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The 2002 Spry Memorial Lecture
Summary
Mr. Zacharias Kunuk (Director
and Producer, Igloolik Isuma Productions)
"The
Public Art of Inuit Storytelling" Vancouver, 25 November 2002/Montreal, 28 November 2002
THE PUBLIC ART OF INUIT STORYTELLING
Zacharias Kunuk
"People in Igloolik learned through storytelling who we were and where we came from without a written language for 4000 years. Then foreign missionaries, school and cable TV silenced all that time of oral history. Can we listen to our elders before they all pass away? Can we save our youth from killing themselves at ten times the national rate? Can producing TV in Igloolik make our community, region and country stronger? Is there room in Canadian television and film making to see ourselves?" Zacharias Kunuk calls upon young and old, artists, creators, citizens and policy makers, to work together and think to keep the public art of Inuit storytelling alive.
