Photo: Doris Ipeelee via CBC News
When Doris Ipeelee was 7 years-old, she remembers asking a pilot if she could fly a plane one day. "He said yes, of course, and ever since then I've grabbed onto that and I've always wanted to be a pilot," Ipeelee told CBC News. Of indigenous heritage, Ipeelee is an Inuk from Iqualuit, Canada. She graduated from flight school two years ago and is going through a nearly two-month training with Calm Air, through which she will begin flying flights in her home territory of Nunavut this winter. Jenna Chouinard, Calm Air's vice-president of HR and payroll told CBC News that the Manitoba-based airline is looking to hire from the communities they fly into in Nunavut. The airline recently trained 12 young indigenous people -- including some from Rankin Inlet and Arviat -- to earn a private pilot's license. Ipeelee hopes her experience can inspire others to believe they can put anything they set their mind to. "Just have it as a possibility in your head. If that's potentially something that you want to do in the future, you can always just have it there," she said. "Don't think that it's not reachable, because it is."
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