IGLOOLIK, Nunavut — Canada’s first and only all-Inuktut TV channel, Uvagut TV, is celebrating its first anniversary this week.
The channel was launched on Monday, Jan. 18, 2021 by Nunavut Independent Television (NITV) and started out broadcasting 168 hours a week of Inuit-produced culture, arts, movies and information programming.
Uvagut TV is available nationally to more than 610,000 customers across the country via Shaw Direct satellite service and can also be streamed via uvagut.tv. The channel is also carried by Arctic Co-op Cable in Nunavut and Northwest Territories and by FCNQ in Nunavik, in northern Quebec.
“Thank you to everyone who have supported Uvagut TV, this first year would not have been so successful without your help,” said Lucy Tulugarjuk (above, right), NITV chair and executive director, in a press release today.
“Elders are proud to see our language being represented. Medical travel patients and escorts who have to travel to the south are given the opportunity to feel close to home. Some Inuit who may have forgotten how to speak Inuktitut are given that chance to relearn Inuktuk. Together we are restoring part of our identity,” Tulugarjuk said.
Uvugat TV broadcasts programs by Inuvialuit Communications Society, shows by Isuma, Arnait Video, Artcirq, Kingulliit and Taqqut Productions, award-winning Inuktut movies such as Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, classic series, documentaries and new programs like Silakut Live From the Floe Edge and Tunnganarnik broadcasting live from Nunavut communities and the remote arctic wilderness, says the press release. The channel has also provided live coverage of important civic events.
Some of the highlights of Uvagut TV’s programming over the last 12 months include:
- Live coverage direct from Pond Inlet of the Nunavut Impact Review Board (NIRB) hearing on the proposed Baffinland mine expansion, starting on Jan. 25, 2021.
- The resumption of the live broadcast of the NIRB hearing in April 2021.
- A partnership in May 2021 with Nunvutut Sivuniksavut and Nunavik Sivunisavut to broadcast their graduation ceremonies and a collaboration with NTI to broadcast a live ceremony honouring the 2021 Inuktuuqta! Inuktut Writing Prize.
- Live broadcast coverage of Nunavut Day celebrations on July 9, 2021.
- Live coverage of Mary Simon’s installation as Governor General in Inuktitut on July 25, 2021.
- Live coverage of the Federal Leaders’ Debate in the Inuktitut language with commentary and a live discussion with Nunavut MP candidates, hosted by former Nunavut premier Paul Quassa, in September 2021.
In addition, Tulugarjuk, who is also Uvagut TV’s managing director, took part in the Banff World Media Festival’s inaugural Indigenous Screen Industry Summit in June 2021.
Also in June 2021, Uvagut TV announced it was helping to build live production capacity in communities across Inuit Nunangat, by “enabling filmmaking teams to produce and share their stories with each other and a national audience”.
Last fall, as Uvagut TV found it was being restricted by the NIRB to not rebroadcast hearing sessions from the Baffinland mine public hearing, NITV filed a motion challenging the NIRB’s decision.
In November 2021, NITV filed for a judicial review with the Nunavut Court of Justice, challenging the NIRB’s refusal to allow Uvagut TV to rebroadcast the public hearings.
At the time, Tulugarjuk said: “We are continuing to stand for Inuit rights to participate in the NIRB process and to be meaningfully informed about what is happening on Inuit lands.”
Photo showing Tulugarjuk and NITV board member Zacharias Kunuk (left) courtesy of Isuma Distribution International.
