Heritage Issues

In Nunavut, we share some of the same challenges to preserving our heritage as other jurisdications in Canada. However because of our geography and history we have some unique challenges to overcoming barriers specific to Nunavut.

The most common shared issues include access to funding, training of heritage workers, mentoring youth to decide upon a career in heritage.

Our unique issues revolve around the lack of diversified, private business in the north, isolation of communities, and expensive cost of travel and living.

The lack of private business in the north affects where we can get funding as well as the type of services available to us in our communities. Nunavut is almost 1/5th the size of Canada and yet we have only 30,000 residents. As all 26 communities in Nunavut are fly-in only, we often feel as though we are the only one in our community doing our type of work with little communication amongst other heritage professionals. Many of our barriers to building capacity can be bridged, but only if we are able to leave our home communities for extended periods of time. This is a great hardship for our families and for our organizations financially. A ticket from Iqaluit-Ottawa return is at least $1,200. The average ticket between other Nunavut communities is anywhere from $600 - $3,000. It is just not economically feasible to travel often and leave our communities, yet there is a need to build on what we are doing and support the work of our colleagues.