Earlier this month, the Canada Council for the Arts announced the shortlist for the 2025 Venice Biennale of Architecture. Among them is Pikkuminartut (Things that you want to own, that are desirable), which is a group of primarily Inuit, which includes organizations, architects, curators, designers and multimedia artists. The project will look at Inuit storytelling through contemporary airport architecture, created with both Inuit and non-Inuit knowledge. Grounded in decolonizing histories and framed within questions about the role of contemporary architecture in Inuit territories, this exhibition will consider geography and culture as well as global human rights issues. Inuit on the team include: environmental and cultural defender Siila Watt-Cloutier; scholar and Inuit Art Foundation Board President Heather Igloliorte; intern architect Nicole Luke; performer, producer and director Sylvia Cloutier; and curator and President of the Inuit Circumpolar Council Lisa Koperqualuk.

imagineNATIVE Moves Festival to June and Postpones 2024 Event

The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in Toronto, ON, announced the postponement of its 2024 event and that future iterations of the fall festival has been permanently moved to June, marking the next festival date as June 3–8, 2025. The move is concurrent with Indigenous Peoples’ Month, to further amplify the work of Indigenous filmmakers. The online festival will take place after the in-person festival from June 9–15, 2025. Films produced between 2023 and 2025 are eligible for submission. imagineNATIVE is the largest Indigenous festival that showcases film, video, audio and digital, and interactive media made by Indigenous creators. Last year, eight prizes were awarded to circumpolar Indigenous filmmakers, including Ayaal Adamov, Inga Elin Marakat and Lucy Tulugarjuk. 

Great Northern Arts Festival Returns to Inuvik, NT this Summer

After a one-year hiatus, the Great Northern Arts Festival is set to return to Inuvik, Inuvialuit Settlement Region, NT, this summer, running July 10–15. The festival, which ran every year since 1989 prior to 2020, features artists across various media—jewelry, visual arts, performance and fashion-–from Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. The festival was canceled for the first time in 2020 due to COVID-19, then again in 2023 due to staffing issues. The theme of this year’s festival is “Ashes to Arts,” in honour of Northwest Territories and the wildfires its residents faced last summer.

Canadian Heritage Announces Permanent Funding to Support Indigenous-led Storytelling On Screen

On March 14, Canadian Heritage announced permanent funding to support Indigenous-led storytelling through the Indigenous Screen Office (ISO). The funding includes $65 million over five years starting in 2024–2025 and $13 million ongoing for the ISO, which will help more First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples tell their own stories. The ISO is an independent, Indigenous-led organization that supports Indigenous storytelling and narrative sovereignty on screen. It has partnerships with Netflix, Google, the Sundance Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the six years since the ISO was created, it has supported a number of Indigenous screen productions including some notable Inuit-made films, like Slash/Back (2022) directed by Nyla Inuuksuk.

asinnajaq’s Work Included in New Exhibition at MAC Montréal

Visual artist, filmmaker and writer asinnajaq is part of the group exhibition femmes volcans forêts torrents on view at the Musée d’art contemporain in Montreal, QC, from April 11 to August 18. The exhibition features work by nine female artists who currently live in Quebec—asinnajaq, Jacynthe Carrier, Maria Ezcurra, Caroline Gagné, Anahita Norouzi, Nelly-Eve Rajotte, Sabrina Ratté, Sonia Robertson, and Malena Szlam—and examines ideas of nature and communities, from the waters of the St. Lawrence River to the soils of the tundra. In 2020, asinnajaq was longlisted for the Sobey Art Award and is part of the touring circumpolar group exhibition ᐊᖏᕐᕋᒧᑦ / Ruovttu Guvlui / Towards Home. The artist is also a guest curator for this year’s Whitney Biennial film program, which opened this month. 

Netflix Show North of North Starts Production in Iqaluit, NU

The recently titled series North of North, co-produced by CBC, Netflix and APTN with Red Marrow Media and Northwood Entertainment, began production in Iqaluit, NU, earlier this month. Formerly known as “Untitled Arctic Comedy,” the 10-episode series is scheduled to film until June and features many Nunavummiut and Iqalummiut cast members, extras and production crew. The series stars Inuk actor Anna Lambe and features Inuit cast members  Zorga Qaunaq, Maika Harper and Tanya Tagaq, alongside many others.