Pictured above: Weekly winners are presented with their gift cards. Anita Kavik (left, first photo) received her Northern gift card prize from Sanikiluaq Northern manager-in-relief Paula Neuendorf. Sam Tilley (second photo), from Iqaluit, with his NorthMart gift card prize.
People from across Inuit Nunangat had a chance to win a Northern gift card by sharing ice safety conditions and Indigenous knowledge as part of the 2021 SIKU+SmartICE Ice Watch Challenge.
The Arctic Eider Society – which runs SIKU, a mobile app and website providing tools and services by and for Inuit about ice safety, language preservation and weather – partnered up with The North West Company to carry out the challenge. The competition began in mid-April and took place over three months, where participants across Inuit Nunangat used the SIKU app to share information about the ice conditions facing their communities through photos and videos.
Each week, northerners had the opportunity to select two weekly winners, based on the usefulness of their post and the amount of likes each post received. North West was proud to be the prize sponsor of the challenge and donated Northern/NorthMart gift cards for the weekly winners and for the Grand Prize recipients.
Nearly 300 posts from more than 30 communities poured in during the competition, with contestants sharing not only breath-taking photos of the Arctic ice but also their knowledge and ice safety information. The 20 weekly winners of the $100 Northern gift cards were announced through SIKU’s Facebook page.
The exceptional winning posts were evaluated by a select group of ice experts, who then chose the top four Grand Prize winners. The winners were recognized for their contributions to ice travel safety, their inclusion of Inuktitut terminology in local dialects, and their valuable insights about this year’s ice conditions. The Grand Prizes included a Northern gift card worth $250, $500 or $1,000, and a Harpoon made by an Elder.
Pictured above: Grand Prize winner Derek Itkilik's post shared information about an Aajuraq (ᐋᔪᕋᖅ) which means “leads with open water” in Inuktitut. These are formations that hunters need to be aware of, because slipping through a crack would mean being submerged in ice water with only thin pans of ice to get back up on. For more information and to see the other winners, watch the video on SIKU's website. (Photo credit: Derek Itkilik, courtesy of the Arctic Eider Society).
“Thanks to the sponsorship of the Northern Store, the 2021 SIKU+SmartICE Ice Watch Challenge was a great success!” said Billy Nicoll, Arctic Eider Society Stewardship Coordinator. “During the challenge, participants from over 30 communities ranging from Rigolet to Inuvik, and from Umiujaq to Arctic Bay, worked together to share ice safety information and support knowledge transfer in their communities using the SIKU app. Northern's generous contribution of over $3,000 in prizes to this year’s Ice Watch challenge was key to the success of this initiative.”
"The challenge posts, along with all of this year’s observations, helped create the SIKU Ice Map: a new, cutting-edge tool that combines radar satellite imagery with local knowledge on the ground, providing detailed ice conditions to northern communities," Nicoll added.