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In brief

Canada’s first all-Inuktut language TV channel to broadcast 24 hours a day

Uvagut TV seeks to contribute to preservation of Inuit languages and culture

 
By cable or satellite, the first television channel to broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in Inuktitut (the collective name given to Canada’s Inuit languages) will be available from January 18. The broadcasts can also be followed via the isuma.tv website.

The new Uvagut TV channel has been created by the Nunavut Independent Television Network (NITV), an Inuit broadcaster that has been working since 1991 as a training centre and producer of Inuit programmes.

Broadcasts are set to include children’s programmes, documentaries, films, news, as well as some live broadcasting.

Inuit languages are official in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, 2 of 13 federated units of Canada. Even though, they are threatened by an ongoing process of language shift to English.

NITV Chairman Lucy Tulugarjuk hopes the new channel will help in the Inuit people’s “fight against time” to keep their languages and culture alive.