A first for Nunavut – International Language Summit held in Iqaluit

Nunavut can pride itself on another first – an international language summit held in Iqaluit with a main focus on Inuktitut and where we’re at as Nunavummiut.

There is a huge connection between Canada, Greenland and Alaska and the barriers we face as Inuit in the promotion, protection and preservation of Inuktitut, Innuinaqtut, Kalaallisut, and Inupiaq though we are all at varying levels of where we stand today. The most advanced in the standardization of Inuktitut is Greenland.

Katti Frederiksen was able to give us an extensive account of the history of Greenland and how they made standardizing Kalaallisut a reality. Greenland has had Home Rule since 1979 and through their independence they were able to come up with a system that works for them as a government and a nation.

I’m not sure how I feel about it. I think all community’s unique dialects are important and should be preserved, not standardized. Isn’t this the way language is lost? It is one thing to be able to speak a common language but standardization is just one more means of losing history. There is terminology that doesn’t exist today because of the influence of English on our languages and the lack of use of those words. If we do standardize, who’s dialect do we use and how do we preserve our unique history?

These are the issues we face in Nunavut. Do we standardize our language? Do we standardize our writing system? How do we put this new system into schools so our children are learning Inuktitut from K-12? How do we teach adult monolingual English Inuit to speak Inuktitut? How do we ensure we preserve the proper pronunciation of Inuktitut when even unilingual Inuktitut speaking adults mispronounce Inuktitut?

Elisapee Ootoova was the most animated in answering these questions. I was sorry to miss the bulk of her presentation but for the time I was there she had the room’s attention and at times had people in stitches.

She taught us that often terms are used that are wrong. For example, she said old stories are often incorrectly referred to as “unikaaptuaq”. The CBC often refers to unikaaptuaq, and what she expects is to hear Inuit legends but instead she hears recordings from her parents’ generation; people who were elders not very long ago. Unikaaptuaq always has a moral to the story and that story is ancient. These legends are intended to teach our children what the difference is between right and wrong, or how to do things correctly and incorrectly.

Elisapee also said in order for our youth to not be frustrated, our teachers, our parents, need to know our own timelines; our history. She was happy to have her first house in a Mittimatalik but couldn’t remember when she got her first washing machine or her first phone. (interpretation): “These are things we need to know in order to teach our children. These are things we need to know if we are going to steach our own history.”  

Another issue that came up both yesterday and today is the media and how it affects the languages we speak in our communities, especially by our youth. When you watch TV, listen to the radio, or go onto the internet there is very little Inuit language content. We once had TVNC, which aired about 80 percent of Inuit content. Yet today there is no programming that we can watch that is made by our people for our people with the exception of Isuma.TV and the odd program on APTN aside from the movies we make and what our community broadcasting corporations, like IBC, produce for us.

Why do our youth have to play English video games? How do we ensure that without living in a bubble, we are able to provide education, programming, and entertainment that caters to our unique language needs. I could easily see the Mahaha as a video game...

These are some of the things I learned today.

This evening there will be a dinner for all the delegates with special guest Zebedee Nungak. If you are unfamiliar with him and his views, it is very much worth looking him up. He’s a critical thinker with some important views on Inuit and our culture as a whole. Also this evening, there will be a concert at Nakasuk School with special performances by Inuit from all over.

I look forward to telling you all about the Music, Media & Publishing in the Inuit Language workshop tomorrow.

Qujanamiimmarialuk!

Luciemik.