Nunavik Sivuniksavut moves closer to realization

Nunavik Sivuniksavut would likely be affiliated with Montreal’s John Abbott college, pictured here, which already draws a large chunk of Nunavik’s out-of-region post-secondary students. (FILE PHOTO)

Nunavik high school graduates should soon be able to apply to a made-in-Nunavik post-secondary program.

The Kativik School Board first announced plans in 2010 to open a Nunavik version of Nunavut’s successful urban college-level program for Inuit students, Nunavut Sivuniksavut, based in Ottawa.

But efforts to establish the program stalled for the last few years — that is until this week, when the school board posted a job ad to hire an educational consultant to oversee the program’s launch.

The KSB is looking to hire someone to help implement the program over the next year — oversee curriculum development for the program, select qualified instructors and prepare admission criteria.

The program, originally set to open in 2012, could now take off in Montreal as soon as August 2016, said Jason Annahatak, the director of post-secondary student services at the KSB, although the school board has yet to set an official opening date.

School board officials are still working out details on where the program would be based, but Annahatak said his department is in discussion with John Abbott college in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, where KSB’s administrative offices are already based.

“[The new program] will likely be affiliated with the college,” Annahatak said. “They’re open to being host to the initial program.”

The program already has support from two Nunavik students who studied at Nunavut Sivuniksavut in Ottawa as part of a pilot project.

Anne-Marie Aitchison and Janice Grey-Scott completed the eight-month program in 2009-2010.

“NS was, hands down, the best thing I’ve ever done for myself,” Grey-Scott told Nunatsiaq News after completing the program. “I learned more about myself as a person, as a young Inuk and as someone within a larger political context, in terms of land claims and the impacts of them.

“I would definitely recommend this program to other Nunavimmiut,” she said.

Nunavut Sivuniksavut, which has been running for 25 years, offers its students courses on land claims, Inuit history, contemporary issues, understanding politics and the Inuktitut language.

There is also a community outreach component that helps students prepare cultural presentations and performances around the city.

Founded in 1985 by the Tungavik Federation of Nunavut to train fieldworkers to inform Nunavut communities on the progress of land claim agreements, Nunavut Sivuniksavut evolved into a program to help Inuit students prepare to go on to college, university or jobs.

Today, it’s an accredited college program, affiliated with Ottawa’s Algonquin College in Ottawa.

While the launch of Nunavik Sivuniksavut initially had support from the government of Quebec through its Plan Nord, the education consultant position is being funded through a number of regional organizations, including the KRG and Makivik Corp., Annahatak said.