away, the group thrives, showcasing the traditions and cultures of the Inuvialuit around the globe. The group continues providing youth, both in and outside of school, with lessons and thus passing on their culture and language.

Chief Jimmy Bruneau School worked diligently with the Tlicho Community Services Agency to develop the unique, culture and land based course, Trails of Our Ancestors. The course gives Tlicho people, in particular Tlicho youth, the opportunity to re-trace the past through the eyes of their Elders. It provides an opportunity for the youth to learn and practice the lifestyle of traditional travel by canoe and helps teach them to respect the land, their culture and language and the Tlicho way of life. For fifteen years, Chief Jimmy Bruneau School has encouraged youth to spend their summer travelling the traditional water routes their ancestors used for centuries. Students earn 5 credits toward their high school diploma by taking this course. For all their work on and support of this course, Chief Jimmy Bruneau School receives the Minister’s Choice Award.