Even before this summit began I was reminded of how welcoming Northerners are, and started my journey here on a heartwarming note. I met up with a friend who said she would be going to eat country food with another Inuk woman named Goretti. My friend asked me if I wanted to come but I was shy because I didn’t know the other woman, but agreed anyway. Goretti came down to get the food from the hotel’s freezer and we met for the first time. When she asked if I wanted to eat with them I, of course, said that I would love to! 

As I cut up large pieces of nikkuk and a bit of mattaq for everyone, I was reminded how welcoming and sharing Inuit are. In the end, I knew I would have done the same as Goretti and invite a stranger to eat with me, because Inuit are just like that. We are welcoming and we share what little we have, even with a stranger, because in the end, the strangers can be people who become lifelong friends.

The Arctic Arts Summit’s Knowledge Creators Next program brings together northern Indigenous post-secondary students, young activists and emerging professionals to attend the Summit. Participants in the Knowledge Creators Next (KCN) program will be sharing their daily reflections—in the form of tweets, photographs, poems, sketches, videos or other short responses—on the Arctic Arts Summit’s digital platform and across social media.