Our Featured Celebration
On June 16, 1904, a young Irish “student” and wastrel met his date, a young woman outside Finn’s Hotel in Dublin, where she worked as a chambermaid. The couple chatted, walked to Ringsend and agreed to meet again. Thirty years later, that student, James Joyce, set the entire action of his novel “Ulysses” on that one day in Dublin, to commemorate the day he met his future wife, Nora Barnacle. His modest goal in “Ulysses” was “to give a picture of Dublin so complete that if the city one day suddenly disappeared from the earth it could be reconstructed out of my book." Fans of Ulysses celebrate each June 16th as “Bloomsday” by eating fried kidneys for breakfast, walking down a seawrack-strewn beach muttering incomprehensibly, or staying in bed and saying “Yes” a lot.
NEW LOOK
Last month we brought you the new, improved Stonecircle logo. This month we present the refurbished Aarluk logo, which, courtesy of Beat Studios, has undergone a fin-lift and (for all you marine biologists out there) a sex change.
NEW PROJECTS
Ron Ryan participated in a meeting of national Aboriginal organizations to agree on a joint strategy for the renewal of the Aboriginal Human Resources Development Strategy, due to expire next spring. The Strategy has been a uniquely successful long-term collaboration between Aboriginal groups and Canada to strengthen economic development, businesses, training and employment for Aboriginal people across Canada.
The Canadian Arctic Resources Committee (CARC) has hired the Consilium conference team, headed up by Patti Black, to coordinate their 5th national conference, entitled 2030 North. The event, hosted by CARC, ITK and the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies (CMSS) will bring together over 350 Aboriginal leaders, scientists, academics, policy makers, government representatives, NGOs, and industry to generate the foundations of a comprehensive northern strategy addressing the challenges and opportunities facing northerners and Canada. The 2½ day event will be held at the Ottawa Marriott from January 26-29, 2009. Stay tuned for more details.
Aarluk Consulting has been contracted by Atuqtuarvik Corporation to conduct the 2008 survey of registered Inuit firms. The survey, which will be managed by Greg Smith and involves team members Chris Cloutier and Abraham Tagalik, will be completed by early September. It will update the profile of registered Inuit firms and provide information about sector activity, financing requirements and support needs. The previous survey was conducted by Aarluk in 2004.
ONGOING PROJECTS
 Energized, exhausted, inspired – that would be Jennifer David after three full days of interviewing Canada’s leading Aboriginal artists for the Canada Council. She had the privilege of sitting down with 24 leading artists in dance, music, theatre, writing, media and visual arts. Over the summer, she will be writing profiles for a book celebrating Aboriginal art in Canada.
Patti Black will be producing a compilation of recent studies and projects Climate Change Adaptation for Indian and Northern Affairs.
 In spring 2006 the federal government responded to a crisis in Nunavut by providing $200 million for public housing. In October 2006, the Nunavut Housing Trust Delivery Strategy was approved. The Delivery Strategy was intended to support job-creation, community–based economic development initiatives and targeted training plans to enhance the positive social impacts of intensified construction. The Aarluk team, consisting of project manager Chuck Gilhuly, Denis Simard, Terry Rudden, Don Sandercock, Terry Forth, and Geoff Rigby completed an initial review of the implementation of the Delivery Strategy to date, and provided the Housing Corporation with results and recommendations. Among the key findings was an encouraging reduction in the cost of per-unit construction, reflecting the impact of an innovative new approach to marshalling pioneered by the Housing Corporation.
Terry Rudden, working with Richard Connolly of the Nunavut Inuit Wildlife Secretariat and Bert Dean of NTI, has completed a draft set of manuals to support the management and governance of HTOs across Nunavut, with input from Graeme Dargo of Yellowknife.
HAPPY ENDINGS
 Ryan Lotan, a six-year veteran of Consilium, has, to our collective regret, left the firm to pursue a lifelong interest in beekeeping. He leaves behind an office full of friends, a track record of great projects, a corner office instantly snatched up by the Clootch, and great void where this editor’s pop culture advisor used to be. We wish him all the best in his new career, and send him off with this quote from Jonathan Swift, speaking on behalf of the Bee: “Whatever we have got has been by infinite labour and search, and ranging through every corner of nature; the difference is, that, instead of dirt and poison, we have rather chosen to till our hives with honey and wax; thus furnishing mankind with the two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light.” Pictured above: Chris Grosset and Ryan Lotan
GOSSIP
Visitors to Consilium at noon on Thursdays will be drawn to the Boardroom by the mellifluous sound of reasoned discourse, impeccably modulated voices, and pizza. Those are the sounds of our in house Speechcraft program, a Toastmaster program to develop speech and presentation skills under the tutelage of volunteer instructors Tom Trottier and Beverley McKiver. We know, you’re asking yourself – how could the Consilium team possible become even MORE articulate and entertaining? Well, just wait.
- Lanscape Architect, raconteur and rockstar (see below) Chris Grosset has added sculptor, philanthropist and Friend of the Birds to his credits. Chris spent months designing and building an amazing sculptural bird house for a fund-raising auction for the Mill of Kintail, which won the Best Birdhouse Award. Chris then placed a winning bid on his own creation so the bird house could take it’s rightful place in his own garden. Applications are currently being accepted from local chickadees hoping to rent this luxury pad.
General manager Chuck Gilhuly presents Rankin Inlet Mayor Lorne Kusugak with a poster-sized tribute to the Original Hockey Fans of Rankin Inlet, on behalf of Aarluk Consulting Inc.
 Seasoned Consiliumite David Boult recently returned from a trip overseas after handily dodging the cyclone in Myanmar and an earthquake in China. The main objective of the trip was to assist an old friend of David’s open a bar in the town of Aunang, Thailand. Muttering to himself, David was heard to say “Bloody far to travel to find a bar that will let me run a tab”. Dedicated readers of the newsletter will recall that David’s friend was none other than Shawn Thomas, a 30-year resident of Iqaluit who recently closed up shop for warmer climes.
Highlights of the trip included visiting a wide range of local food markets and restaurants to sample fares including large water bugs, dog, and durian fruit (tastes like heaven, smells like death). In an event surely to garner a nomination in the “Isn’t It A Small World” event, David, upon reaching a high point on the Great Wall of China, bumped into Murray Angus and a group of Inuit students from the Nunavut Sivuniksavut training program in Ottawa. The group was returning from a reputedly marvelous trip to Mongolia.
BIRTHDAYS
This month’s sole celebrant is Aarluk partner Terry Forth, whose June 15 birthday is well known to all designers of policies and procedures as the anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta. Actual, authentic video of the signing of the Magna Carta here. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Landing&displayDate=06/15&
categoryId=leadstory)
AND THE WINNER IS
 We are delighted to announce an astonishing win for last month's "Consilium Rocks!" contest, in which we invited you to match the Consultant you THOUGHT you knew with the inner Rocker. Hats off to Aseena Allurut, who scored an astonishing 100% accuracy rate in her response. Here are Aseena's answers, for which she will receive the Soon-To-Be-Legendary Stonecircle Mystery Promotional Item. Honourable mention to the alert Winnipeg reader who correctly identified Chuck Gilhuly's chin.
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Shattered
with
CHUCK GILHULY
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Wolfgang
Cheetah Sound Express
with
CHRIS GROSSET
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Freelance
with
IAN KENNEY
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Bjarski, Rudden and Fraser
with
TERRY RUDDEN
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