About

When Toonik Tyme started in 1965, the festival consisted of traditional Inuit games, throat singing and dancing, a community feast and an evening of dancing and music at Toonik Lake. Brian Pearson, the founder of Toonik Tyme, and other councilors from the Town of Frobisher Bay (which later became the City of Iqaluit) usually picked a person to preside over the festival and granted them with the Order of the Honourary Toonik. In the early years of Toonik Tyme, this honour was given to a distinguished guest invited to preside over the week’s festivities. The first Honourary Toonik was the Right Honourable John Diefenbaker, former Prime Minister of Canada. Other past Honourary Tooniks have included His Royal Highness, Charles the Prince of Wales; former Governor General Roland Michener; three former commissioners of the Northwest Territories: Bent Sivertz, Stuart Hodgson and John Parker; former Premier of Greenland, Lars Chemnitz and the former Mayor of Nuuk, Greenland, Peter Tharup Hoeg.

In more recent years, the Honourary Toonik award has gone to an individual in the community on a nomination basis. This award is still a special honour as the chosen individual is someone that is considered to be an outstanding volunteer and demonstrates exceptional community spirit.