Nunavut leaders head to Greenland to look for lessons

DENISE RIDEOUT

IQALUIT — After touring a traditional school in Sisimiut, Greenland last week, Nunavut education officials came back excited about the possibility of creating an Inuit school in Nunavut.

Education Minister Peter Kilabuk, NTI officials, and members of the Nunavut Social Development Council travelled to Sisimiut, where they said they witnessed first-hand the benefits of an Inuit schooling system.

“It’s a very good school. It’s very appealing to Nunavummiut,” said Mary Wilman, president of the NSDC.

Wilman and the other delegates saw just how thoroughly the Knud Rasmussen school has incorporated Inuit culture and language into its curriculum.

In one visit to the school, the delegates listened to students sing traditional songs and learn about their history from Inuktitut-speaking teachers. All classes at the school are taught in the Greenlandic dialect, and Wilman said there seemed to be an unwritten rule among students that they won’t speak Danish or English.

The school offers a sewing class, where students learn how to sew skin clothing. There’s also a shop in which to craft traditional tools.

Wilman said Inuit culture prevailed in everything the students did.

“You sensed it from the very moment you stepped in the classroom,” she said.

“Greenland Inuit have a very strong foundation in their own language and their own culture.”

Peter Kilabuk, the education minister, said a school built on a foundation of Inuit tradition and language could help the culture thrive in Nunavut.

“It’s something that people have been talking about time after time after time: the need for an Inuit school in Nunavut,” Kilabuk said after he returned from Sisimiut.

“It has been recognized that we have are losing some of our culture and some of our language.”

The goal of an Inuit school would be to bring back that lost culture and language.

Nunavut parents and teachers have been saying for years that there aren’t enough Inuktitut classes in the school system. Some teachers in Iqaluit say they are fighting to keep Inuktitut alive in schools where Inuit children are speaking more and more English.

The current Nunavut education system provides students in kindergarten through Grade 3 an Inuktitut immersion program. In Grade 4 students begin studying in English, and from then to graduation they only have about 40 minutes a day of Inuktitut.

“Although it has been good, I think people will admit that our education system has a need to improve,” Wilman said.

“If you’re Inuk, your expectation is to be educated in the language you’re born in,” she said.

Kilabuk said Greenland’s Inuit school has an amazing approach to teaching and one that could benefit Nunavut students.

“One of the most interesting things to learn is that the big intent of that school is to prepare students to further their education, and to be better community members,” he said.

The Knud Rasmussen school, built in 1962, enrolls 52 students from communities throughout Greenland. Kilabuk said if such a school were built in Nunavut it would include students from all the communities.

“Students from the communities would definitely learn a lot more about the other communities, cultures and traditional way of life,” he said. “This would really broaden their view and really open their mind and become more creative.”

The Nunavut Social Development Council has been behind the push for the creation of an Inuit school. Wilman pitched the idea at Nunavut Tunngavik’s annual general meeting in November, and the group has been working with NTI and the education department ever since.

Now that the delegates are back from Sisimiut, they’ll try to come up with some bright ideas about how to make their dream a reality. Finding funding for the school will be a major part of that brainstorming.

Wilman said the NSDC will continue its push for an Inuit school.

“It’s been indicated by Inuit of Nunavut that they want this kind of education, which reflects, strengthens and improves the culture of Inuit and the livelihood of Inuit.”