It’s the last days of summer. While many have been away for much of the summer, we’ve been busy this last month working on funding proposals and having meetings with some of our partners and collaborators. Here is our monthly Niriqatiginnga project update for September 2023.
Launching our new web site:
We recently launched our new web site, niriqatiginnga.ca, which we have been working on for a while now. This new platform will evolve and grow with our project over time, and we’re still working on a few things here and there. Many thanks to the @1860 Winnipeg Arts, Arctic Buying Company and Chocolatier Constance Popp for supporting our group and the idea to launch Niriqatiginnga as a community-based project.
Consulting and Engaging for Niriqatiginnga: Fall 2023
This summer, our Niriqatiginnga project team spent a lot of time consulting and engaging several community partners here in Winnipeg, Northern Manitoba and beyond. There is a need for the Government of Canada to be more innovative and open to economic development and supporting small businesses and entrepreneurship.
With many of our activities taking place in St. James and St. Boniface, we were very happy to welcome one of our local Members of Parliament, the Hon. Dan Vandal (MP for St. Boniface and St. Vital) to come in and meet with us. In addition to being the local MP for St. Boniface and St. Vital and a former social worker, Minister Vandal is Canada’s Minister of Northern Affairs, as well as for Prairies Economic Development Canada and the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency. We really enjoyed being able to share what we are working on and some of the challenges our project, and northern communities are facing.
Food insecurity is a critical issue that needs urgent attention. The demand on food pantries and programs is high, and while there are some great ideas, a current lack of resources and infrastructure make it difficult to implement many new programs at the moment.
Collaboration with external businesses, organizations and agencies is essential to securing additional funding and support. Partnering Indigenous-owned businesses and other organizations for food security and community kitchen initiatives would provide much-needed resources and expertise.
Given the severity of these crises, some communities require external assistance and advocacy to raise awareness and attract more resources. Engaging with relevant government agencies, NGOs, local businesses and other supportive organizations could help to bring attention to these dire situations and potentially secure additional aid.
Read more about this summer’s consultations here.
Meeting New Projects: InfraNorth
There is a really cool research project doing work in Manitoba. It’s a European Research Council Advanced Grant Project called “Building Arctic Futures: Transport Infrastructures and Sustainable Northern Communities” (InfraNorth) is being realized at the University of Vienna and runs from January 2021 to December 2025.
It explores how residents of the Arctic engage with transport infrastructures and their intended and unintended local consequences. Churchill is unique in terms of transport infrastructure. The community, which is not accessible via roads, is home of Canada’s only deep-water port on the Arctic Ocean. This port is the only harbor in the American (Sub)Arctic with a direct link to the North American railway system. In addition, the town’s airport has become key for the growing tourism industry in the “Polar Bear Capital of the World”. This study explores the role of transport infrastructures in sustaining and transforming Churchill. In doing so, it focuses on infrastructural entanglements, failures, and promises.
One of the first InfraNorth researchers our project met with was Katrin Schmid. Katrin is a PhD student at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Vienna. She previously worked with Gitxaała Nation in Canada on the K’tai Social Ecology project and SSHRC-funded Gitxaała Perceptions of Change project (University of British Columbia, 2018-2020).
She is a member of the Austrian Polar Research Institute and the Austrian Subarctic and Arctic Working Group, as well as the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists. Katrin’s research interests include perceptions of change, especially through the lens of cumulative effects analyses, and their influence on socio-economic sustainability, policy-making, and imagined futures of communities. She is based in Nunavut, Canada for the InfraNorth project. Her work centers on the role of Nunavut residents’ imagined futures in the development of transport infrastructure throughout the territory.
We’re very thankful to Katrin for coming in and meeting with us. We learned a lot about their project and we hope to see them again soon. Learn more about the InfraNorth project here: https://infranorth.eu
Upcoming Events, Conferences and Public Presentations
September 9, 2023:
Come out, eat an awesome breakfast and take part In the Willmar Noon Lions 2023 Pancake Day! 100 percent of all proceeds support local programs for sight, hearing, diabetes, youth and more.
November 22, 2023:
Labovitz School of Business and Economics, University of Minnesota Duluth
In November 2023, our projects will connect with the Labovitz School of Business and Economics, University of Minnesota Duluth, for a special night of cross-border conversations. Graduate students from the Decision Making in Supply Chain Operations class and Dr. Wenqing Zhang, PhD.
Dr. Wenqing Zhang, PhD is Associate Professor in Operations and Supply Chain Management at Labovitz School of Business and Economics, University of Minnesota Duluth. He received his PhD in Management Science/Operations Management from McGill University in 2012. Dr. Zhang’s research interests lie in contemporary operations and supply chain issues, with a particular focus on strategies to promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in supply chains. His research endeavors also encompass the advancement of equitable development for indigenous communities, as he seeks to enhance our understanding of how individuals and organizations interpret social responsibility and sustainability when making operational or supply chain decisions for these communities.
Upcoming Funding Deadlines:
Manitoba Arts Council funding deadlines for September are just around the corner:
- September 10, 2023: Share – Present
- September 15, 2023: Share – Artists in Communities
Also, in October are the deadlines for:
- October 5, 2023: Share – Artists in Schools
- October 10, 2023: Create
- October 15, 2023: Learn – Travel/Professional Development
- October 25, 2023: Indigenous 360
The Government of Manitoba also has a few funds closing in October. The Manitoba Agriculture Indigenous Agriculture and Relationship Development program is open and accepting applications until Oct. 27, 2023.
UArctic Entrepreneurship Fund
The UArctic Entrepreneurship Fund is also accepting applications until October 27, 2023. The call is open to any individual with an incubator-stage product or service that aims to benefit the Arctic environment or Arctic communities and has a positive, demonstrable impact on the Arctic. Applications are especially encouraged from Arctic Indigenous and/or northern-based entrepreneurs.
Read the full application criteria and apply for a grant here
Members of the team were also able to engage in Ottawa with the Hon. Senator Dennis Patterson, and in Winnipeg, our local Member of Parliament, the Hon. Dan Vandal. We extend our thanks to both Minister Vandal and Senator Patterson for making time to meet with us and learn more about what our projects, youth entrepreneurs, artists and partners are working on this year.
Fall and Winter Meetings start soon!
We’re all set to begin our fall and winter season programming. Regular team meetings will start taking place the week of September 22, 2023. These meetings will take place with the @1860 Winnipeg Arts group and the first hour will be catching up and will be available on Zoom or Google Meet. The second hour will see us working as a group, on in-person activities.
We hope to see everyone this month during our first meeting of fall 2023. Please contact us for more information, or if you have any questions.
