Longtime Igalaaq host Rassi Nashalik inducted into CBC News Hall of Fame
CBC
Beloved television host Rassi Nashalik will be inducted into the CBC News Hall of Fame on Wednesday.
Before her retirement in 2014, Nashalik was the host of Igalaaq, CBC's first daily television news show to be delivered entirely in Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit.
Over the course of an 19-year career, she became a trusted and respected figure among her viewers and colleagues, bridging the unilingual Inuit population to the rest of the world during the nightly supper-hour newscast.
"A lot of people started calling me Igalaaq!" Nashalik told CBC News with a smile ahead of her induction ceremony. The word Igalaaq means "window" in Inuktitut — a fitting moniker for Nashalik, whose newscast was a portal for CBC viewers in the North.
Born on a small island in Cumberland Sound, Nunavut, Nashalik is a survivor of the residential school system in Manitoba. Before starting at CBC North in 1995, she worked with the Language Bureau of the Northwest Territories.
Having no formal journalism education, Nashalik was effectively self-taught, said her friend Joanna Awa, who is the current host of Igalaaq. Nashalik became known for her skillful sight-translations, reading an English script from the teleprompter and speaking Inuktitut to her audience.
"I mean, it's easy to read the teleprompter, but it's also something else to put feelings and caring and passion into it as a host, and that really does come through," Awa said.
Recalling her first day on the job, Nashalik said she was nervous, knowing that she could not afford to make any mistakes during the broadcast. But more than anything, she was excited to quench a thirst — and fill a void — for Inuktitut-language news.
"I remember calling my mom and dad right after my show was over and I said, 'Did you see me? Did that make any sense?' Everybody was … so happy to hear something in their language," Nashalik said.
WATCH | Igalaaq host Rassi Nashalik says goodbye, after 19 years:
"Everyone in the North knows Rassi Nashalik," said Juanita Taylor, a senior reporter at CBC News Network and Nashalik's close friend.
"When I started working at CBC North in [2011], I was very starstruck," she said. "Even though I had met her a couple of times before, actually seeing her work was very inspirational to me because she's so professional … and she cared about so much with her show."
Because Nashalik held the position for 19 years, she's known both to an elderly generation of viewers and to young ones who watched her in the years before her retirement, Taylor added.
"She knew that Inuit were only going to be getting their news stories from her, so she always made sure that it was the best show that she could give them."
