Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, during the 18th Assembly, we've been talking a lot about the knowledge economy and the potential for developing centres of excellence and knowledge clusters. These are important aspects of our mandate commitment to diversify the economy. To that end, I'm excited to tell Members of the Assembly about a new initiative called the Incubator for Northern Design and Innovation, or INDI.
The concept of INDI was developed by my friend Dr. Gavin Renwick. He has taught and worked in architecture and design in the North for over two decades. His ground-breaking doctorate thesis connected traditional knowledge with contemporary design. Gavin is also the Canada Research Chair in Design Studies. He has built an excellent northern support team to help make INDI a reality, and the good news is the INDI team has put in a lot of hard work and will be applying to the Arctic Inspiration Prize for additional funding support as of today. I am super proud to be the nominator for this submission.
INDI will support design innovation and sustainable economies in the NWT; it will promote creative exchange between various ways of knowing; it will help create networks and collaborations between northern communities, creative industries, academia, and entrepreneurs.
Mr. Speaker, INDI will support the North to become a centre of new ideas by attracting innovators and creative artists, sustaining Indigenous knowledge and skill. INDI wants to bring together land-based knowledge with contemporary design thinking and technologies. It will seek pioneering ways to build community-led solutions. It will build on Northerners' unique land-based knowledge to promote an economically sustainable future. INDI will inspire northern youth and communities to link areas of social innovation, design thinking, social learning, and creative economies. It will encourage innovation to connect local knowledge and skills with a global creative economy.
Think of the examples I gave a while back about the young Indigenous woman who developed an app to teach others the history of her people and sells it online, or the young Indigenous man who learned from his elders how to build teepees and goes on to design homes that are better suited for his people's way of life.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Unanimous consent granted