Seven organizations across Canada’s North won a total of $3 million from the Arctic Inspiration Prize (AIP) on Friday to fund projects ranging from food security improvements to teaching Inuit children music. 

For the last nine years, the Arctic Inspiration Prize has awarded money to promising education, sustainable housing, health, arts, language, science, and traditional knowledge projects based in the North. Winning teams are expected to use their award to jump-start a project or initiative that will benefit Northern communities. 

“The $3 million in seed money awarded each year means the teams are able to get their projects off the ground and make their dreams come true, and the dreams of the communities, come true,” said Hannah Uniuqsaraq, chair of the AIP Charitable Trust, in an interview. 

Many Canadian foundations and government grant programs offer financial support for non-profits, charities, and community initiatives, but the AIP is different. As a prize, rather than a granting program, it doesn’t require organizations to report their results on a regular basis. Uniuqsaraq said it can be difficult for smaller Northern organizations to apply for traditional grants. 

“The grants and contributions programs the respective governments deliver are very onerous,” Uniuqsaraq said. “They come with a lot of reporting requirements, whether it be monthly or quarterly, which can take away precious time from the volunteers to do what they want to do to bring about concrete changes.” 

However, the AIP does have prerequisites for anyone entering. Teams must be nominated for the prize by an official AIP ambassador, must be led by a Northerner with a mostly-Northern team, and must be seeking money for a new initiative. According to the AIP’s website, it “does not award prizes for the continued operation or expansion” of existing projects. 

In normal times, the AIP holds awards ceremonies to celebrate the winning teams. On Friday evening, it held a national awards ceremony on the Aboriginal Peoples’ Television Network (APTN), broadcasting the official unveiling of awards as well as traditional Indigenous dancing, throat singing, and fiddling. 

Instead of calling winning teams up to a podium to receive their awards, the AIP ambassadors who nominated these projects hopped on a pre-recorded Zoom call with the team to break the news virtually. 

For “Imaa, Like this”, who applied for the AIP’s single $1 million prize to support a project focused on teaching Inuit children music and mentoring local Inuit youth musicians, Nunavut Premier Joe Savikataaq called to break the good news. 

“It’s a dream come true,” said Darlene Nuqingaq, one of Imaa’s co-leaders. 

Meanwhile, Tusaajuit, another Northern organization, won $500,000 to help community members get access to information about hearing loss, an issue that is particularly prevalent among Inuit children. The project will also focus on hearing loss prevention among Northern communities. After receiving the good news, the entire team burst into cheers and a round of applause. 

“There were many steps where it was a huge challenge, but we pulled through and we kept going,” said Tunu Napartuk, director of complementary and compassionate services at Kativik Ilisarniliriniq.

And for Makerspace YK, a $100,000 prize in the youth category will allow it to launch the Artspace initiative, an arts program in Whitehorse. Cat McGurk, president of Makerspace YK, said the award will help their organization evolve. 

“We’ve been having these visioning sessions with our architect and it’s so wonderful to know that we can definitely plan to include the whole picture of what Makerspace is and really develop it,” said McGurk. “I’m really excited.”  

Other winners of the AIP for 2020 included Niqihaqut, who secured $451,000 to develop a meat preparation facility for game as well a plan for a sustainable local harvest guided by traditional Inuit values. Another food sovereignty project, The First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun’s Indigenous Food Sovereignty Hub, won $485,000. A team called Youth Training in Ethical Knowledge Sharing and Co-production to Advance Northern, Indigenous-led Conservation and Stewardship secured $500,000 to train youth in designing research projects using Indigenous research methods. And the Western Arctic Youth Collective won $97,000 to organize “creative and relevant” programs for youth in the Gwich’in and Inuvialuit settlement regions, according to a statement from the AIP. 

In a short speech at the end of Friday’s ceremonies, Uniuqsaraq congratulated all of the AIP finalists and laureates for their efforts to drive change across Northern communities. “With that,” she added, “I am very pleased to announce that the 2021 Arctic Inspiration Prize call for nominations is now open. We can’t wait to see the innovative, creative projects that come forward this year.” 

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