Council of the Federation Literacy Award honours Iqaluit educator

Iqaluit educator and publisher Louise Flaherty, shown here in 2009 holding a map with traditional place names — a Piqqusilirivvit cultural project she co-ordinated — will receive a Council of the Federation Literacy Award. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Iqaluit educator and publisher Louise Flaherty has been named a recipient of a Council of the Federation Literacy Award.

The award, presented to each of the country’s provinces and territories, honours excellence in literacy, including aboriginal and community literacy.

Flaherty picks up the seventh annual edition of the award handed out for Nunavut.

Flaherty, who grew up in Clyde River, was first exposed to the English-language when she visited Iqaluit as a teen.

Concerned for the future of the Inuit language, Flaherty became a teacher and an advocate for the preservation of Inuktitut literacy.

Flaherty also co-ordinated the program for recently opened Piqqusilirivvik cultural school in Clyde River.

More recently, Flaherty founded Inhabit Media, an independent Iqaluit-based publishing house that has put out dozens of Inuktitut and English-language books since it was launched in 2006.

Inhabit Media’s latest releases offer colourful adaptations of traditional Inuit storytelling, many of which have found their way into many Nunavut classrooms.

Kim Crockatt, executive director of the Nunavut Literacy Council, said Flaherty has been key to developing Inuit language resources through the publishing house and also through the Nunavut Bilingual Education Society.

“Louise is highly regarded in the field of Inuktitut language and literacy promotion in Nunavut,” Crockatt said. “The outstanding publications produced by Louise and her partners…are critical to the development of a fully bilingual and biliterate territory.”

Premiers across the country created the award in 2004 to recognize the importance of literacy as means for Canadians to become active in society.

Flaherty was honoured alongside literacy advocates from each of the country’s provinces and territories. She’ll receive a certificate signed by Nunavut premier Eva Aariak.