Yellowknife’s haven for young Inuit

Leah Audlaluk, 15, who recently moved from Grise Fiord to Yellowknife misses hearing Inuktitut.

Ocean Stubbert, eight, is the youngest participant in the Inuktitut classes, part of Yellowknife pilot program offered through the Ottawa-based Tunngasuvingat Inuit resource centre. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Tyrone Powder, 13, who originally comes from Grise Fiord, has lived in Yellowknife for several years. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Leah Audaluk works on her Inuktitut as her teacher Iga Atagootak cuts out some large-size syllabic symbols for the class offered in Yellowknife through the Ottawa-based Tungasuvvingat Inuit resource centre.

YELLOWKNIFE — If you ask Leah Audlaluk what she misses most about Grise Fiord, she has a ready answer: speaking Inuktitut and hanging around with her friends.

Audlaluk, 15, moved to Yellowknife, population 19,000, from Grise Fiord, population 160, only months ago.

Now, instead of a school of 50, Audlaluk goes to Sir John Franklin High, with a student population of about 900.

While Audlaluk still misses her friends and passes her days immersed in English, she can hear Inuktitut and keep up with her culture four days a week after school, thanks to a pilot program from the Ottawa-based Tunngasuvingat Inuit resource centre.

This program offers activities to youth, Thursday through Sunday, at the Northern United Place. The activities include Inuit games, crafts, sewing and visits from elders as well as monthly country foods feasts.

These feasts are open to all of the 650 Inuit who live in Yellowknife, according to 2006 Statistics Canada figures, — and many of the Inuit in Yellowknife are youth.

From 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, youth can drop by the Northern United Place to a cozy second-floor room that’s been transformed into a corner from the North, with cut-outs of syllabics, photos of northern wildlife and a stuffed toy dog in the corner.

On a recent Thursday night, Leah Audlaluk, her brother Tyrone Powder, 13, Damian Kayotuk, 13, and Ocean Stubbert, 8, listen while Iga Atagootak instructs a class on Inuktitut.

Atagootak, who moved from Pond Inlet to Yellowknife nine years ago, writes on the board about the weather in syllabics: today the weather is foggy, the ground is covered with snow.

Amber Arnaktauyok Ferrie, 33, a co-coordinator of the Inuit youth program also listens to Atagootak as she explains each word.

Atagootak discusses the special diacritic marks used for endings and talks about how in the Eastern Arctic a word like sanajuq is pronounced hanajuq.

Ferrie, whose mother is the renowned artist Germaine Arnaktauyok, has never lived in the North, and didn’t grow up speaking Inuktitut, is also learning Inuktitut during the Thursday evening lessons.

After paying attention to Atagootak and filling out a work sheet, the kids take a popcorn break.

Kayotuk, who comes originally from Inuvik, shows off his skill at juggling hackey-sack balls.

Kayotuk and the others are regulars at the TI sessions— and Ferrie and co-coordinator Chris Camenzuli say they wish more kids would come.

The strength of the Inuit community is shown during the feasts when nearly 100 people of all ages show up.

These feasts will continue until at least March 2010 — and information on the schedule can be found on the Tungasuvvingat Inuit — Yellowknife Facebook page: