Ittaq Heritage and Research Centre

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Indigenous Hunters and Guardians are an essential service—it’s time they are funded like it.

Join us online on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, to discover the social, economic, and cultural value of Indigenous Hunter and Guardian programs. In this webinar, northern leaders will share how investing in full-time hunting and Guardian initiatives tackles urgent community needs—while also generating impressive economic returns, with some programs delivering up to $5 for every $1 invested.

Speakers:

Kunuk Inutiq (Moderator)
Dr. Shari Fox, Ittaq Heritage and Research Centre
Dr. Christina Hackett, CoEvaluation Lab
Mike Jaypoody, Ittaq Heritage and Research Centre
Kelsey Wrightson, Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning
Iris Catholique, Thaidene Nëné
Kirt Ruben, Joint Secretariat - Inuvialuit Settlement Region

For more information—including access to our recent social and economic analysis of Indigenous Hunter and Guardians programs—and to register, visit: https://makeway.org/in-the-news/webinar-public-investments-in-indigenous-hunters-and-guardians/

So many people around the world experienced the spectacular skies due to the solar flare of the last couple days. Clyde River's experience was in pinks and purples and documented beautifully by our staff photographer and Manager of multimedia Robert Kautuk. This isn't AI! This is the beauty of Sila meeting the talents of Robert. Amazing photo! Photo by Robert Kautuk.

We are happy to share the news that Ittaq is the recipient of the 2025 Martin Bergmann Medal for Excellence in Arctic Leadership from the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.

It was a surprise to our team and we’re very grateful for the honour. The award was given in recognition of Ittaq’s leading work on linking Inuit knowledge and technology across our key areas of Inuit-led research, multimedia, and land-based programming -- our team’s long-time and hard work advancing Inuit self-determination in research, building a strong community-led weather station network and research program, documenting and teaching Inuit knowledge, and developing the Angunasuktiit land program. DJ Tigullaraq, Ittaq’s Manager of Land Programming, accepted the medal on behalf of Ittaq at the RCGS ceremony and gala held in Ottawa on November 5th. Congratulations to our whole team who put so much into what we do.

https://rcgs.org/programs/society-awards/bergmann-medal/

Meet Apitak. Apitak is a participant in our full-time land program, Angunasuktiit. This program runs all year round, harvesting food for the community and teaching land skills to the next generations of hunters, like Apitak. The Angunasuktiit program integrates with other programs at Ittaq and ᐃᓕᓴᖅᓯᕕᒃ Ilisaqsivik, the community non-profit that houses Ittaq. Like sewing - Apitak's clothing was made by our women's sewing program. The sewing program made a whole collection of warm hunting clothing that can be used by any of our participants. And Apitak's mitts, those were made in an Elders' sewing workshop, by one of our expert hunter-instructors, Esa. Learn more about Ittaq's land programming and other activities on our website or our You Tube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYz3_ZMs9mHIeMAipHt1NBQ

🎉Congratulations to the Angunasuktiit who just received over $1 million in funding over the next three years to support their work.

Angunasuktiit is a full-time land program that runs all year, with our staff of full-time hunter-instructors working with participants to harvest food for the community and learn and practice all aspects of harvesting and being on the land. This new funding recognizes the powerful and positive impacts that come from investing in hunters and supporting them to practice their knowledge and skills full-time – they increase food security, uphold food sovereignty, teach and encourage the next generations, build environmental research and monitoring, increase access to knowledge and information, strengthen skills, language, and culture, support Search and Rescue – just to name a few!

We’re so proud of our team and of the youth and others who are learning from these dedicated hunters. Thank you to the funding programs and departments who recognized the Angunasuktiit with this support: Indigenous Service Canada’s Climate Change and Health Adaptation Program (CCHAP North), Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs, Canada’s Indigenous Community-Based Monitoring Program (ICBCMP) and Climate Change Preparedness in the North Program (CCPN).

Learn more about the Angunasuktiit and about Ittaq on our website, including links to our videos.

Angunasuktiit, Ittaq's full-time land program, has been busy in the last weeks with 'Ataata-Irniq'. Running for well over a decade, the Ataata-Irniq program focuses on providing opportunities for young men and boys to spend time on the land, build mentorships, and learn and practice knowledge and skills. Learn more about the Angunasuktiit and Ittaq programs on our website or our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYz3_ZMs9mHIeMAipHt1NBQ

Season update! Ittaq had a very busy and rewarding summer season, especially with our full-time land-instruction program, Angunasuktiit. Highlights include fishing, hunting, and 3 narwhal hunts. A few program participants had first catches, like Carlos Palituq (18) with his first narwhal and Josiah Jaypoody, who also caught his first narwhal (and just turned 15🎉). The harvests were shared with the community - we were able to share a lot of maktaaq this season.

In other activities, we continued to maintain our community weather station network (https://clyderiverweather.org), completed a new promo video for Piqqusilirivvik (Nunavut’s Inuit Cultural School), and in a few weeks, we will join three other community land-based programs for an in-person meeting to discuss our collective research on the impacts and benefits of full-time land programming.

Stay tuned 😃 We look forward to posting more about our activities in the coming months!

Ittaq is excited to share our new video about the Angunasuktiit program! (~14 min)

Angunasuktiit is a full-time land program that has been running at Ittaq since 2020. Our team of five full-time hunter-instructors work all year teaching all aspects of hunting and harvesting, while bringing in healthy foods to the community. Also, a big goal of Angunasuktiit is to demonstrate how hunters are an essential service in communities, critical to our health and wellness. While running Angunasuktiit, our team is also conducting research on the impacts and benefits of the program. The Angunasuktiit and our research are developing a powerful case for why there should be strong investment in hunters – to address food security, food sovereignty, improved physical and mental health, better environmental monitoring and safety, creating meaningful work in communities, economic development and more.

Check out our new video that highlights parts of the Angunasuktiit program in Clyde River and documents a unique exchange with the community of Makkovik, Nunatsiavut, where the idea of programs like Angunasuktiit is making an impact, too.

Check out the link below for the English version of the video. The Inuktitut version will be available soon!

Angunasuktiit Angunasuktiit is an all-year land and hunting instruction program run through the Ittaq Heritage and Research Centre in Kangiqtugaapik (Clyde River), Nunavut...

Jimmy Palluq (right) has been a consistent participant in the Angunasuktiit full time hunting-instruction program at Ittaq for over three years now. We have watched him grow as a skilled hunter and a person. Yesterday Jimmy caught a narwhal (instructor Remo Qillaq on the left). We're so proud of you Jimmy!

It has been a busy year already at Ittaq! Our core programs are our focus, including our full-time land instruction program, Angunasuktiit. We are near completion of a new video about the program (stay tuned!) and speaking of near completion, the Angunasuktiit are making great progress on building a new cabin. Participants learn all aspects of being on the land as part of Angunasuktiit, cabin-building and related skills included. Drone images by Mike Jaypoody.

Ittaq is happy to share that our flagship program, Angunasuktiit, was the recipient of $1 million in funding from CANNOR’s Northern Food Innovation Challenge Phase 2.
https://www.cannor.gc.ca/eng/1702564418324/1702564461339

Over several years, we have been building up the Angunasuktiit program, starting from a pilot project, to a program with one hunter-instructor, to our team of now five full-time hunter-instructors, support staff, and year-round land programming. The Angunasuktiit hunt for the community, teach knowledge and skills to program participants, carry out environmental research and monitoring, and assist other community members, hunters, Elders, search and rescue operations and more in many ways. Also, we are researching the program itself, to demonstrate the impacts and value of full-time land programming in communities and the critical role of hunters as an essential service.
Congratulations to the Angunasuktiit 🎉 and to the other recipients of the Northern Food Innovation Challenge.

Learn more about the Angunasuktiit program on our website, including a short video and more: https://ittaq.ca/
https://www.cannor.gc.ca/eng/1702564418324/1702564461339

Ittaq Heritage and Research Centre Ittaq specializes in Inuit design and leadership of research, multimedia, land programming, and heritage activities in the community and surrounding areas of Clyde River, Nunavut.