Montreal's first Inuktitut-language radio show is offering Inuit who have left Canada's North a chance to escape isolation and connect to their community at large in Quebec.
Nipivut, which means "our voice," took to the airwaves a year-and-a-half ago and is broadcast on McGill University's campus CKUT radio station every two weeks.
Inuktitut is a language spoken by Inuit in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, northern Quebec and parts of Newfoundland and Labrador.
The show was developed as project from Concordia University's Social Science and Humanities Research Council.
For the hosts, the show offers a chance to showcase the Inuit community and offer insight into their culture.
"It makes us happy just to hear our own voice on the radio here in Montreal," said Annie Pisuktie.
Pisuktie moved to the city more than three decades ago, and says the move helped her escape a harmful situation in her life.
"It was a way for me to escape the relationship that I was already in, it was a very hard and abusive relationship," she said.
Pisuktie has worked to help other Inuit women escape similar situations, and roughly 1,200 Inuit now reside in Montreal.
The show is broadcast in both English and Inuktitut, with a focus on stories that affects the Inuit community.
The producers hope to take the Quebec model and expand it to form a community of radio programs across the country.
For those Inuktitut speakers living in the city, the show is a connection to a community they have left.
"It’s our radio," said Ariana Okpik. "It's our language, you know?"
With a report from CTV’s Quebec Bureau Chief Genevieve Beauchemin
