Tony Eetak and Kendall Suluk are the youngest founding members of our arts collective and its work. Photo: Eva Suluk
Youth stepping up to lead
This week, we’re enjoying a bit of rare down time — a moment to catch our breath, reflect, and recognize how far some of our own have come.
Tony Eetak and Kendall Suluk have been part of our work for as long as they can remember. They grew up in Nunavut watching researchers, Elders, and artists build projects that blended storytelling, media, and food security just to name a few. From the early days of Arviat Film Society and Arviat TV to hands-on cultural initiatives rooted in the North, they were not just observers — they were participants too.
Those experiences shaped how they see creativity: not as an individual pursuit, but as something grounded in land, language, and responsibility.
As founding members of our Arts Incubator Winnipeg and Art Borups Corners hubs, Tony and Kendall have continued that trajectory, helping to build a collective model that centers youth voice, community research, and northern storytelling. In 2021, both were part of the original Creativity for Entrepreneurship program led by the University of Minnesota Duluth — an experience that strengthened their capacity to connect creative practice with arts, economic and community development.
This month, the two Inuit youth are among a group of artists and community-based researchers supporting a community impact assessment study related to the proposed Deep Geological Repository for nuclear fuel waste. Their involvement reflects more than participation in a single study. It signals a generation that has grown up alongside long-term research, arts and community conversations — and now stepping into leadership with lived experience, cultural knowledge, and a clear commitment to the future of our communities.
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