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Nunavut, Canada: Hope on Ice

In the remote northern reaches of one of the wealthiest countries of the world is an aboriginal community whose young people are slowly perishing by suicide.

Hopelessness and despair are rampant in the impoverished Inuit territory of Nunavut, Canada, the legacy of a Cold War-era government strategy to establish Arctic sovereignty. The nomadic Inuit were relocated to permanent settlements and separated from their children, who were sent to distant government and church-run residential schools.

Now the policies that destroyed their parents' and grandparents' ways of life are haunting the next generation, who have lost their connection to their centuries-old traditions. Inuit youth kill themselves at a rate ten times the national average.

But in the tiny vulnerable community of Igloolik, where scores of makeshift crosses memorializing dead teenagers have been pounded into the frozen ground, some young Inuit have found a way to reclaim their lives and heritage. They've formed a circus – Artcirq – inspired by a Montreal acrobat and informed by Inuit traditions. They've become acrobats and jugglers and trapeze artists, and against all odds are headed to Vancouver to perform at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The Artcirq story exposes the long-term human consequences of the 20th century abuses of the Inuit, mirroring the dismal trajectory of aboriginal peoples across the western world. It is also a story of hope, celebrating human grace, dignity, courage, and the power of youth to reinvent their heritage through art.

(The images above and to the left are used with permission from the Boston Globe.)

Michele McDonald

Michele McDonald is a Boston-based freelance photographer who formerly worked for the Boston Globe. She has been a Nieman fellow, a MacDowell Colony fellow, and has twice been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, for features and as part of the Globe's investigative team...Click on name above for full bio.

Linda Matchan

Linda Matchan is a Canadian-born print and multi-media reporter for the Boston Globe. She covers the arts, writes features, and has done investigative work for the Globe including a year-long series of articles on sexual abuse within the Catholic Church...Click on name above for full bio.