Nunavut, Canada: Hope on Ice

In the remote northern reaches of one of the wealthiest countries of the world is an aboriginal community whose young people are slowly perishing by suicide.

Hopelessness and despair are rampant in the impoverished Inuit territory of Nunavut, Canada, the legacy of a Cold War-era government strategy to establish Arctic sovereignty. The nomadic Inuit were relocated to permanent settlements and separated from their children, who were sent to distant government and church-run residential schools.

Now the policies that destroyed their parents' and grandparents' ways of life are haunting the next generation, who have lost their connection to their centuries-old traditions. Inuit youth kill themselves at a rate ten times the national average.

But in the tiny vulnerable community of Igloolik, where scores of makeshift crosses memorializing dead teenagers have been pounded into the frozen ground, some young Inuit have found a way to reclaim their lives and heritage. They've formed a circus – Artcirq – inspired by a Montreal acrobat and informed by Inuit traditions. They've become acrobats and jugglers and trapeze artists, and against all odds are headed to Vancouver to perform at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The Artcirq story exposes the long-term human consequences of the 20th century abuses of the Inuit, mirroring the dismal trajectory of aboriginal peoples across the western world. It is also a story of hope, celebrating human grace, dignity, courage, and the power of youth to reinvent their heritage through art.

(Images used with permission of the Boston Globe.)

UPDATE: Call for Funds

On November 14th, Linda Matchan and Michele McDonald will follow Artcirq as the troupe travels to Guinea to partner with acrobats from the group Kalabante in Conakry, which supports basic education in Guinea, in a joint humanitarian mission.

The trip will show how young aboriginal people on both sides of the globe - impoverished and marginalized in a globalized world - have overcome wretched despair through the arts and are reaching out to aboriginal communities in order to help them.

In order to document it, the film crew needs to raise $50,000 in the next 30 days. Donate to the project by visiting: www.artcirqthefilm.com.