Inuvik's Great Northern Arts Festival is back in full swing

For Roberta Memogana, the Great Northern Arts Festival in Inuvik is more than a celebration of art and music. Art is healing, she says.

Memogana is an artist from Ulukhaktok, N.W.T. This year, she's taking a step away from the workshops she usually holds in order to serve as the festival's gallery manager.

"Art is almost a therapeutic," she said. "It's a learning process and mixing your mediums, from carvingto sewing, and sewing to painting... it makes you want to create more things and add them together. I try to learn as much art as I can from one of the artists and challenge myself to try and do it."

The festival's events are back in full swing this year after it was cancelled due toCOVID-19. Events began July 8 and run through to Sunday.

Held at Jim Koe Park and the Midnight Sun Complex, artists have come from across the country to participate and even, in the case of one graphic novel artist, from Belgium.

Throughout the festival, people signed up for workshops with artists.

The festival also featuredInuvialuit storytelling with Roberta Kuptana, shows by themusician, filmmaker and educator Miranda Currie, demonstrations ofnorthern games demonstrations and performances from musicians The Beluga Boys, the 18-year-old Ulukhaktuk accordion player Devon Notainaand the Inuitcollective Artcirq.

Painter, writer, and sports hall-of-famer Antoine Mountain was scheduled to read from his memoir Bear Mountain: The Life and Times of a Dene Residential School Survivoron Friday.

The festival ends July 17 with a fashion show and final ceremonies.