Reading, writing and wide open spaces

SARA MINOGUE

If you’re an elementary student in Iqaluit who doesn’t much like school, you have something to look forward to when you reach Grade 8.

That’s when Iqaluit students get their first taste of the land program at Inuksuk High School.

“Some of the kids that are a real handful in here, really shine out there,” said Mat Knicklebein, the program’s coordinator, gesturing to his empty Grade 8 classroom.

In late September, like every year, teachers at Inuksuk High spent five days ferrying about 120 students to Qaummaarviit Historic Park, about 13 km southwest of Iqaluit, for a day-long adventure with their class.

For each student, the day starts with a short boat ride to the islands off the tip of Peterhead Inlet, conducted either by Jimmy Noble Jr., a local outfitter, or Mathew Alainga, an Inuktitut teacher at Inuksuk High.

Once on the island, they take a tour of the ancient Thule sites they’ve spent one or two weeks studying in their social studies class.

And next spring, they get to take part two of the program — a fishing trip to Nungarut, or the Bay of Two Rivers, on the other side of Frobisher Bay. They’ll travel by skidoo, and once they arrive, go ice fishing, and set up nets under the ice.

For many kids, and teachers, it’s their first time on the land, and the highlight of their year.

These students will see even more next year, when as Grade 9 students, they do two more trips. One coincides with a wilderness first aid course, and includes igloo-building, lead by local masters of the craft. The next is a skidoo trip, following a firearms safety course. Boys and girls spend the day hunting, or at target practice.

The final adventure comes in either Grade 10, 11 or 12, during the northern studies course, which is mandatory for all kids graduating from Inuksuk High.

Those students take overnight trips — a hunting trip by boat in the fall, and a skidoo trip to the floe edge for seal hunting in the spring.

“Numerous student shoot their first seal, caribou, ptarmigan, rabbit… catch their first fish… and those are highlights for those kids,” Knicklebein says.

In total, the program produces about 450 land experiences each year. The adventures are part of the culmination of events that started when a group of teachers held their first meeting of the Inuksuk Land Committee about six years ago.

At the time, Inuksuk High didn’t have much of a land program to speak of. Six years later, it’s part of a tradition — one that its founders intend to maintain.

They’ve kept careful records over the years to make sure that future teachers will have everything they need to make the programs happen, even if the staff aren’t always the same.

Now, there’s talk of expanding the program to offer more to the senior grades. As it is, students can complete their Northern Studies in Grade 10, and not get another chance to go out on the land with their classmates.

The program already has strong support from principal Terry Young, and community members, including guides like Pauloosie Lucassie and Kowmageak Mitsima, who have taken the kids on the land for several years now.

Last year, the high school bought three new snowmobiles. Mathew Alainga has built several kamotiks, and helped stockpile other supplies for the trips. Teachers Mary Alikatuktuk and Malaya Audlakiak make bannock for the trips, and have sewn four big canvas tents for the program over the last two years.

There is talk now of building a cabin that can be used by the high school and the other schools in town, but more work needs to be done before that will become a reality. In the meantime, the program will continue.

“For some kids, this is the highlight of their school year. We have kids in Grade 7 saying they can’t wait.”