Profile: Tom McLeod — Inuit Futures

“I come from a storytelling culture, as an Inuvialuk from Aklavik. I grew up going out hunting and trapping for days at a time with my family so we would tell stories to one another. It gets awful quiet out in the bush and you have to stay entertained somehow.”

— Tom McLeod

Thus begins Tom Mcleod’s story of his own life and career, as told from his home in his current city of Toronto, Ontario. The animator behind the Inuvialuit Communications Society’s children’s language programming Iglaq currently airing on APTN, Tom’s storytelling prowess began to reach audiences beyond his family circle beginning at age 9 when he landed a regular spot on CBC Radio North telling the traditional stories he knew and loved. Just two years later, he went on to write his book The Delta is my Home at age 11, which became a staple in Canadian libraries and was published in four languages, English, French, Inuvialuktun and Gwich’in.

“That was a big thing for me because it reinforced that my story and the stories of my community were worth telling,” Tom recalls of his early days.

Tom started working in television after an early stint in college with the Inuvialuit Communications Society, working on community-centered programming with an Inuvialuit audience in mind. He has also been involved in creating media projects for the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, including his favourite storytelling clip, How Aklavik Got Its Name. Currently, all of his previous work with the IRC is available on their YouTube channel.

Tom working on *Memory Keepers I*, Concordia University, Montreal QC, March 2019. Photo by Ossie Michelin.

“It was good to listen to the stories of our people from different folks and give people a place for their voice,” Tom says of his community-centred work. “I think that’s where all the curatorial work eventually came from, from that desire to make sure people had a place for their own voices.”

Tom was then inspired to study at the Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCAD U) in Toronto, Ontario, where he co-curated the group exhibition Between Ice & Earth at Xpace Gallery in June 2019 for emerging Indigenous artists in the Greater Toronto Area.

As an ilinniaqtuk with the Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership Project, Tom has traveled to Venice, Italy for the 58th Venice Biennale; contributed to the Venice Biennale Special Issue of Inuit Art Quarterly, the first all-Inuit issue of the IAQ; attended the 21st Inuit Studies Conference hosted by UQAM, in Montreal QC; and his animations have been included in three editions of Memory Keepers in Montreal, QC, Charlottetown, PEI, and Halifax, NS. Looking to the future, Tom intends to continue working in Indigenous-led media and curatorial projects as an emerging leader in the Inuit art world.

“Inuit art has always been a major draw in Canadian art, but support for Inuit artists has always been severely underfunded. Having a generation of upcoming artists being properly supported is so important and the things I am seeing happen within this initiative compared to what was previously possible is incredible.”

Like many of his colleagues, Tom is quick to praise the community aspect of the Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership Project: “The best thing the project has done has been to bring the folks that are a part of it together.”