Rassi Nashalik is an Inuk Elder, educator, and award-winning journalist based in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. She is dedicated to preserving and promoting Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (Inuit Traditional Knowledge), improving Inuit health and well-being, and creating culturally safe spaces within research, education, and health systems.

Raised on the land in Sauniqturaajuk, Nunavut, Rassi learned a traditional lifestyle from her parents, speaking only Inuktitut and living off the land until she was taken to residential school in Pangnirtung at the age of ten. That experience shaped a lifelong path of healing, advocacy, and education. After completing her studies at the Churchill Vocational Centre in northern Manitoba and Algonquin College in Ottawa, Rassi returned to the North to serve her people – as a Community Health Representative in Pangnirtung, an interpreter, and later, as Manager of the Inuktitut Language Bureau for the Government of the Northwest Territories.

Rassi became a pioneering voice in northern media as the founding host of CBC North’s Igalaaq, the first daily television news program delivered entirely in Inuktitut. Through nearly two decades on air, she travelled widely across the North, sharing community stories, celebrating northern achievements, and drawing attention to issues such as cultural revitalization. Her work restored pride in Inuit identity and language, and in 2021 she was inducted into the CBC News Hall of Fame in recognition of her contributions to Canadian journalism and Indigenous representation in media.

Today, Rassi brings her lifelong experience in language, health, and advocacy into the field of Indigenous health research. She is an Elder-in-Residence at the University of Alberta’s School of Public Health and Elder Advisor at the Institute for Circumpolar Health Research in Yellowknife, where she mentors students and researchers. She also serves on the Governing Council of the Northwest Territories Network Environments for Indigenous Health Research (NT NEIHR) grant, a $4.1M CIHR-funded initiative dedicated to advancing Indigenous-led research in the North and is a committee member on the Indigenous Advisory Council for the RCMP Commanding Officer of the NT.