How the North is Changing the Council

A blog post by Director and CEO Simon Brault

The time spent in the North has changed me – and it is changing more and more the way the Council works.

This idea came to me last June, returning from my third visit to Canada’s Northern Territories as Director and CEO of the Canada Council for the Arts.

In 2019 I traveled to several communities in Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon.

This time, the Council’s senior leaders accompanied me on a visit to the Northwest Territories and the Yukon.

• We met with artists and cultural workers where they make and share art – in studios, theatres, community centers and craft shops.
• We took many people to visit innovative local projects such as the community greenhouse in Inuvik and the Inuvik Satellite Station Facility, which features works by local indigenous artists.
• We attended community meetings, including in Tuktoyaktuk on the Arctic Ocean coast.
• We spoke to leaders and community members at the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly in Yellowknife.
• We also held a first board meeting in the Northwest Territories and co-hosted the Arctic Arts Summit with the Yukon government.

Her Excellency The Honorable Mary Simon, Governor General of Canada, delivers a keynote address at the opening of the Arctic Arts Summit 2022.

Photo: Mike Thomas for the Yukon Arts Center.

Everywhere we went, people questioned the way we think about our mandate and the way we work. They shared their ideas and practices for creating art and building culture, invoking many connections between the land and inspiration. We’ve also heard a lot about issues that affect everyone, like climate change.

And with our international guests at the Whitehorse Summit, we explored just how much the people of the circumpolar north have in common—and many areas where they can work together.

Now, back in Ottawa, we are changing how the council responds to the realities and opportunities of northern communities, which we recognize are different.

What we have learned – and what we make of it

One of the most important things we learned: we need long-term local partners to really make a difference.

We have a limited perspective on Northern cultural life as an organization in the South. Partners in the territories have the long-term relationships and nuanced understanding of their communities that we lack. They know what needs to be done and how it can be implemented.

That’s why We develop initiatives together with northern partners. We recently announced two partnership projects:

We want to build more partnerships like this, so stay tuned.

How we will continue to learn and change

We must constantly learn and change.

The Council welcomes the Government of Canada’s Inuit Nunangat Policy and is committed to implementing its requirements for our organization.

We also learn from research on the value of public funding for indigenous arts and cultures. This research project is based on indigenous ways of knowing. It highlights opportunities to improve the value of public funding for indigenous arts and cultures, including in the North.

We are in the process of developing one Northern Arts Roadmap and Action Plan. This work will focus on the problems that the Norse have told us about and how we will respond to them.

We’ve learned a lot – but we have to keep learning from the northerners.

Northern Arts and Cultural Center representative Dene Najho speaks at a gathering at The Makerspace in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

Photo: Geoffrey Rodriguez for the Canada Council for the Arts.

Share your thoughts with us

Meeting in person is invaluable – but when we’re apart, I still want to hear from you.

What else do we need to know about the North? About your community?

How else do we need to change? And what are we doing right?

You can write to me directly at [email protected].