From Tuk to the Global Stage

Words by Dana Bowen Sallirmiutun translation by Albert Elias

From the forest fires in the Amazon and Australia to the melting icecaps, it seems difficult to realistically deny that climate change is real. For most of Canada, its residents can vaguely see it happening, but understand most of it through something they’ve read, rather than experienced. For a group of young people living in Tuktoyaktuk, however, that hasn’t been the case. For them, the change is happening right before their eyes.

“The shrinking sea levels are a big thing around here,” said 19-year-old Nathan “Muk” Kuptana. “It’s taking away part of our land— every 2-3 metres.”

And Kuptana isn’t exaggerating. Sea levels are rising and the winter period is starting later and ending earlier. It’s affecting houses built near the shoreline to the point where they’re literally sinking.

“They need to move to a different location,” Kuptana explained. “Now they have to adapt because that was their home.”

For any Canadian southerner, this may seem like a distant problem. After all, it’s not usually the voices of young Northerners who they’d hear from. That is—until now.

A group of seven students from 15-19 years old came up with Happening to Us in 2019.

It began as a film workshop that turned into the 20-minute documentary, where students interviewed government officials and community members about the effects rising temperatures really has on the North. Its filmmakers include Kuptana himself. While he said doesn’t intend to pursue film as a career, Kuptana joined the project due to his interest in filmmaking—and documentaries in particular.

“I was doing academic courses and had free time between some courses,” he explained. “I asked if I could join the media course because film is interesting to me.”

Other students involved include 17-year-olds Carmen Kuptana and Eriel Lugt, who worked both behind and in front of the camera. Darryl Tedjuk and Brian Kikoak joined in, as well as a couple other students who helped behind the scenes. During the workshop, they chose two topics to create films on, both of which addressed key factors of what it means to be a young person in the North. Living In Two Worlds was the second project, which spoke to juggling both modern and traditional life. While both documentaries were successful, it was Happening To Us that surpassed their expectations by a long-shot.

Thanks to Inuit Circumpolar Council’s invitation, the film’s creators travelled to Madrid, Spain to screen the project at the UN Climate Change Conference. It happened in December 2019—when many countries around the globe committed to updating national climate action plans. Happening To Us was seen by world leaders across the globe. The conference also included Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg. Known world-wide, Thunberg has become an icon for many because, at 16, she has become the face of fighting climate change—proving anyone can make a difference.

“Ever since I seen her on social media and seen her talking at press conferences, I thought, this is pretty amazing to see a girl like that step up for climate change,” said Carmen Kuptana.

For Lugt, she said fighting alongside Thunberg for the same thing made her feel like she was part of something bigger.

“It’s like there’s a possibility we can make a difference,” she said.

The story in Happening To Us was certainly an important one, as it demonstrates how climate change is happening in Northerners’ backyards— literally. While filming, Victoria PhD student Maeva Gauthier asked about the large sinking hole she could see beside Lugt’s house. The teenager explained how during the previous summer, her family had to take off the ramp from the balcony because of that sinkhole.

“By next summer, we’ll probably have to move the house back or take off the whole balcony,” she explained.

It’s due to the rising water levels and permafrost thawing, Lugt added, which is causing more damage than the average person may think. Many NWT communities are built on varying types of permafrost.

“Every year we get the freeze and thaw of permafrost and the buildings shift around, making it so windows and doors don’t operate properly,” said Douglas Esagok, a research advisor in Inuvik. “They also develop stress cracks inside the house—you’d see them in any house in the North.”

Esagok explained that at the rate permafrost is thawing, houses and roads in the community are starting to shift and degrade at a fast pace. That means rebuilding or reworking roads and houses—adding to the already high costs of Northern living. This environmental issue is affecting many Northerners and acts as a lot more than an inconvenience.

“It makes me depressed because this is my house,” said Lugt. “This is where I’ve come to feel welcome and at home. So the fact that it’s almost tipping over or that we have to move it is kind of upsetting. It doesn’t make me feel protected.”

The changing climate is also shifting the way the community interacts with it.

“One of the Elders told us that he used to be able to tell the weather by looking at the sky, but nowadays, he can’t predict the weather anymore,” Carmen Kuptana explained. “The weather can get really warm or mild and he said it used to be colder way back in the day.”

Kuptana and Lugt both fear that if nothing is done to address the problem soon, they may end up without a home.

“We live off the land and our land is important to us,” said Kuptana. “If it’s gone, it’s hard for us. We can’t do nothing else about that.”

That’s why screening the documentary at the UN conference meant so much. It was an opportunity to explain to the public that climate change is not warning people of what is to come— these young Northerners are telling the world that climate change is real and it’s “happening to us.”

When people see the film at the conference, Kuptana said, “I hope they understand what’s happening in a different part of the world. Hopefully we can get together and do something about that issue and in the end, it works out good.”

When people in Tuktoyaktuk first found out the film would be shown overseas, the community rallied together to help get its young filmmakers to the convention. The team put together a Go- FundMe page, where people and companies in the North chipped in. Canoe North Adventures fundraised and sent $3,000 and Air North gave them a big discount on tickets.

While fundraising for other trips have proven to be more difficult, vice-principal and teacher at Mangilaluk School, Michele Tomasino said, “this one is falling in our laps.”

Tomasino is one of a few adults who helped bring the project to life, along with Gauthier and Jaro Malanowski from Avatar Media.

The umbrella project, known as Nuna Tariuq Silalu (Land, Sea and Air), was first introduced as part of Gauthier’s community-based research project. Gauthier first visited the North in 2009 and since felt determined to work with youth in the community. So she later asked Tomasino (an old neighbour from Victoria) to help her gather students to bring the project to life. The students who joined soon took over, offering their own ideas for the mini-documentaries.

Joining in on Nuna Tariuq Silalu was an easy decision for Muk Kuptana, because of his existing love and curiosity for film. He mentioned a similar project he joined a couple of years prior, Reel Youth, where students learned how to use film equipment and work on projects.

“I was part of another film group and that got me interested and I thought, 'I could go further and deeper into film,'” he said.

Lugt was drawn to the program, for the sake of doing something different and to tell her community’s stories. The further Lugt got into the project, the more rewarding she found it. She credited the workshop with giving her a voice and learning “how it is to work and to come up with your own ideas to create something.”

While Lugt was in front of the screen, she also spent plenty of time behind it as a film editor. This, she said, was her favourite part.

“It was really fun. I really enjoyed it—putting together a story and putting it together how ever I wanted it to go. That’s what I really like,” she said. “It made me feel really involved.”

The workshop was meant to be 2.5 weeks, but it soon stretched into a month, with the time it took for students to hone their skills, film and edit the pieces. All that work was certainly recognized by the community after they screened each film during its launch in June, 2019. More than 70 people attended the event, which left the community amazed at the work these young people had done.

“People would say, ‘I’m tearing up—this is so sad, but so real.’” Tomasino recalls. The film “shows everything going on here, but it gives a little bit of light and hope.”

And despite the nature of climate change, the film certainly created a lot of positivity.

These students face the brunt of climate change everyday. And yet showing the film to their community, and later to those at the UN conference, was a chance to let the world know that their voices matter. And it isn’t going to stop there—now those skills are being passed down to younger students, who still have the equipment gear at their disposal.

“There’s already younger students, at like 13 years old, who are shadowing the older students,” said Gauthier. “There’s definitely a knowledge transfer already.”

Having younger kids involved comes just in time for the creation of TukTV. The new official organization came into effect last summer, as a way to create more film projects and to be eligible for government funding. The younger community members wasted no time getting started on more documentaries. The team at TukTV accepted a commissioned project to teach southerners how to conduct community research positively, in regards to whom researchers should talk to and how.

“We have 5,000 researchers come in annually,” explained Tomasino. “We want to make sure that they’re using traditional knowledge and are not coming in with views of their own. It’s about educating researchers on researching in the North.”

The students are sure to create more projects in the future, as the next phase of Nuna Tariuq Silalu is starting in March 2020, when Gauthier and Malanowski return with more film workshops. That will involve looking at plastics in waterways.

Lugt and Carmen Kuptana are graduating, so there will be more space for others to come in to learn and create the next generation of activists. But even with their leave from the program, Lugt added that creating these films has been a valuable experience.

It’s given Lugt a chance to have her voice heard and hopefully create some change, she said. The young woman simply wants to protect her community.

“I want to be able to go out on the land without there being any worries,” said Lugt. “Climate change opened up my eyes that we might not have that, so this is mostly to protect my land and culture.”

This is just the beginning for the 17-year-old— who said she intends to pursue politics. And while Lugt doesn’t have a clear idea of what that means for her yet, Lugt explained she wants to make a difference in her community.

While Muk Kuptana has already done a lot in Tuktoyaktuk at 19. Aside from being an avid hockey player, he is an assistant youth coordinator at the Jason Jacobson Youth Center.

As for his work with Nuna Tariuq Silalu, Kuptana said he hopes the film will play a role in carrying on his culture for himself, and others. “And to do that, I gotta look at the climate change issue that is happening nowadays,” he said.

It’s clear TukTV and Nuna Tariuq Silalu have encouraged the community’s youth to make a statement, letting the public know that their voices do matter.

“It shows them anything can be done,” said Tomasino. “This project came to us because of passionate people and continues because of passionate people.”

And that passion is what brought Happening To Us to an international stage—demonstrating that regardless of someone’s age or where they come from, their voices can make all the difference. So TukTV will continue on, telling the North’s stories through the voices of its young and determined protectors.

Project partners and special thanks: Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami; Inuvialuit Regional Corporation; Tuktoyaktuk Community Corporation; Climate Change Preparedness in the North Program; Mangilaluk School; Avatar Media; University of Victoria; Inuit Circumpolar Council; Community of Tuk and online donors; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council; Aurora Research Institute; Oceans North; Canoe North Adventures; The Government of Canada

Want to get involved with TukTV? Join the Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/tuktvfilms/.