Our Baffinland
Zacharias Kunuk, Ian Mauro + IsumaTV
Photography, archival pigment prints, 2013; Interactive iPad installation, 2013
Roloff Beny Gallery, ROM Level 4
Outside of Pangnirtung, a living iceberg presents itself, with a human form huddled over a rock. According to Inusiq, this ancient ice is sentient, and has a mind of its own.
Using a new generation of GPS-enabled cameras, this spatial media project explores the place-based knowledge of Inuit elders and hunters, and their experiences in a changing and increasingly industrialized Arctic. Ian Mauro’s photographs remind us that climate change, culture, and development are a tapestry of interwoven issues.
Zacharias Kunuk
Zacharias Kunuk is an Inuk filmmaker, who traded carvings for his first video camera, and went on to direct Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner as well as many other award-winning dramatic and documentary films that have screened globally. He was awarded the Order of Canada in 2005.
Ian Mauro
Ian Mauro, PhD, is a Canada Research Chair in human dimensions of environmental change. As both a scientist and filmmaker, he has directed projects on climate change in both the Arctic and Atlantic regions. He is interested in local and indigenous knowledge and its collection, conservation and communication using digital media.
IsumaTV and Kingulliit Productions
IsumaTV and Kingulliit Productions are majority Inuit-owned multi-media distribution and production companies, based in Igloolik, Nunavut, founded by Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn, and specializing in indigenous-language communications and community-based filmmaking.
Arctic Mining and Inuit Rights
Lloyd Lipsett
International Human Rights Lawyer
How can Inuit make sure the human rights of workers, families, and communities are respected amid the growing global demand for minerals from the Arctic? The proposed Baffinland mine in Nunavut is one of the world’s richest iron deposits. Bringing a multimedia human rights lens to this development ensures that all partners – governments, the transnational corporation, and Inuit representative organizations – work together to identify, monitor, and mitigate any adverse impacts on the rights of Inuit.
Read more about the Baffinland Mary River multimedia Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA) online: www.isuma.tv/did/hria
