Happy 2010: Welcome to the Year of the Inuit

On November 25, 2009 I launched "2010: The Year of the Inuit"

The Year of the Inuit is an educational campaign created by the ITK to increase the awareness of Canadians with respect to Inuit issues and to celebrate Inuit accomplishments and achievements.

The first step in that process was to commission Ipsos-Reid to conduct a national survey to help us better determine what Canadians do, and possibly most importantly, do not know, about Inuit, Inuit issues, and Inuit Nunagnat (our homeland) - the results of that poll are available here.

We will, over the upcoming year, be using the information gained from that poll to better inform Canadians about Inuit and, in doing so, raise awareness of, and clear up a few misconceptions that are related to the issues we face.

As part of this process we will, on January 14th at the National Gallery of Canada, be hosting a fundraising event for the Arctic Children and Youth Foundation called "A Taste of the Arctic: An Evening Celebrating Inuit Culture". The event will showcase Inuit culture, and literally give people a taste of the Arctic with food from the North.

A Taste of the Arctic is one of a number of different activities that we will hold during 2010 to highlight Inuit specific issues, and hopefully improve results the next time we test Canadians with The North Poll. We are already looking forward to 2011, the 40th anniversary of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.