Photo: MLA Tony Akoak talks about language loss at KIA AGM

Gjoa Haven MLA Tony Akoak listens to delegates talk about language loss Oct. 7 at the Kitikmeot Inuit Association annual general meeting in Cambridge Bay. Akoak also shared his own story of language loss: at the age of five, he was sent to residential school and, within a matter of months, lost his ability to speak Inuktitut. When he got back home, his mother asked him to fetch a frying pan: “I brought back a pot, not a frying pan,” Akoak said. Delegates also asked Akoak for more action on housing in Gjoa Haven, citing examples of residents in the community of about 1,200 people who live in shacks because of the shortage of social housing. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)