Our Featured Celebration

 

It's time we all had a frank chat about Canada's peculiar midsummer gem, the "August Civic Holiday." A holiday where we take a day off to celebrate...taking a day off. Just say it: Happy "August Civic Holiday"! Doesn't that just send you capering into the street, dancing with festive glee? Yippee. You would think we were a nation that lacks cool things to celebrate. Nonsense. We could be toasting National Timmy's IceCap Day. Or Red Green Day, with a merry garland of duct-tape rosettes. Or National Buy-Peter-Mansbridge-A-Hairpiece Day. Something. Anything. Thanks, I feel better now.

WHAT'S HAPPENING AT CONSILIUM, AARLUK and ARDOS... In this corner of our site we'll be posting notes on new people, new projects, and new online materials you may find interesting. Enjoy, and come back often.

NEW PROJECTS      

Aarluk has begun working with the Hamlet of Gjoa Haven to review and update their Community Economic Development plan. Ron Ryan, Chris Grosset and Marla Limousin are working with an Economic Development Committee on the new plan. In June, Chris and Marla spent a week in Gjoa Haven to hold initial consultations with members of the community and begin work with the Hamlet's new CEDO, Sarah Kamimmalik. The next step in the project will be to prepare strategic options for development, followed by a second community visit this fall to work on goals and objectives with the committee. (Above: Gjoa Haven Economic Development Committee members have a little fun during the planning meetings. From left to right: SAO Sterling Firlotte ('Speak no Evil"), Teddy Carter ("Hear no Evil"), and Peter Akkikungnaq ("I'm not amused")

Jennifer David of ARDOS will be writing the Annual Report for the Aboriginal Headstart On-Reserve Program, with the support of her trusty editor Terry Rudden.

The Two Terries (Rudden and Forth) are working with a Committee of Government of Nunavut senior managers to develop a strategy for the management of contaminated sites in Nunavut. It is conservatively estimated that Nunavut contains at least 400 discrete sites regarded as contaminated, including former military installations, abandoned quarries, solid waste and sewage disposal facilities. The goal is a plan that will ensure the remediation or management of these sites for the protection of humans, wildlife, and the environment.

Alex Ker and Fred Weihs will be working once again with the Deline Land Corporation to complete a project that supports fiscal planning for implementation of a Deline Final Self-Government Agreement (DFSGA) and Denewa Government. The project will consolidate data on current and historical government expenditures on programs and services that benefit Deline, and provide cost estimates for components of Denewa Government.

 

ONGOING PROJECTS

Chris Grosset and Marla Limousin were pleased to present the final interpretive sign designs for the Northwest Passage Historic Walking Trail while on their trip to Gjoa Haven. The presentation was held at the community centre with many members of the community in attendance. The new signage interprets the years 1903-1905 when Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen anchored his ship Gjoa in the harbour. The signs use archival photographs, stories told by Elders, excerpts from the diary of Amundsen, and student art work to present the Inuit and European perspectives on this remarkable time in the history of Gjoa Haven. Several of the Elders and students that contributed to the project were in attendance. The walking trail will include signs at five locations around the community and be accompanied by a trail brochure that encourages walkers to visit five other local points of interest. The Government of Nunavut Territorial Parks Division plan to proceed with the fabrication and installation of the signs for 2007. By a cosmic twist of fate, as Chris and Marla presented the Gjoa Haven artwork, Terry Forth was celebrating his birthday with a visit to the Gjoa (yes, the real ship) at the Fram Museum in Oslo, Norway. (Above: Chris and Marla soak up the midnight sun on June 21 in Gjoa Haven. Below: An example of the new NWP Trail interpretive signs - this sign will greet visitors at the new Gjoa Haven Airport.)

               

 

Great feedback trom the Aboriginal Human Resources Development Council's Workforce Connex project. President and CEO Kelly Lendsay sent us word of a real success story from the BC Workforce Connex Conference; as a result of a connection made at the conference between Stolo Nation and Safeway representatives, 26 Aboriginal clients were hired.

HAPPY ENDINGS

After six months of planning, the "Achieving Objectives" Land Claims Conference took place June 27-30 at the Hilton Hotel in Gatineau. More than four hundred and seventy leaders, scholars, journalists, bureaucrats, international guests and policymakers worked through three intensive days of presentations, panels and working groups to establish a new framework for Land Claims implementation in Canada.

Leaders and delegates from all ten of the major comprehensive claims groups in Canada agreed on four key principles, ten sub-principles, and over fifty technical and structural recommendations in areas like Funding, Economic Self-Sufficiency, Harvesting, Dispute Resolution, and Capacity Building to form the basis of a Canadian Claims Implementation Policy.

In the cracks between the working sessions, there were Métis Jiggers with a brilliant young fiddler, a gala performance by Juno-winning Taima, and a hilarious performance by Don Kelly (featuring his deathless performance as an Ojibway Hamlet.)

The three day conference ran without a hitch, and a good deal of the credit goes to organizer Patti Black, ably backed up by her right hand person Ryan Lotan, left hand person Leslie Sutherland, Jennifer Bradshaw as the Star Shlepper, and all the Consilium partners, staff and associates who facilitated, recorded, registered, lugged, set up, and helped in a dozen ways to make the event an outstanding success.

(Above: Conference co-chairs Nelson Leeson and Nellie Cournoyea, Elder Peter Decontie, and 470 + close friends. Below: Team Consilium onsite. L-R: Leslie Sutherland, Patti Black, Ryan Lotan, Jennifer Bradshaw)

 

           

 

NEW FACES

 

The latest addition to the Consilium Consulting Group Team in our Ottawa office (second floor, turn left at the coffee table) is Christian Cloutier, a bilingual Researcher specializing in quantitative and qualitative methodology design, statistical analysis, and database design and application. He holds an honours bachelor's degree in Sociology through Laurentian University (Sudbury, Ontario) and its federate l'Université de Hearst (Kapuskasing, Ontario) and he is currently completing his master's degree in Applied Social Research with Laurentian University. His areas of expertise include Youth Studies, Cross-cultural Studies and Community Economic Development Planning.

 

Next time you call the Aarluk office, expect to greeted by a brand new pleasant voice. We are pleased to welcome our newest Aarluk employee - Jacqueline Evaloakjuk, pictured here with Comguard CTS head, David Fulgham and Terry Forth of Aarluk. Jackie will be the new Office Assistant to both companies in their joint Iqaluit headquarter suite in the Igluvut Building. Jackie grew up in Coral Harbour on Southampton Island and graduated from Qitiqliq High School in Arial, Nunavut as the youngest graduate in the school's history.

TEN YEARS AGO THIS MONTH

Terry Rudden completed "How To Become A DIO", a plain-language manual setting out the step-by-step process of designation for Inuit organizations in Nunavut.

 

BIRTHDAYS

Fred "The Godfather" Weihs turns 400 this month (that's in dog years, of course. Still...) He celebrated his 400th with a cross country trip, traversing the Northwest States with daughter Leah and two puppies, and arriving in Calgary, just in time for the Stampede, to visit daughter Rosina. He resolutely refused to be photographed in cowboy regalia, uttering only a cryptic "Remember Harper".

And sharing the Cake-and-Candle honours this month is Ian Kenney, who is having an incredibly complicated summer involving impending marriage (yeah, it was him), moving, and meetings across Canada with the Aboriginal Human Resources Development Council. So we won't tease him here. We'll tease him at the bottom of the newsletter.

GOSSIP       

As of September 1, Chris Grosset will become the latest Consilium partner to succumb to the Mysterious Lure of the Mississippi and take up permanent residence in Almonte, joining Fred Weihs and Greg Smith. Chris' new home was built around 1860 and has lots of gardens to keep him busy - plans are already in the works for next years staff BBQ in the backyard. Ryan Lotan remains the only Consiliumite to have escaped Almonte, and is still muttered about darkly at the Mill as "the one who got away".

Terry Rudden began a three-month training program to become a registered Scuba Dive instructor. No, this has nothing to do with the Contaminated Sites project mentioned above: it's just a chance for Terry to combine two of his favourite activities, diving and training. Cheap lessons guaranteed to all Newsletter Subscribers.

 

 

 

           

 

 

    CHECK BACK EVERY MONTH FOR MORE CONSILIUM NEWS, TOOLS, AND GOSSIP.