Anawak supports language commissioner’s recommendations

Jack Anawak’s vision for Nunavut includes workers speaking Inuktitut on the job, families talking to each other in Inuktitut and businesses offering their services to the public in Inuktitut.

Anawak, Nunavut’s recently appointed minister of culture, language, elders and youth, said he firmly supports the recent recommendations made by Eva Aariak, Nunavut’s official language commissioner, for changes to the Official Languages Act and the creation of an Inuktitut Protection Act in Nunavut.

Aariak called for provisions to strengthen Inuktitut’s status in Nunavut as well as a new Inuktitut language law that would, for example, oblige businesses to make Inuktitut more prominent.

She has also recommended that one territorial department be made responsible for carrying out the new legislation.

Anawak said he’s ready to back up his vision by pushing for laws and other measures to encourage the preservation and promotion of Inuktitut in the territory.

“In order to start the progress, we will be the lead department,” Anawak said.

He added any official moves to boost the use and visibility of Inuktitut will provoke a reaction by those asked to comply. “We’ll shock the hell out of them. Once they’ve accepted it, there’ll be utilization,” he said.

Anawak wants Nunavut to do what the former Northwest Territories never did for Inuit language and culture.

Quoting the late U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt, Anawak said he would “walk softly and carry a big stick” to preserve, promote and protect Inuit language and culture in Nunavut.

He said Nunavummiut will also have to stop being so defeatist about the future of Inuit language and culture. “We’re too nice, we’re too polite.”

By the end of March, Anawak promised to offer more concrete information on the changes ahead.

“I expect to see an awful lot of changes in CLEY in terms of what we are going to be proposing and saying,” Anawak said.

He admitted finding the money for large capital projects, such as the establishment of a language centre for Nunavut, would take time.

But he said it’s not necessary to wait for money or until 2020 — the target date set out by the Bathurst Mandate — to give a higher profile to Inuktitut in government offices.

“If you speak English, fine, but I would like everyone also to represent and understand the language and culture of the region they reside in,” Anawak said.

The minister would like to have orientation classes in Inuit culture and language for non-Inuit territorial civil servants.

While he admits it is an “impossibility” for all civil servants to speak Inuktitut fluently, he’d like to see them master enough Inuktitut to serve Inuit in their own language.

Outside government offices, he wants to see Inuktitut signs on businesses in the territory — alongside English.

Anawak said he also would also like to bring in more institutional support for Inuit culture, such as “Inuit Qaujimatuqangit” leaves for workers who want to pursue cultural activities.

He attributed to intolerance suggestions that Nunavut is considering adopting repressive or fiscally irresponsible laws.

He expects fellow ministers and MLAs to support him, as the government represents a population that is 85 per cent Inuit. “We take it for granted, otherwise they’re in trouble!”

A special committee of the legislative assembly is reviewing the Official Languages Act and hosting roundtable discussions with the public in all three regions of Nunavut.

The committee, chaired by MLA Rebecca Uqi Williams, plans to meet the public in Rankin Inlet this Friday at the Siniktarvik Hotel and on Monday in Cambridge Bay at the Kitikmeot Inuit Association offices.