A letter to the president of Arctic College

Last week, we received the saddening news that the Inuit Studies program at Nunavut Arctic College might have to shut down because of lack of funding.

For many decades, we have been deeply involved in academic research in the North and many of us have participated in the program. We greatly appreciate its value for the development of Inuit culture in Nunavut. Therefore, we wish to express our disappointment at this decision and plead for the maintenance and expansion of this important program.

The Nunavut Arctic College Inuit Studies Program, developed under the active leadership of Susan Sammons and Alexina Kublu in 1996, is unique of its kind. The program is indeed totally run in the North by Nunavut Arctic College and is offered locally to Inuit students coming from many communities in Nunavut.

Its curriculum, carefully developed by senior NAC instructors, in close consultation with Inuit elders, covers a wide series of topics relating to historic and contemporary Inuit society and culture, and ranging from techniques of survival on the land to identity and world view.

Its teaching methods, involving Inuit students and their NAC instructors working in close cooperation with Inuit elders and southern or local academic facilitators, are truly innovative and highly collaborative. The program also emphasizes the worthiness of team work, of in-depth interviewing and researching, and of recording, transcribing and safeguarding oral traditions and oral history for future generations.

It also enables Inuit students to develop their own perspective on the topics investigated and contributes to bridging the generation gap among the Inuit of Nunavut. Finally, and not the least, the program has been instrumental in the production of three series of bilingual Inuktitut-English books Interviewing Inuit Elders, The Transition to Christianity, Memory and History in Nunavut, one of which is available on the Web, thus contributing to keep the memory of elders as a heritage for future generations.

Other reasons to maintain and expand NAC’s Inuit Studies Program can be mentioned: its direct link with Inuit Qaujimajatuqangiit; its partnership in research programs, inter-institutional agreements and various programs of exchanges of students with Canadian and European universities; and its foreseeable importance in the activities of the University of the Arctic (of which Nunavut Arctic College is a member).

We thus plead collectively for the maintenance and expansion of the Inuit Studies Program in the curriculum offered by Nunavut Arctic College. This program is absolutely necessary, well-run, extremely productive, given as a model to follow, and a perfect example of a collaboration on a par between Inuit and universities inside and outside Canada.

We do hope that you will be able to find the necessary resources to keep this program alive and thriving. If necessary, we are ready to support your efforts in trying to find solutions to overcome the problem that was reported to us. Do not hesitate to contact us for that purpose if needed.

* Jean Briggs, Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Anthropology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and Visiting Scholar, Alaska Native Language Center and Dept. of Anthropology, University of Alaska Fairbanks
* Béatrice Collingnon, Maître de Conférences, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne/Institut Universitaire de France
* Yvon Csonka, Professor, Dept. of Social and Cultural History, Ilisimatusarfik/University of Greenland
* Louis-Jacques Dorais, Professor, Dept. of Anthropology and GÉTIC, Université Laval
* Ann Fienup-Riordan, Research associate, Smithsonian Institution’s Arctic Studies Center and Calista Elders Council
* Shelagh Grant, Adjunct Faculty in Canadian Studies and Research Associate of the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Native Studies, Trent University
* Birgitte Jacobsen, Associate Professor and Vice-rector, Dept. of Greenlandic Language, Literature and Media, Ilisimatusarfik/University of Greenland
* Karen Langgård, Associate Professor, Dept. of Greenlandic Language, Literature and Media, Ilisimatusarfik/University of Greenland
* Frédéric Laugrand, Associate Professor, Faculté de théologie et de sciences religieuses and GÉTIC, Université Laval
* Ole Marquardt, President (Rector), Ilisimatusarfik/University of Greenland
* Murielle Nagy, Editor, Études/Inuit/Studies and Research Associate, GÉTIC, Université Laval
* Elke Nowak, Professor, General Linguistics, University of Technology, Berlin
* Jarich Oosten, Professor and Director of CNWS, University of Leiden, The Netherlands
* Bernard Saladin d’Anglure, Professor, Dept. of Anthropology and GÉTIC, Université Laval
* William Schneider, Curator of Oral History, Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks
* Ned Searles, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology, Bucknell University, Pennsylvania
* Michèle Therrien, Professor, Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO), Paris
* Chris Trott, Professor, Dept. of Native Studies, University of Manitoba
* François Trudel, Professor, Dept. of Anthropology and Director of GÉTIC, Université Laval