Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the first sitting my colleagues mentioned the Arctic Inspiration Prize, and today I just wanted to commend one of the projects. It's called the Inuit Tattoo Revitalization Project, and the lead on that is Angela Hovak Johnston.
I'm just going to say a few words about Angela Hovak Johnston, who currently lives in Yellowknife, grew up in the little Inuit settlement of Umingmaktok, which is Bay Chimo. She was sent away to residential school at the age of seven to Cambridge Bay, and then started her family in Kugluktuk. She has an intense passion for her culture and a deep connection to her traditional roots. She tries her best to pass on the knowledge to keep traditions alive and going strong. Hovak always had a love for traditional tattoos, but the strong passion for tattoos started 11 years ago. After three years of hard research and many questions, she received her first facial tattoo eight years ago. Having experienced the difficulty in getting traditional tattoos and finding the right artist, she felt a longing to be tattooed by an lnuk woman. Unsuccessful and disappointed in finding nobody in her culture who practiced the lost skills, she then made it her dream to become a tattoo artist herself and learn those skills. It was her goal to make it available to Inuit women so it would not be difficult for them to carry on this tradition. She felt that it should be possible while there are so many talented, capable Inuit seamstresses who could fit the title.
Traditions, like in ancient times; never again will these Inuit traditions be close to extinction or be only a part of history you read about in books. Mr. Speaker, I would just like to commend all the hard-working women out there in the projects that work in collaboration and coordination for projects like this. Quyanainni.