Arctic Winter Games 2026.
Traveling north alongside six Indigenous comic artists and three Indigenous game designers, Dr. Elizabeth Nijdam and Dr. Tim Frandy are bringing their “Visual Storytelling in the Indigenous North” project to the 2026 Arctic Winter Games (AWG) to document and create AWG-inspired artworks.
“Visual Storytelling in the Indigenous North” is a two-year, Indigenous-led initiative that connects storytellers, artists, and scholars from across the Circumpolar North to share stories of Indigenous survivance through comics, documentary film, podcasts, and digital media.
This project is hosted by the UBC Comics Studies Cluster and the UBC Pop Culture Cluster, in collaboration with the UBC Circumpolar Indigenous Storytelling Research Cluster and the UBC Centre for Migration Studies. It builds on the collaborations of the Turtle Island Cluster and its SSHRC Partnership Grant on “Visual Storytelling and Graphic Art in Genocide and Human Rights Education,” expanding upon that work with an Indigenous-centered focus on storytelling as solidarity and future-making.
More information on the project, as well as artist details, can be found here.
About the Artic Winter Games
The AWG celebrate athletic competition, cultural exchange, and social interaction, and features participants from Northwest Territories, Yukon, Nunavut, Alaska, Kalaallit Nunaat, Nunavik (Northern Quebec), Northern Alberta, and the Indigenous people (Sámi) of Norway, Sweden, and Finland.
The Games will take place from March 8-15, 2026 in Whitehorse, Yukon, and include over 20 different sporting, cultural, and community events.
