In this article, Marilou Pilote, content creator at Collège Nordique, takes a personal look back at the 2025–2026 year through 30 images that stayed with her—and, above all, the stories, people and values she sees in them.

In my role as a content creator, I spend a good part of my time observing. Of course, there are the photos, videos, social media posts, articles, campaigns, strategies and everything else that comes with working in marketing and content creation. But the part I probably love most often happens just before all of that: taking in and learning from what’s in front of me. Who are the people in the room? What matters to them? What is happening beyond the official activity? What do I want to remember about what I’m experiencing?

It takes a lot of observation, a little instinct and, above all, empathy! It’s a privilege to have the opportunity to be the eyes, heart and voice of our communities. A photo can show a ceremony, an activity or a project. But behind the image, there is often something else: pride, courage, nervousness, growing confidence, a team adapting, connections being made, or simply someone having a really great time.

To look back on the 2025–2026 year, I chose 30 images from those I captured or that marked my work throughout the year. They aren’t necessarily the 30 most important, or even the 30 most technically successful. Instead, they are 30 images that, to me, tell something true about the people, projects and community that brought Collège Nordique to life this year.

1. The courage to take the plunge

This photo is one of my favourites, first because I think it’s beautiful: the canoes, the water and Old Town in the background. But for some Explore students, setting out also meant experiencing canoeing for the very first time.

It reminded me of my own first experiences at summer camp and how terrifying trying something new could feel. Looking back, though, those are the experiences that gave me confidence and helped shape who I am. So seeing these students learn French while also trying an activity so deeply associated with the outdoor experience in the North, despite the discomfort or apprehension, really moved me. What I see most of all is courage: not the absence of fear, but the decision to try anyway.

2. Flexibility

This closing ceremony had every reason not to work out. A few days earlier, the beach had been under an advisory because of E. coli in the water, which took all water activities off the table. Then, on the morning of the ceremony, Yellowknife woke up under thick smoke and very poor air quality. A little discouraging. Once again, we had to adapt and postpone the activity until the evening.

And then, little by little, everything fell into place. During the day, we learned that the water advisory had been lifted, the smoke cleared and the canoes were finally able to go out. It was in that beautiful end-of-day light that I photographed Yakshini, Léa and the students laughing and enjoying themselves during golden hour. When I look at this photo, I mostly think about everything we can’t see: the plans that changed, the team that adapted and the strange bit of luck that meant that, after all of that, we ended up with a beautiful evening to celebrate our learners.

3. Curiosity needs no translation

I can’t document every Collège activity with my camera. So when I had the opportunity to follow the LINC and CLIC groups on a few outings while creating a video, I made the most of it. That day, learners from the LINC program had the opportunity to visit the archives at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre and see objects that aren’t usually part of the exhibitions.

What stood out to me most was their curiosity. They had so many questions, even when they had to ask them and follow the explanations in a language they were still learning. To me, this photo represents that desire to understand what surrounds us and what came before us. What a privilege it is to watch people want to learn!

4. A true ally of the Francophonie

During a visit to Yellowknife, the Honourable Mona Fortier took the time to meet with the Collège team. What struck me was the very human way she spoke about the Francophonie, her own journey and the commitment to defending French that has been passed down through generations of her family.

We’re far away here in Yellowknife, so many of the people who care about or advocate for the northern Francophonie are thousands of kilometres away, and our meetings often happen through a screen. So when someone takes the time to walk through our doors, listen and understand what a small Francophone college is accomplishing in the North, it matters. This meeting gave us energy and reminded me just how many allies the Francophonie can count on far beyond our territory.

5. Keeping the Collège close to heart

Francis Giguère and Valérie Lobé-Manga both worked at the Collège before the cuts in fall 2025 brought their time on our team to an end. And yet, they never really stopped being part of its life.

I continue to see them come back: for a karaoke night with Explore students, at the certificate ceremony, at different activities or simply to lend a hand. Valérie is involved with the Collège’s EDIA committee and welcomed an Explore student into her family, while Francis gives his time to help supervise exams and share his knowledge with students. I don’t want to speak for them. I can only describe what I observe: two people who continue to generously give their time to a community and a mission they seem deeply attached to—and with contagious joy!

6. Facing the challenge, together

In this photo, the CLIC group is walking toward the Café-emploi. The activity waiting for them requires them to take French outside the classroom: approach people, ask them questions in French, understand their answers and be able to write down the information. Simple on paper. Much less so when you’re still learning the language.

What I loved as I walked with them was seeing people with very different journeys moving forward together. Some have been learning French for a long time, some want to better support their children in French immersion and others have only recently arrived in Yellowknife. Their levels, stories and motivations are different. No one needed to be at the same level to move in the same direction. I particularly love what this photo symbolizes.

7. The pride of saying: we did it

I don’t remember exactly what everyone was applauding at the precise moment I pressed the shutter. What I do remember is what the end of this program represented.

Bringing Explore to the Northwest Territories for the first time was a major challenge: the costs, limited housing, finding host families, and having a small cohort while still wanting to offer several language levels… A tremendous amount of work had been done by the team and instructors to get us there. In this photo, what I see most is Patrick, arms crossed with a huge smile, surrounded by students and the team. About 20 years after participating in Explore himself, he was now welcoming the program to Yellowknife. That smile says one thing to me: we did it!

8. Taking the time to come together

This day at Angela’s is one of those moments I especially love experiencing at the Collège. The Explore students were out on the land, doing beadwork and making bannock over the fire, someone was playing guitar and conversations were naturally happening in French. Angela and her husband welcomed us into their home simply and generously.

What struck me was how comfortable everyone seemed. We weren’t in a classroom anymore, but learning was still happening through conversations, activities and shared knowledge. Since I started working at the Collège, I’ve noticed that these are often the moments that stay with me the most too: when we step outside our daily routines, take the time to be together and make room for genuine connections.

9. Seeing in someone what could become possible

During the Explore closing panel, Destiny spoke about her relationship with French, which joined several other languages along her journey, and about her desire to eventually study education so she could teach in French. Rosie told her that she recognized parts of herself in Destiny’s story: she had participated in Explore herself about 20 years earlier and studied in France before her own journey led her to French-language education in the Northwest Territories.

And then they laughed together like this. I know their stories aren’t the same, but looking at them side by side, I saw a kind of mirror between two journeys. Sometimes, there is something powerful about meeting someone a few steps farther down a path that looks a little like your own and being able to tell yourself: this is possible.

10. Being proud of how far you’ve come

A few minutes before this photo, Tamlin was handing certificates to his students with a lot of emotion. You could feel how deeply he understood the effort behind their achievements: learning a language while working, caring for a family, settling into a new community or simply dealing with everything else life continues to throw our way.

Then I found him by the barbecue, apron around his waist, standing with two students and a huge smile on his face. I know this is very specific, but this photo gives me such strong “proud dad at the barbecue” energy, and I love it for that. Behind the joke, there is something very real: our teaching team cares deeply about the success of their students.

11. Celebrating our differences

Their smiles do a good part of the work for me—it’s hard not to smile with them! What I especially love is how all these identities seem able to coexist naturally in the same moment: Valérie is wearing traditional African clothing, Destiny is wearing a Land Back shirt, and they’re both taking part in a Latin dance activity. I find this image beautiful precisely because neither of them needs to erase who they are in order to share something with the other. Different cultures and stories meet, and for a few minutes, what we see most of all is the joy of being together.

12. Sharing a sense of wonder

These four Explore students had just won a floatplane tour over Yellowknife because they had stood out throughout the program for their engagement, enthusiasm and willingness to participate. So I was especially happy to witness their excitement when they found out they were going—and even happier knowing I had the privilege of going with them!

The wonder in their eyes was touching and inspiring. In trying to give students a memorable northern experience, the moment reminded us too that there is always something new to experience in Yellowknife—and that we have to let ourselves fully take in the present moment.

13. Remembering why we do it

A few hours before the Explore closing ceremony, the students surprised the team with buttons and a card written in French to thank us for the moments they had experienced during their stay.

Explore was a first for the Collège. There was a lot of work behind what the students saw and, in the middle of everything, we didn’t necessarily have time to stop and measure the impact it might be having on the other side. This time, they reminded us. This team photo wasn’t particularly planned or carefully composed, but it captures a moment when we could look at one another and realize that all those efforts had genuinely made an impact on these learners.

14. The strength of community

Some people prefer photographing what is happening. I love photographing people’s reactions to what is happening even more: the applause, the huge smiles and the genuine enthusiasm with which they cheered on the people in front of them.

At the Explore closing ceremony (yes, Explore again—it really was five incredible weeks of on-the-ground content creation for me), there were students, but also host families, partners, colleagues, friends and community members. Sometimes I try to imagine what it must feel like to arrive in Yellowknife knowing almost no one and, a few weeks later, see so many people show up to celebrate what you’ve accomplished. When some students told us they would love to come back someday, this photo helped me understand why.

15. Seeing your work come to life

Part of working in marketing happens behind the scenes: designing, writing, editing, ordering materials, adjusting visuals and thinking about how the Collège presents itself in the community. When I started participating in more in-person events, I finally got to see some of those things come to life in front of me.

During this event for newcomers last year, our table ended up surrounded by people of different ages and backgrounds who came to ask questions about the Collège and our services. And behind my camera, I was also noticing our caps, our orange shirts, our lanyards and that whole little visual universe our team had worked on. To everyone there, it was probably simply our booth. To me, it was also the very tangible satisfaction of seeing work done behind the scenes serve exactly the purpose it was meant to.

16. Being a team, even from a distance

Natacha works remotely from Toronto. We talk all the time, but being on the same team and being in the same room are two very different things. So when she came to Yellowknife around the Pan-Territorial Summit on Learning, we had something pretty rare: time to work side by side, think through our strategies and simply exchange ideas without having to open Teams. The dream!

I love this photo because it’s almost completely ordinary if you don’t know the context… Natacha working in the Collège office! A big moment for us whenever it happens. I’m lucky to have her as my teammate, and I absolutely love this photo.

17. Isolated, but never alone

During the Forum on Leadership and Civic Engagement, participants placed small lights on a map to represent where they lived. The group brought together about 40 people from 22 countries and territories, from the Americas all the way to Canada’s North.

This map may not be the most spectacular photo in my selection, but I love what it made me realize. In Yellowknife, distance is such a normal part of daily life that it’s easy to think about the Francophonie through the lens of our own isolation. Then you look at all those little lights and your perspective changes. Our community is remote, yes. But it exists within a much larger network of Francophone communities with different histories and realities. Our little light is far from the others. It certainly isn’t alone.

18. A small college with a very real impact

Here, I chose two photos from certificate ceremonies: students from the LINC, CLIC and early childhood programs, joined by Explore students in one of the images. They’re simple: groups of people, certificates and lots of smiles. Yet they represent one of the most tangible things I get to photograph in my work.

Behind those pieces of paper are hours of learning and very different journeys. For some people, learning a language can make it easier to integrate into a new community; for others, education opens up professional or personal opportunities. We often talk about an organization’s impact through numbers. In moments like these, I get to see it on the faces of people who have just completed something they’re proud of.

19. Respect begins with listening

In this photo, Cécilia is giving Explore students an introduction to Tłı̨chǫ. I could hear them trying to pronounce the words and phrases, trying again and feeling genuinely proud when they got them right.

Many people who come North want to learn more about Indigenous communities and cultures. What I love here is that this encounter also happens through language and through putting yourself in the position of a learner. At the Collège, reconciliation and relationships with Indigenous communities matter. To me, respect also begins there: arriving with curiosity, recognizing what you don’t know and taking the time to listen to the people who can teach you.

20. The ambition to build a future here

Some people have an energy that comes through easily in a photograph. Raymonde was one of those people. I photographed her during a panel bringing together young people from Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and Yukon at the Pan-Territorial Summit on Learning. They talked about education, mobility, careers, the challenges specific to the North and the resources that help young people pursue their ambitions. Raymonde spoke with incredible energy about her projects and her involvement in her community. What stayed with me from that panel was precisely this possibility of dreaming big without necessarily looking South: giving young people the resources and confidence they need to imagine what they can build here.

21. Sharing knowledge by meeting people where they are

Rosie was there to speak about her journey with French to young people in immersion during a French for the Future activity. At one point, she came down into the auditorium instead and started talking directly with them.

I particularly remember the young people in the front rows answering her, speaking French and sharing their own experiences with immersion. Rosie had learned French herself before making it an important part of her professional journey. I love this image because it makes the idea of passing something on feel very tangible: one person shares where a language has taken her and takes the time to listen to people who may only be at the beginning of their own story with it.

22. Gratitude, written out

I could have chosen a photo I took myself during their stay, but I love this one too much! During Francophonie Month, three students from Cégep de La Pocatière came to Yellowknife with their instructor, Sophie Brodeur, to learn about the Francophonie in a northern minority-language context. In this selfie in front of the Snow Castle, they’re holding a piece of paper with “#gratitude” written on it. And after spending time with them, I couldn’t imagine a better word. They wanted to meet people, ask questions, try activities and understand what we were sharing with them. Most of all, they kept telling us how grateful they were to have the opportunity to experience all of it. So for once, I don’t even need to interpret what the photo represents.

23. Coming together around a shared cause

The International Forum on the Promotion and Preservation of Minority and Indigenous Languages brought together people from different communities across Canada’s North, Alaska, Europe and beyond. Their stories, languages and perspectives were different. And talking about language preservation inevitably means touching on identity, transmission, history and sometimes healing.

That’s exactly why I love this photo so much. In the middle of sometimes complex discussions, I captured a group of people with very different realities laughing together. They didn’t need to share the same story to understand why each other’s stories mattered. To me, this image represents our ability to come together around a shared cause without erasing everything that makes us different.

24. Building the future together

When I look at this photo today, it doesn’t have quite the same meaning it did when I took it. It was taken during a pan-territorial meeting at the Collège where members of Francophone organizations from across the North were discussing, among other things, the development of French-language learning and the Pan-Territorial Summit that was being planned. At the time, what I noticed most was the connection and the quality of the relationships between the people gathered there.

A few months later, the project to develop a pan-territorial Collège Nordique campus across the three territories was announced at the Summit. This photo reminds me of everything that exists before an announcement: conversations, travel, relationships built on trust and an enormous amount of work. In the North, simply getting into the same room can already require considerable effort. But when I look at this image now, I mostly feel like I’m looking at people preparing something for the future.

25. Caring for someone in their language

This photo was taken during a Café de Paris, an activity that gives people working in health care the opportunity to practise their French so they can better serve Francophone patients.

Grace, in the centre, puts a lot of effort into learning French, both for her work and out of personal passion. And I think there is something deeply generous about that process: choosing to keep learning so that one day you can provide someone with better service in their own language. This photo also reminds me that this effort can be enjoyable. By meeting regularly, practising, eating together and laughing, learning also becomes a space where relationships are built.

26. Opening ourselves to what is unfamiliar

A visit to Nature’s North Wildlife Gallery with learners from the LINC program, surrounded by bears, wolves, an enormous moose and dozens of other species. A very northern image.

What interests me most, though, are the people in the middle of it all. They arrive in Yellowknife from different parts of the world with their own cultures and points of reference, and gradually begin learning about the place where they’ve settled. These outings are voluntary: they choose to participate, ask questions and allow themselves to experience something unfamiliar. Integrating doesn’t mean leaving your culture behind. It also means being open enough to engage with an environment and references that, at first, may not feel familiar.

27. Never losing your sense of wonder

A colleague took this photo during the same visit, and I’m very glad she did because I think it captures Leanne wonderfully.

Leanne teaches in the CLIC program. She brings people together, she’s curious and playful, and she’s one of those people who seem to have held on to the precious ability to be genuinely excited by the world around them. She looks completely fascinated by the moose—or maybe even like she’s having a conversation with it. I think she’s absolutely perfect and whimsical. And in a selection dedicated to the people who marked my year, that seemed like a pretty excellent reason to keep this photo.

28. Finding connection in the everyday

I promise this photo shoot was very professional. Leanne and Yakshini were helping me create images to explain the Collège’s new registration procedures, and Tamlin felt inspired. This photo perfectly captures the sense of connection and playfulness that is also part of our everyday life. I photograph a lot of major projects at the Collège, but these are the moments that stay with me.

29. Being fully present

For almost the entire week of the Tłı̨chǫ immersion camp, it had been hot. Very hot. When I arrived near the end of the camp to take photos, the heat and fatigue were starting to show. Then, during the sharing circle, just as the Elders began to speak, thunder started rumbling. A few moments later, the rain came pouring down. I’m not someone who necessarily looks for spiritual meaning in moments like this, but this one stopped me in my tracks. After several days of heat, the rain on the land was welcomed with an almost palpable sense of joy. People stepped outside to feel it, laugh and simply enjoy what was happening. At a camp where learning Tłı̨chǫ was so closely connected to the land, identity and transmission, I found it especially beautiful to see everyone stop and simply be there. Then the rain moved on, the sun came back out, and that little moment felt special.

30. And behind all these images…

To finish, I’m allowing myself to step to the other side of the lens. This photo of Natacha and me was taken at PSEWEB, a conference dedicated to marketing in post-secondary education, in Toronto. For three days, we were able to attend sessions, reflect on our work, exchange ideas and, most importantly, do something a remote team doesn’t always get to do: simply spend time together.

Behind the photos, videos, articles, campaigns, website and strategies you’ve seen throughout the year, there is also a small marketing team thinking about the best way to tell the stories of what happens at the Collège. We’re proud of all these projects and excited for another year of content!