Ghosts of the St. Lawrence

Some Consiliumites golf. Valerie and I dive. But there's one site we don't dive anymore.

Bill at Burton's has asked me not to use the name of the wreck in this story. "We take a lot of first timers out there," he said. "They're nervous enough already." So I'll just say that this happened about ten years ago, at a St. Lawrence site familiar to every Ontario diver.

We were with a charter out of Rockport, run by a cheerful operator I’ll call Mike. It was a cold, miserable day, grey and threatening drizzle. But the river was still warm, and the first dive had gone well. After some discussion Mike decided to take the Zodiac downriver and do one more dive.

There was a boat moored to the buoy when we got there, a bright yellow boxy looking thing from Brockville with a load of boisterous, nervous beginners. It was growing late, and getting darker. We slipped quickly into our gear and into the water, followed the line past their boat to the buoy, and dropped below the swells.

National Aboriginal Health Conference

 
Next week First Nation community Health Managers and Directors from across Canada.will be converging on Ottawa for a discussion of issues surrounding one of the most critical areas in current Aboriginal policy - Health.

On November 7, 8 and 9 the Assembly of First Nations National Health Forum will address important matters such as the Federal Health Transfer and AFN's Health Plan. Special workshops will also be held on holistic health, non- insured health benefits, jurisdictional issues, mental health, community health plans and other relevant topics.

Stonecircle's Jennifer David and Kory Goulais will be participating in the trade show portion of the event.

For more information on the forum, check out their website.

He Is The Master

When addressing Stonecircle researcher Kory "Obiwan" Goulais, remember to treat him with respect - especially when he's holding a keyboard.

Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Certification is a series of courses designed to give learners a solid working knowledge of Microsoft Office Products - Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access.

Kory began his training with the IC3 (Internet and Computing Core Certification) covering computing fundamentals, online work, and the key Office applications. A compulsive but amiable overachiever, he followed up his IC3 program with four additional courses, and this week was certified as a Microsoft Office Master Specialist - the highest level that can be achieved.

As to nomenclature: well, those who know Kory personally or through a project realize that he is a smart, charismatic, intelligent, efficient, and, above all, modest individual (ok, Kory, enough - the Editors). Today, with his vast knowledge of the Microsoft Office products Kory is debating whether he prefers in future to be called "the Master," "Master Kory," "Korysoft Office Specialist,", "I'm better than Clootch," or simply "Koriwan". Until otherwise notified, you may continue to address him as "Kory".

Congratulations, Kory!

The Mummified Forest of the Arctic: Axel Heiberg Island

You may remember previous blog posts about one of Nunavut’s most fascinating places. Axel Heiberg Island, located next to Ellesmere Island in the highest regions of Nunavut, is home to fossils of ancient reptiles and various other animals, as well as mummified remains of 45 million year-old trees. Multiple fossil sites can be found across both islands, which have fascinated scientists since their discovery. However, fossils, along with all other landscapes and organic matter, are sensitive to disturbance and subject to erosion by natural processes. The Government of Nunavut has recognized this, and is interested in protecting some of the key fossil sites on Axel Heiberg Island.

Aarluk is currently formatting a final background study report regarding Axel Heiberg. The report, developed for the Government of Nunavut’s Parks and Special Places Division, contains all of the known data available on the fossil forest sites located on Axel Heiberg and Ellesmere Island. Data was collected and analyzed to compare options for creating a protected area for some of the key fossil sites. The final report contains five options for the Government of Nunavut to consider, and identifies one of those options as having the greatest potential for successful protection of the mummified fossil forest resources found at the Geodetic Hills location on Axel Heiberg Island.

h/t Chris Grosset, Geoff Rigby

The StoryKeepers: Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden

Joseph Boyden first rose to prominence with his novel Three Day Road. It was not his first novel, but it got a lot of press, was nominated for several awards, two of which he won. This writer has an interesting background of mixed Irish and Ojibway roots which you can read on his website, but his writing comes from his Ojibway roots.

It was Boyden's followup novel, Through Black Spruce, that won the Giller Prize. It's a fine book, but I think Three Day Road is better. It's the tragic, enthralling story of a young Cree man who comes home to northern Ontario after witnessing horror in the front lines of battle in World War I. Xavier Bird hovers between life and death as his grandmother takes him by canoe on a three-day journey to her home. Along the way, this grandmother realizes the only thing she can give this boy to hold onto are her stories. And so the book is a story about stories: stories about the grandmother, about the land, about family, about roots, but also Xavier's stories about war, about bravery, about friendship, about tragedy.

Joseph Boyden captures the beauty and spirit of northern Ontario;  and from whatwar veterans have told me, he also does an excellent job of calling up the harsh realities of war, Xavier's life as a sniper, and the wounds carried by those who witness these horrors.

The book is well worth the accolades and seems to come from a very personal place. I have recommended this book to anyone who has relatives who fought in wars, particularly First Nation veterans. It's a rich and satisfying read.

Headline of the Week

"Martha Stewart never pointed a glue gun at my head, daughter says."

What a strange coincidence. She never pointed a glue gun at our heads, either.

- the Editors.

Entrepreneurs In Action

Jennifer David and Kory Goulais are busy promoting Stonecircle at the Aboriginal Entrepreneurs Conference in Ottawa. Over 150 people are attending this two-day conference at the Westin Hotel in Ottawa, taking part in sessions on business planning, entrepreneurship and business success stories. Above, Glenn Nolan of the Prospectors and Developers Association speaks on opportunities for Aboriginal people in the mining industry.

Later this afternoon, Jennifer will be participating in a panel discussion entitled Entrepreneurs Spotlight - The Pathway to Success, facilitated by Clint Davis, President and CEO of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business.

And here's Jen and Kory at the Stonecircle trade show booth, drumming up business and meeting with other entrepreneurs.

'Tis The Season

Jack-o’-lanterns have been around since the 1800s. Named after the phenomenon of strange light flickering over peat bogs (ignis fatuus, if you want to get technical), the carving of pumpkins has become something of a pop art form in recent years (for some spectacular examples, check out the work of Ray Villafane: http://villafanestudios.com/gallery/the-pumpkins-2 ).

Earlier this week Aarluk researcher Geoff Rigby participated in a pumpkin carving competition with some of his friends, and while not professional carvers by any means, they had a lot of fun and were happy with the end results. The winning pumpkin is shown below, inspired by and named for Michaelangelo, a sculptor more renowned for his work in carving marble than in carving Cucurbita Cucurbitaceae.

Happy Birthday Valerie

"A leader has the vision and conviction that a dream can be achieved. She inspires the power and energy to get it done."

That sounds like Stonecircle's fearless leader, Valerie Assinewe. Yes, in addition to her leadership of Stonecircle she works for the Federal government, which is why you may not see her name associated with a lot of projects or mentioned as often in this blog. But she has been one of the driving forces in the creation of Stonecircle, and continues to play an active role on the board and provides us with her insight and ideas on where to take the company.

Since we've already had two birthday blog entries for October, let's make it a hat trick. Best birthday wishes to Valerie, and we'll be sure to bring in a birthday cake to the next Stonecircle board meeting!

The Consilium Cup Golf Trivia Challenge: The Answers

This week we let you in on the in-house Golf Trivia Contest that enlivened the soon-to-be-world-famous Consilium Cup. Today. as promised: the answers.

Part One: Hard Core Golf Trivia


1) What club was once referred to as "the Mashie?

The five iron.

2) What are the odds of making two holes-in-one in a round of golf?

A) 1 in 670,000?
B) 1 in 6,700,000?
C) 1 in 67,000,000? 

3) How long is the longest golf course in the world?

A) 5,488 yards?
B) 8,325 yards
C) 11,721 yards?

4) How many dimples on a regulation golf ball? (No Fair Counting!)

A) 156?
B) 226?
C) 336? 

5) Golf was actually invented in…

A) Japan?
B) Scotland?
C) Greece? 

6) The longest golf HOLE in the world, on the Satsuki Golf Club in Japan, measures:

A) 964 yards.
B) 808 Yards
C) 707 Yards 

7) How many golf courses are there in North America?

A) 11,000
B) 21,000
C) 51,000 

8)Which country has the largest number of recreational golfers per capita in the world?

A) The USA
B) Canada
C) Japan 

9) How many golf balls are currently on the Moon?

Three.

Part Deux: Which movies (which are not all "golf' movies, incidentally) gave us the following lines?

1) "This is a hybrid. This is a cross, ah, of Bluegrass, Kentucky Bluegrass, Featherbed Bent, and Northern California Sensemilia. The amazing stuff about this is, that you can play 36 holes on it in the afternoon, take it home and just get stoned to the bejeezus-belt that night on this stuff." 
-from Caddyshack

2) "He can't do that to our pledges! Only WE can do that to our pledges!!"
-from Animal House

3) "Easy peasy lemon squeasy."
-from The Greatest Game Ever Played

4) "If that's his original ball, I'm Arnold Palmer".
"It isn't".
"How do you know?"
"Because I'm standing on it." 
-from Goldfinger

5) "You little son of a bitch ball! Why you don't you just go HOME? That's your HOME! Are you too good for your HOME? ANSWER ME!"
-from Happy Gilmore

6) "The feds had been watching Nicky play golf for so long that they ran out of gas. A hundred dollars to whoever hits the plane!"
-from Casino

7) "You should have children playing here! You should have families having picnics! You should have a goddamned petting zoo! But NO! You got these stupid electric carts for you old men with nothing better to do! And now you're gonna die wearing that stupid little hat!" 
-from Falling Down

8) "I wish they wouldn't land those things here when we're trying to play golf." 
-from M*A*S*H*

9) "I hear you lost your swing. I guess we got to go find it." 
-from The Legend of Bagger Vance.



So. How did you do? Don't feel bad - the top score at the Consilium tournaments was an embarrassing 7.

Happy Birthday Kory

What's with all the birthdays in October? Looks like we have to celebrate once again, as Kory Goulais just turned 26. (We're allowed to share that considering he's one of the youngest members of our team, and he's a guy, and therefore doesn't care whether or not people know how old he is.) And Kory wants to make sure everyone knows he's still younger than Clootch.

So we'll 'stretch' out our birthday greetings to our 'elevated' colleague (he is 6'4" after all), wish him the best on this important day and wait for his response, which in Kory's laid back style, will invariably be, 'Cool'.

The Great Consilium Golf Trivia Challenge, Part Deux

Yesterday we provided you with a taste of the hard-core golf trivia contest that transformed the first ever Consilium Cup Gold Tournament from a pleasant round of nine holes of best ball to a teeth-gnashing exercise in recall.

And THOSE were the easy questions.

You see, there are TWO obsessions at Consilium. Golf is one. The other is movies. And the second part of the trivia contest combined the two, challenging our golfers to identify lines from the greatest golf movies or scenes of all time.

Ready? Okay. Which movies (which are not all "golf' movies, incidentally) gave us the following lines?

1) "This is a hybrid. This is a cross, ah, of Bluegrass, Kentucky Bluegrass, Featherbed Bent, and Northern California Sensemilia. The amazing stuff about this is, that you can play 36 holes on it in the afternoon, take it home and just get stoned to the bejeezus-belt that night on this stuff."

2) "He can't do that to our pledges! Only WE can do that to our pledges!!"

3) "Easy peasy lemon squeasy."

4) "If that's his original ball, I'm Arnold Palmer".
"It isn't".
"How do you know?"
"Because I'm standing on it."

5) "You little son of a bitch ball! Why you don't you just go HOME? That's your HOME! Are you too good for your HOME? ANSWER ME!"

6) "The feds had been watching Nicky play golf for so long that they ran out of gas. A hundred dollars to whoever hits the plane!"

7) "You should have children playing here! You should have families having picnics! You should have a goddamned petting zoo! But NO! You got these stupid electric carts for you old men with nothing better to do! And now you're gonna die wearing that stupid little hat!"

8) "I wish they wouldn't land those things here when we're trying to play golf."

9) "I hear you lost your swing. I guess we got to go find it."



Tomorrow: The answers. Promise.

Happy Birthday jBrAD!

Jennifer Bradshaw, aka jBrAD!

You may have never seen or worked with her directly, but chances are you've spoken with her on the phone. Today is the birthday of one of the CCG family members that we interact the most with on a daily... hourly... minutely? basis. When she's not fielding your calls, jBrAD is busy printing and shipping your final report, booking flights and hotels for your next workshop or conference, and of course, enlightening you with "Things you Probably Didn't Know" and letting you now what movies you may want to watch (or pass on...). Grosso modo, jBrAD is always there for us to make sure we can get our stuff done. From all of us at Consilium, Stonecircle and Aarluk, Happy Birthday jBrAD!

The Great Consilium Golf Trivia Challenge, Part One

Constant Readers will recall that last week marked the first ever Consilium Cup, that soon-to-be famous sporting event that combined nine holes of golf, some special challenges (like teeing off in hockey gloves) and a fiendishly difficult Golf Trivia Quiz.

In response to a request by long-time reader A.R., an obvious masochist, we are pleased to present the Trivia Quiz for your enjoyment. Part One - the Hard Core Golf Trivia component - will test your mettle on actual golf knowledge. Part Two - well, that's for tomorrow.

Ready? Here we go - one question for each hole.

1) What club was once referred to as "the Mashie?

2) What are the odds of making two holes-in-one in a round of golf?

A) 1 in 670,000?
B) 1 in 6,700,000?
C) 1 in 67,000,000? 

3) How long is the longest golf course in the world?

A) 5,488 yards?
B) 8,325 yards
C) 11,721 yards?

4) How many dimples on a regulation golf ball? (No Fair Counting!)

A) 156?
B) 226?
C) 336? 

5) Golf was actually invented in…

A) Japan?
B) Scotland?
C) Greece? 

6) The longest golf HOLE in the world, on the Satsuki Golf Club in Japan, measures:

A) 909 yards.
B) 808 Yards
C) 707 Yards 

7) How many golf courses are there in North America?

A) 11,000
B) 21,000
C) 51,000 

8)Which country has the largest number of recreational golfers per capita in the world?

A) The USA
B) Canada
C) Japan 

9) How many golf balls are currently on the Moon?

Tomorrow: The Celluloid Tee, or Golf Trivia Part Two
Wednesday: The Answers.

Flying North

The view from the Qammaq Hotel

Clyde River is a community celebrated for two key environmental features: its proximity to some of Nunavut’s most stunning fjords and cliffs, and its weather, which has the ability to change on a dime (every half hour or so, according to experienced travelers). These changes can include everything from wind variability to dense levels of fog or snow.

Although these types of fluctuations in the weather delayed Aarluk researcher Geoff “Bigrig” Rigby’s trip to the community by one day (in this case, heavy fog), he was able to land safely on Wednesday and meet with the Clyde River District Education Authority (DEA), as part of the evaluation of operating costs and responsibilities of Nunavut DEAs Aarluk is conducting on behalf of the Coalition of Nunavut District Education Authorities. The trip was a success, the DEA was anxious to provide its input, and Geoff was able to take some pictures of a stunning sunrise the next day.

Consulting At Its Simplest

How Do Adults REALLY Learn?

You've seen it happen a thousand times. A group of intelligent, experienced, interesting people have gathered for a workshop. They're laughing and talking over coffee and muffins; the conversation is animated, stimulating. Then they sit down at the workshop table, and suddenly turn into “students”....quiet, passive, waiting to be “taught”.

Most adults revert back to the classroom when they think about “training”. But research...and your own life experience...have shown that adult learners are different. They have different needs, they learn in different ways. Too many of the training programs we attend are designed like high school courses, where teachers teach and learners learn. Training programs and workshops designed for adult learners must reflect the way that adults really learn.

So what makes adult learners different?

The Consilium Cup: Exclusive Coverage!

Chuck, T'd off. Note trivia card in foreground.

Each year the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) holds four major championships: the Masters, the US Open, the Open Championship, and the PGA Championship. Last week the Consilium Consulting Group added a fifth world class sporting event to that revered calendar: October 6^th marked the launch of the Consilium Cup at Ottawa's prestigious and challenging Pine View Golf Course. 

Sixteen hand-picked elite golfers from Ottawa and the greater Ottawa region were organized into a quatrain of foursomes determined to etch their names of the cup of glory for all of golf eternity.

                             

The Consilium Cup cup was played by tradition (well, a week-old tradition) in best-ball format. True to Consilium form (we love a challenge), the game was a bit more complicated than most. 

Lei Han and Greg Smith go green.

First, the golfers were required to choose team names, which were then voted on by the other teams. This year’s names: 

• Night Crawlers (with Chuck ‘I would have beat Kory’s drive if my club didn’t break’ Gilhuly, Lei 'I LOVE this crazy game' Han, David 'I know a club in Kuala Lumpur that serves an excellent sambal' Boult, and Greg 'No, really, I only play once every ten years' Smith);
• Strokes of Genius (with Ron ‘Can I pick my teammates or what?’ Ryan, Jennifer 'Don't give me a funny name because I'm your boss, Kory' David, Morgan ‘I don’t even work here’ Hare, and Terry ‘I’m only going to putt, but I wanna drive the cart’ Rudden);
• Swingin’ F.A.N.S. (Kory 'Powerhouse' Goulais, Leslie 'First Floor' Sutherland, Christian ‘I ALWAYS bring my hockey gloves to golf’ Cloutier and Galin ‘I HATE this crazy game’ Kora); and 
• Fore Play (Jennifer ‘Boom-Boom’ Bradshaw, Chris 'Hey, I can make the scoring even MORE complicated if I try' Grosset, Fred 'It's all about the second law of thermodynamics' Weihs, and Scott ‘I drive like a maniac’ Black). 

Strokes of Genius won the title of best team name (of course).

To complicate things even further, the golfers were subjected to random tasks as they proceeded throughout the holes. On the second hole, golfers were required to tee of using hockey gloves, an idea taken from the AFN golf tournament. Hole five was the long drive hole. Hole six had golfers putting with a wooden club that Ron Ryan acquired from who knows where. Lastly, hole eight had each golfer on the team using the same three clubs.

Because golf is way easy to master (pause here for incredulous stares), special trivia questions were placed at each hole by in-house quiz master Terry Rudden. Very few were able to answer the ridiculously hard questions. (e.g.: how many dimples on a golf ball? How many golf balls are currently on the moon? Which movie includes the line "I wish they wouldn't land those things while we're trying to golf!") An impressive (for this group) score of 7 out of 18 won the trivia challenge. Way to go Fore Play!

The Winners (not that it's about "winning", heck no): Terry, Morgan, Jennifer, and ol' Cap'n Ron

After working through a scoring system just slightly more complex than the procedures manual for a space shuttle launch, it was determined that Strokes of Genius were the victors,and immediately subjected to some good humoured ribbing and tire slashing for Ron's alleged and totally accidental stacking of the team.

We're going to do it again next year, but we'll precede the tournament with one month of Qualifying School (Q-School) in golf trivia, ethics, and the Scoring System.

Happy Golfing!

h/t Kory Goulais

Real Planning for Real Results: Atikameksheng Does It Right.

Strategic planning is like playing golf. Not everybody does it - and most who do it, do it badly.

Too many organizations start from scratch on a Tuesday morning, complete a SWOT analysis in half an hour; create a mission statement by their first break and "strategic" "goals" by lunch: whip off their goals, objectives and priorities by four, and wrap up with an evaluation at five. Those are the "plans" that end up collecting dust; a day or two is simply not enough time to capture the complex reality of a modern First Nation, or do justice to its planning needs.

That's why it's such a pleasure to work with clients like Atikamekwsheng Anishnwabek (formerly Whitefish Lake First Nation), a community that's doing it right.

Overheard at Consilium

From Fred Weihs, completely serious, upon returning from a trip to Washington involving planning with American military officials for the cleanup of Arctic DEW Line sites:

"You know, I never realized before why they call it the Pentagon. Do you guys know why they call it the Pentagon?"

(He's in Italy this week. Hope he's not reading the blog.)

Public Health Strategy Evaluation

We measure the success of a society by many indices - its standard of living, levels of education, or per capita income. No measure, however, is as critical as the health of its people. Defining, measuring, tracking and improving public health is a key challenge - perhaps THE key challenge - for any government.

The Nunavut Public Health Strategy (PHS) is the guiding document for addressing public health issues in the Territory. The strategy established two priorities: Healthy Children and Families, and Addiction Reduction. The strategy is designed to engage communities and encourage them to identify their health priorities and initiatives. The aim of the strategy is to improve health through prevention and promotion, address the needs of vulnerable populations and to encourage leadership, capacity, and community initiated interventions.

However, the various objectives and indicators highlighted in the strategy depend on accurate monitoring and reliable baseline data in order for H&SS to adequately track departmental progress on this work.

On behalf of the Government of Nunavut’s Department of Health and Social Services (H&SS), Aarluk has partnered with Habitat Health Impact Consulting Corporation (Habitat) to prepare a Public Health Strategy Evaluation Framework and Indicators Report. This report will provide H&SS with baseline data associated with the Public Health Strategy objectives, provide an overall evaluation framework aligned with the indicators of the strategy, and provide a current updated comparative analysis on key indicators. Aarluk’s Galin Kora and Geoff Rigby are currently working with Marla Orenstein of Habitat to collect and analyze key documents and statistics in order to develop this report- stay tuned for more updates!

h/t Geoff Rigby

A Second Head Start

Aboriginal Head Start is a preschool program for Aboriginal children. Health Canada funds delivery of the Program to children living on reserve, while children living in urban and northern centres are supported by the Public Health Agency of Canada.

The Program provides what the name suggests - "a head start" for children in learning and school readiness, with important language and culture components included.

Greg Smith and Jennifer David will be working with Mary Francis MacLellan-Wright from the Public Health Agency of Canada on an evaluation of the Aboriginal Head Start Urban and Northern Communities (AHSUNC) program. While much of the evaluation will be done in-house by government staff, Stonecircle has been asked to provide strategic advice, to support the development of a methodology and research tools, to provide advice on cultural competency and and to ensure cultural research protocols are followed.

Business Management Analysis

Running a successful business requires careful planning and consideration of multiple factors. How strong is the market for the services that are to be offered? How many staff are needed, and what kind of education and training do they require? What kinds of equipment have to be purchased? While these questions are often examined during initial business planning phases, once a business is up and running, quite often certain unforeseen issues come up or situations change that require an owner’s attention in order to keep things running smoothly (or in more severe cases, at all).

As mentioned on the blog earlier in the week, Aarluk has partnered with Otus Group to provide a new business management analysis service across the territory. This will help Nunavut businesses assess how they are doing, identify risks and opportunities, and determine where they should focus their attention. The business management analysis service is a three step process.

Calling All Aboriginal Entrepreneurs!

If you're Aboriginal person and you have your own company, or if you're thinking of starting up your own business, then consider attending the upcoming Aboriginal Entrepreneurs Conference, in Ottawa next month, October 24 and 25, 2011.

The conference is being hosted by the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, Registration is now open and information can be found here.

There will be panel discussions, speakers and skills development workshops. New and emerging businesses can find out more about how to sell to business and government, major project opportunities in Canada and other topics.

Stonecircle's Jennifer David will be speaking on a panel and is helping organize an Aboriginal women's networking breakfast as part of the conference. If you'd like more information on that, you can contact her directly at jdavid@stone-circle.ca

My Favourite Assignments: Greg's Polar Bear Hunt

Getting ready

It was nearly thirty years ago, and I was living in Inuvik, working with the Inuvialuit (Inuit) in the Western Arctic to establish Inuvialuktun language media and train local journalists and television producers. (That work led to the creation of the Inuvialuit Communications Society (ICS), whose series Tamapta was eventually featured on Television Northern Canada (TVNC) and the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN).

During my first year in the region, I edited a quarterly magazine called Inuvialuit, which we later converted to a monthly newspaper, Tusaayaksat. Before there were any other staff members, I used to get around quite a bit to cover stories and take photographs for the magazine. In April, 1983 I was invited to photograph a polar bear hunt off Melville Island, an uninhabited area about 3-4 hours by Twin Otter north of Inuvik, NWT. Combined polar bear and muskox hunts were offered to wealthy sports hunters from around the world by Guided Arctic Expeditions, a new Inuvialuit venture designed to help people in the communities earn income from traditional activities. Each community received an allocation of tags each year allowing them to hunt so many polar bears, and the local Hunters and Trappers Association then decided how many of their tags to allocate to sports hunting, the rest being available to local hunters. It was a requirement that sports hunters use Inuvialuit guides and dog teams, which encouraged their re-introduction to the region.

Old Friends, New Services: the 2011 Nunavut Trade Show

Another year, another successful Nunavut Trade Show and Conference!

Hosted by the Baffin Regional Chamber of Commerce (BRCC) at the Arctic Winter Games Complex in Iqaluit from September 27-29, 2011, the annual trade show provided businesses, government departments, hamlets, non-governmental organizations and many other Nunavummiut with the opportunity to examine how to work better together, and exchange both business ideas and opinions.

This year was slightly different however, as this year Aarluk was joined by Francis Liska of Otus Group, who are partnering with Aarluk to provide a new business management analysis service across the territory. This service will help address a gap in Nunavut’s business community, which is that of business aftercare programs. It was Francis’ first trip to Iqaluit, and the experience was as memorable for him as it was for us. Stay tuned for more information on this new service later in the week.

The trade show ended with a charity gala and auction, with funds going towards Breakfast for Learning Nunavut (www.breakfastforlearning.ca/nunavut), a non-profit organization solely dedicated to child nutrition programs, empowering communities across Nunavut to start and sustain school nutrition programs in order to enhance learning and the healthy development of children and youth. To support this worthy cause, Aarluk donated a gift certificate entering a team of four into next year’s Habitat for Humanity charity golf tournament in Ottawa (also a great cause!).

Aarluk would like to thank everyone that stopped by to say hi at our booth. We’d also like to thank all of the BRCC staff, including Sarah LeBlanc, Hal Timar, Lisa McGrath, and Lise Chouinard who, as usual did a great job and responded to exhibitors' needs immediately. We look forward to working with you at the next Nunavut Tradeshow, and before that the Northern Lights Tradeshow (http://www.northernlightsottawa.com/) from February 1-4, 2012!

The StoryKeepers: Motorcycles and Sweetgrass, by Drew Hayden Taylor.

(From a series of reflections by Jennifer David on contemporary Aboriginal fiction in Canada.)

Many of you will familiar with Drew Hayden Taylor. You may have read his columns in Windspeaker, seen his plays, or caught some of his TV and documentary work. (You'll deduce from this introduction that Drew is a pretty versatile author).

Last year Drew published Motorcycles and Sweetgrass, his first novel for adults. With Drew's trademark humour, he sets out to answer the question, "If Nanabush were alive today, what would he look like, and what kind of havoc might he cause?"

Nanabush is a trickster figure in Anishnaabe (Ojibway) culture. He's mischevious, self-centred and makes a lot of mistakes; but his stories teach us how to live in community, what is expected of us in our various roles, and who we are as a people. Both the theme and the character fit perfectly with Drew's own playful sense of humour.

The story begins with a deathbed wish by aging Dorothy - a wish to have Nanabush visit her once before she dies. She tells him a secret and asks him to take care of her daughter Maggie (who happens to be the chief of the First Nation) and her grandson. In true Nanabush fashion, after a number of mishaps and adventures, we find out that his goal was to get Maggie to spend more time with her son, value family and enjoy time together. But of course, the resolution that Nanabush envisioned is not at all how things work out. Or, well, maybe it was...

The book is consistently amusing, with some hilarious sections (like a conversation between Nanabush and Jesus), and an interesting premise. Unfortunately, the writing is weak in some points, and some sections feel like narrative conceived for the stage, Drew's usual medium. But the strengths he brings to all his writing are very much part of the work; thoughtful exploration of complex issues and difficult emotions, expressed through humour.

The book takes on a deeper meaning for readers familiar with the Nanabush legend; but even for readers new to Aboriginal culture, Motorcycles and Sweetgrass is a fine introduction to modern reserve life, and to the different ways that people choose to live their culture and traditions in the modern world. It's also a good example of the humor-laced magic realism that is a staple of contemporary Canadian Aboriginal fiction.

Oh, and the motorcycle refers to a vintage Indian motorcyle that Nanabush rides into town on. The sweetgrass? Well, you'll have to read the book to see how that fits in.

Motorcycles and Sweetgrass was published in 2010 by Alfred Knopf.

Nunavut Government and Inuit Values: The Tuttarviit

Clockwise from top: Siobhan Arnatsiaq-Murphy standing, Anne Mullin, Shuvinai Mike, June Shappa, Carmen Levi.

The Tuttarviit group is a bold response to a enormous challenge: how do you build traditional Inuit values and approaches (referred as Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, or IQ) into the day-to-day management and governance of a modern Territory?

Tuttarviit consists of the IQ coordinators or departmental designates from all departments and agencies in the Government of Nunavut (GN). Since their creation they've developed a number of strategies to increase the impact of IQ on planning, policy development and decision making.  Aarluk was invited to design and facilitate a  strategic planning sessions to pull that work together and establish a long-term, comprehensive strategy.

The session took place in Iqaluit from September 20th to 22nd, 2011 at Nunattaq Suites, facilitated by  Victor Tootoo and Jimmy Jacquard, with research and design support from Terry Rudden. Victor reports: