Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Lucy

 

   This entry contains more of the work that is required in some courses that we take.  There are a variety of programs that we can choose.  In this case, Lucy is in Creative Arts (Media).  Media Arts is a program where you can take courses such as Photography, Filmmaking, Video Production, Animation, Digital Media and so on.  There are also courses like Creative Writing, Theater and Professional Theater, Painting and drawing and so on.

   In this photo, Lucy was taking photos for her class.  She is Inuk, but she lived most of her life in the south.  So she doesn't really experience the homesickness and culture shock like some of us do.

   Lucy is now on her graduating semester and she plans to move on to university.  Her specific goal after cegep is to go into Communications at Concordia.

Food, Glorious Food


   As we all know, food is obviously important.  Each and every one of us have our own cultural delicacy that we grew up with or that we love.  Most of us have the need or craving for food when that specific food isn't around.
   We, Inuit students, grew up with our own Inuit delicacy.  Most of us know what kind of food I am talking about.  The main meat we eat now is caribou and arctic char.  The other animals we can eat are goose meat, ptarmigan.  However, they are all only available to pursue in the north.
   Most of us are not able to have our own kind of food here in the south, but sometimes it is made possible to have it brought down.  We either bring the food with us or have someone send it.
   The first photo is of my cousin, Igulik, who just made her suvalik.  Suvalik is popular in the summertime when the berries are available.  It is made with fish eggs crushed and stirred by hand with oil and water.  It is not an easy task to make it.  Suvalik is like our own dessert.  The creamy-like suvaklik is added with berries and it's delicious even though most might find it appetizing by the sounds of it.
   Igulik is a first-year college student.  She goes to Marie-Victorin in Montreal-North.  She is experiencing the life in the south for the first time.  It's not easy for most of us, but she is still standing high.  She was able to have her berries and fish eggs brought down by a friend.

   The second photo is of my friend who was kind enough to bring and share her food with me.  In the photo, she is plugging the feathers and fur off of a ptarmigan.  In the wintertime, ptarmigans are available.  It is also a good delicacy.


Student Activities


   Today's entry contains a picture of Inuit students.  I took this picture after one of our student activities.  Kativik School Board (KSB) organizes activities after every two weekends.  To name a few, some of the common organized activities are: Tour around Montreal, water sliding at the water park, paintball, horseback riding, LaRonde, hockey game, zip-lining at Arbraska, Laser Quest, skiing/snowboarding, ice skating and so on.  These activities are given in order to help the Inuit students cope with being away from home.  Mostly, the activities are held to entertain the Inuit students.

   This photo was taken right after zip lining at Arbraska.  The photo contains a bunch of Inuit students who go to John Abbott and Marie-Victorin.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Project Proposal


Project Proposal

Artist Statement:
My project will be photography.  Photography is my favorite way of expressing myself and my point of views.  As I am not keen to communicate verbally, I prefer to take some images to express things and moments that are important to me as an Inuk.
My idea is to capture the moments which I had shared and still share with other Inuit in college.  In Northern Quebec, we finish off high school from a really low educational system.  When we decide to further our education, we push ourselves to continue our education in the south because there are no Post-secondary schools up north.  For those of us who do decide to go to college, we experience severe culture shock and strong homesickness.  
What inspired me to do this project was because I have experience this myself.  I really admire those who do decide to take the chance to get a better education far from home.  I want to express this feeling of hope and appreciation of being able to accomplish something that looks very difficult.  Not many of the Inuit get to experience this and not many get to fly thousands of miles to get a better education.  With this project, I am hoping to inspire, show and encourage the Inuit youth.

Description:
I am going to show my project on a Blog.  I will make the Blog on one of the website I have Blogged on since I am familiar with how things work.  I will update my Blog with a picture and a written description of the image.  For example, I will take an image of an Inuk student and post it on my blog and then write about that person.

Schedule:
I will take three photos max per week and update my Blog weekly with those three photos.