Education furthered by on-the-job training

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Canadian Satellite Communications Inc. (Cancom) announced the winners

of the Ross Charles Award on April 10.

Elaine Shorty from Whitehorse, Poasie Joamie from Iqualuit and Craig

Wallace from Yellowknife are the three first northern Native

communications professionals to be honored by the receipt of these

awards.

The Ross Charles Award was created in December, 1995, by Cancom, in

partnership with the Canadian Native Arts Foundation and Television

Northern Canada (TVNC), to provide each year three young Aboriginal

people from northern Canada a three-month internship at Cancom in the

fields of management and technical training in satellite broadcasting

and telecommunications.

Originally, the Ross Charles Award was created in 1987 to underline the

achievements of an Aboriginal person in the field of communications in

honor of the late H. Ross Charles, Cancom's first vice president of

Aboriginal relations.

"Cancom is proud to provide these Native professionals with first hand

experience in what is Canada's largest commercial satellite broadcasting

infrastructure, reaching all of northern Canada. They are forward

looking individuals, knowledgeable about their communities and capable

of mastering both communications technology and content."

Applications had to be of First Nation, Inuit or Metis descent, live in

the North and work in broadcasting, cable television, telecommunications

or allied fields. The contest was also open to Aboriginal graduates of

a college or university who live in the North and have a particular

interest in pursuing a career in the technological or managerial side of

broadcasting or telecommunications. This year's winners are all engaged

in a career in the field.

For the past 14 years, Elaine Shorty has worked as a producer-announcer

at Northern Native Broadcasting, Yukon, one of Canada's largest

Aboriginal broadcasters. She recently was the CHON-FM host of the North

American Indigenous Games in Minnesota. Shorty has also been seconded

by Yukon First Nations organizations to help negotiate land claim

settlements.

Poasie Joamie has been part of the development of the Inuit

Broadcasting Corporation since 1989, first as a trainee and very soon

after as a technical producer of children's programs, and current

affairs. In 1995, he became executive producer and more recently was

promoted to director of network programming responsible for both

programming and scheduling in five production centres in the Nunavut

region.

In September, 1994, Craig Wallace started as an announcer with Native

Communications Society of the western N.W.T. at CKLB- Radio in

Yellowknife, hosting first the afternoon drive and then the morning

show. In 1995, he was promoted to production manager. Last fall he

became the installation coordinator in charge of planning the

implementation of the digital conversion of CKBL in 25 western N.W.T.

sites reaching Dene and Metis communities.