Arviat project puts Inuit face on local history
“We want to be there too”
Nanisiniq’s research team in Ottawa May 14. From left to right, Curtis Konek, Martha Otokala, Amy Owingayak, and bottom row, Jordon Konek and Patrick Pingashat. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)
OTTAWA — When Curtis Konek, 20, recalls the social studies courses he took at school, he remembers learning about Napoleon Bonaparte, the early 19th century French emperor and military leader.
It’s not that the Arviat youth doesn’t appreciate history from other parts of the world — but where, he asks, is the history of the Inuit?
Konek isn’t alone in thinking his own history should have a bigger presence in Nunavut and throughout Canada.
“We want to be there too,” he said.
So Konek is doing something about it: he’s the newest member of the Nanisiniq Arviat history project.
The name Nanisiniq, which means “discovery” in Inuktitut, is a project led by Arviat’s Sivulinuut Elders Society. Under this project, Inuit youth and the University of British Columbia are researching and documenting the history of the community and the Kivalliq region.
Konek and three other youth researchers, along with local elder Martha Otokala and UBC professors are helping to research, write and film local stories that will form the basis of a documentary about Arviat’s past.
The group has spent the past year talking to elders and reading about how the Inuit went from living on the land to working underground at the Rankin Inlet nickel mine in the late 1950s to modern-day life in the growing community of Arviat.
Konek recently interviewed local elder Timothy Taleriktok, who worked in the Rankin Inlet nickel mine in from 1958-1960, for 75 cents an hour.
“I didn’t know there was a nickel project until I joined this project,” Konek said. “At the mine, Inuit people couldn’t even be with the Kablunaat [non-Inuit] people. They lived in shacks away from the Kablunaat [non-Inuit] and earned less in wages.”
For Konek, this was the earliest story he has heard about discrimination against Inuit.
This past week, the group visited the nation’s capital to do research and also to share some of their findings with Inuit organizations there.
The group looked through archival material at Ottawa’s Library and Archives Canada and did tours at the National Gallery of Canada and the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
Another youth researcher, Jordon Konek, 22, said Inuit today are “caught up” with modern technology. It’s important for Inuit to know their history so they can put their modern lives into context, he said.
“If you don’t notice history, you don’t see how caught up we are,” Konek said.
He didn’t at first; Konek said the education he received focused on “a lot of historic white people.”
But even one conversation with an elder can help to understand and pass on something from the past that would otherwise be lost, he said.
Fellow researcher Amy Owingayak, 19, said the only Inuit history she learned in school was about traditional Inuit clothing.
“We went through a traumatic change,” said Owingayak of Inuit losing their nomadic lifestyle. “I hope that our youth will learn quickly about that change, and we hope not only Inuit people will learn about this, but also people in the South.”
Dr. Frank Tester, a professor of social work at UBC and a member of the Nanisiniq team, also hopes the project’s findings have a broader reach.
“We want to influence young people and get them thinking about exploring their culture by talking with elders in their community,” he said. “And we do want to influence the education system.”
So far, Tester has had some influence; he sits as an advisor to Government of Nunavut education committee who is looking to create a more “Inuit-centred” curriculum in the territory’s high schools.
The Arviat history project is a good illustration of ideas that are relevant to the redesign of the territory’s curriculum, he said.
Tester said his background in social work has also led him to believe that the high rate of suicide among Inuit youth is linked to their lack of knowledge about where they come from.
“If you don’t know your roots, you’re vulnerable to everything that comes along,” he said. “This lack of grounding in Inuit history is one of the contributing factors to depressions and mental health problems associated with Inuit youth.”
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