Nunavut groups get $738K for Canada 150 celebrations

Iqaluit will kick offCanada's 150th birthday with a $100,000 New Year's Eve celebration, thanks to funding from the federal government.

Minister of Canadian HeritageMlanieJoly announceda total of $738,000 in funding in IqaluitWednesdayforthree differentNunavutorganizations to celebrate Canada's 150 birthday.

IqaluitAction Lab was given the funding to plan a new year's celebration. Director RobynCampbellsaid it's going to be a night residents won't want to miss.

"We are totally thrilled," she said. "It's going to be awesome. Be here for New Year's."

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The Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association received $350,000 to facilitate Canada 150 events across the territory, and the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum in Iqaluit got $288,000 to develop and host a multilingual art installation.

"[These projects] are extremely important because they will be showcasing the depth of the Inuit culture," said Joly.

"This is content we are creating here that will be presented to people here but also will be travelling to different communities across Canada."

The curator of the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum, Gyu Oh, is particularly excited to show southern Canadians a different perspective of the North.

"The only time we hear from communities in the North is when really bad things happen," said Oh.

"But that's not what makes a community. Acommunity is made by you and meeveryday people."

The art installation the museum will develop will include 25 different videos, one from each Nunavut community, made by local youth.

Rowena House, executive director of the Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association, said her organization ishappy with the federal funding it received but is waiting on more funding from Inuit organizations and the Department of Economic Development and Transportation before it makes any final decisions.

"We have a lot of great plans that we are putting in place," said House.

"We are going to really reach out to the communities to find out what they want to do for a celebration and what that would look like."