Nunavut musician and children's TV host Riit recognized for her work - Action News
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Nunavut musician and children's TV host Riit recognized for her work

The Youth media Alliance is recognizing Nunavut's Rita Claire Mike-Murphy, also known as Riit, for her work hosting an Inuktitut and English-language children's TV show.

Rita Claire Mike-Murphy recently released a new single called Qaumajuapik

Nunavut-based musician and Inuktitut TV host Rita Claire Mike-Murphy has won the Emerging Talent Award by the Youth Media Alliance. (Six Shooter Records)

Nunavut-based musician and Inuktitut-language TV host Rita Claire Mike-Murphy is being recognized for her work by the Youth Media Alliance.

She recently won the group's Emerging Talent Awardwhich aims to improve the quality of screen-based media and content for Canadian youth.

Mike-Murphy, who also goes by her musician name Riit, is the host of an Inuktitut and English-language children's program called Anaana's Tent. It's aneducational show aimed at preschoolers that teaches Inuit culture and language through puppets, music, and animation.

The show premiered on APTN last year.

"It was an awesome feeling because when I heard this news, we were actually filming season two of Anaana's Tent," said Mike-Murphy.

"I was exhausted and tired, having to memorize lines for seven hours a day," she said."Hearing that, it helped me re-boost and got me motivated to keep rolling through."

Mike-Murphy said she never had experience being on TV before starting with the show, and says she learned a lot about her language.

"Everywhere I go, and whenever I see Inuktitut being misspelled in syllabics, I notice them right away," she said, laughing. "I've learned a lot for sure."

Mike-Murphy said she's passionate about her work, and hopes to change how southern Canadians view and think about Inuit culture through her music.

'Everywhere I go and whenever I see Inuktitut being misspelled in syllabics, I notice them right away,' Mike-Murphy said, laughing. (Six Shooter Records)

First single released

Mike-Murphy said getting into music and television wasn't something she was planning.

Graduating from school, shesaid she didn't know exactly what she wanted to do.

"I knew for sure I didn't want to start a career behind a computer," she said."These opportunities just came to me and I just made sure to take advantage of them."

Mike-Murphy also recently released her first single calledQaumajuapik, which means "you are shining" in Inuktitut.

Her inspiration? It came after going through what she calls a "pretty rough breakup."

"This song is a love song," she said. "I was pretty down in the dumpster."

She said she later met someonewho helped her stand up again.

"[To] the person who gets you out of that dumpster... it means youare shining and I won't lose you."

Her fulldebut electropop album will likely come out in the fall, she said.

Written based on an interview by Lawrence Nayally, produced by Emily Blake