Nunavik school board encourages families to use Inuttitut at home

The Kativik School Board has launched a campaign to encourage families to speak Inuktitut at home and in their social lives. “As a school board, we’ll keep teaching Inuktitut, but we can’t do it alone,” said KSB secretary general Harriet Keleutak. (IMAGE COURTESY OF KSB)

KUUJJUAQ — “Hey fellow Inuit, let’s speak our language!”

That’s the loud and direct message the Kativik School Board is hoping to send to Nunavimmiut as it launches a campaign this week to promote the use of Inuttitut across the region.

The campaign targets students outside of the classroom, but emphasizing the important of using the language at home and in social settings as a way to keep the language alive.

“We’re targeting parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles to make sure they keep talking to their children in Inuttitut,” said Harriet Keleutak, secretary general at the KSB.

“We’re seeing, the last few years, students starting school and not being able to speak the language, even though their parents are Inuit. That was alarming.

“As a school board, we’ll keep teaching Inuttitut, but we can’t do it alone,” she said. “If eventually, five kids out of 10 don’t speak Inuttitut, the teacher would have no choice but to use a second language so they understand.”

The use of social media has many Inuit engaged, but often they are writing in English, or mixing the two languages, Keleutak said.

Educators have noted children starting sentences with “uvanga” — the same way you begin a sentence with “I” in English, she noted.

“So they’re using English grammar [when they speak Inuttitut,] and there are nouns and verbs that are not being used properly,” Keleutak said. “We want to keep our language strong.”

That was one of the major priorities to come from Parnasimautik consultations, where Nunavimmiut identified the preservation of their language and culture among their top goals.

With 99 per cent of Nunavik Inuit able to carry on a conversation in Inuttitut, Keleutak acknowledges that Inuttitut is strong. The goal, she says, is to enhance it.

To do that, the school board is distributing language promotional materials to its schools and to all Northern Village offices across the region.

The KSB has also reached out to municipalities and asked them to form language or cultural committees if they don’t already have them.

The school is also enhancing its own Inuttitut-language curriculum, but updating materials and offering teachers better language training.

The KSB’s teaching training program already offers an Inuttitut language component.