No rights or benefits for urban Inuit?

Your editorial “Kiviaq’s Lonely Quest,” on July 30, was very timely for my family, as we live just outside of Ottawa.

My 18-year-old daughter’s application had just been rejected that day by Nunavut Student Financial Assistance Program (FANS), due to the residency requirement. I wasn’t surprised, but my daughter had worked so hard to get this point in her life that it was also a major blow to her aspirations, self-worth and motivation.

Like any other 17- going on 18-year-old graduating from high school, she wanted to take a year off and learn Inuktitut and be back in Nunavut, to experience and reaffirm her Inukness. But the possibility of her ending up homeless, and the lack of existing programs in Inuktitut language and culture made it difficult to support her move back to Nunavut. That wasn’t a concrete plan, but a romantic one.

The past year, we soul-searched with our daughter, and when she decided on her field of interest, she applied to four universities, and was accepted at two of them. The University of Windsor had a good four-year B.A. program, but Windsor is too distant from home in case of emergencies. She accepted the University of Ottawa, keeping in mind that this is the least expensive choice by cutting costs where she can: five-day-a-week meal plans, and no living expenses. She would come home on weekends and do her housekeeping chores.

This is very good, considering that she attended Nakasuk and Inuksuk schools in Iqaluit through Grade 10 and has gone back to Iqaluit to work each summer. Her first year in Grade 11 surprised us, as the first semester was a lot of repetition from Inuksuk. This convinced us that the academic curriculum in Nunavut is up to par with provincial schools. That was a very pleasant surprise.

Back to the rejection from FANS. I made the first contact with them nine months ago in November, with a simple request for a letter of rejection. This letter of rejection from our affected service agency is required in order for her to be eligible for an Ontario-based aboriginal scholarship program. FANS encouraged her to apply.

When we realized that we had missed the Ontario-based scholarship deadline in May, due to her late documentation received from school, we then applied to FANS. Since then, it has been a lesson in their inability to make decisions and their lack of awareness of time constraints. We would send the required documents, and then have to make calls or emails, because if we didn’t, we didn’t hear from them.

My personal experience, having dealt with FANS this year, was frustrating, in the sense that I got the feeling that nobody is really in charge of the program.

One person told us one minute that they never received her application, and would she send it right away. When I got on the same phone call, they said they did have her application and that there were four people reviewing it that minute. They said a decision would be made by 4:00 p.m. the next day.

On the next day, there was no decision, but they said management was consulting with their lawyer. The next day, we finally got the rejection letter that we asked for nine months earlier so we could apply for Ontario funding.

It sounds like there is no leadership, and no clear-cut rules and criteria when it comes to urban Inuit. Being an Inuk and a woman, and I dealt with people of the same gender at FANS, I sensed that they had a difficult time giving bad news and making negative decisions.

Make your rules clear, even if it means hanging up a sign saying “Urban Inuit need not apply.”

And remember that you are dealing with young people who haven’t left home yet and don’t have the experience dealing with outside service agencies. They often don’t know what questions to ask or to assert themselves. Talking and consulting with competent staff makes it easier for them, when they feel at ease and are convinced that the staff are actually there to serve them.

I recently learned that the Inuvialuit have a scholarship program that doesn’t discriminate on the basis of residency. If you are enrolled in the Inuvialuit claim, you qualify no matter where you live.

This is especially frustrating, as my daughter came to Ottawa to complete her high school and only spent nine months here, going back to work in Iqaluit each summer. Can Nunavut learn from the Inuvialuit education policies, which don’t discriminate against their own people ?

The other concern I have is that large numbers of Inuit now live in the South, some by choice, some for health reasons, some for economic reasons, and some because Inuit society has shunned them – HIV/AIDS affected persons, persons fleeing from abusive relationships, gays and lesbian, and mentally and physically handicapped people.

In the meantime our governments continue to receive per capita funding for aboriginal services. If so, how do we take advantage of the benefits?

I know of two other parents, originally from Nunavut, who will be facing the same systematic discrimination next year, as their daughters both plan to attend university in Kingston. Hopefully they will be able to get funding .

I have lived in the South over 20 years on and off. I have seen students from the North trying to survive while attending university. I have gone to food banks to assist stay-at-home pregnant mothers when their husbands’ student grants, even with a supplementary grant, could not support a family of four. I have seen bright young men and women come down to further their education and then quit because it is so foreign and there are no support systems for them.

My argument for why my daughter’s application should be approved was that she was used to urban living and had her family support systems in place. Those two in itself indicated some likelihood of success or retention.

At the moment we are trying another angle, where we might have a chance with our land claim enrolment status. We read in a pamphlet from NTI that one of the benefits is scholarships through your regional Inuit association. We are applying to Kakivak and NITC. Payments are required now, and we have deferred payment once already and will be asking for another extension. So this has been challenging for us as a family.

We are determined that if there is a perception out there that Inuit get free education, there is a way. I just have to find it! It has been very challenging and I share this personal story in that hopes that some changes will be made to include all Inuit in the claim and the benefits that come with it.

If no funding comes through from our Inuit representative organizations, our last chance is going to Inuit and Indian Affairs. As it has been my experience, I will be told that all Inuit education funds have been funnelled through bilateral agreements (government-to-government) and through land claims agreements with Inuit. Why don’t I apply to them?

Attending university is very foreign to most of us when we live in Nunavut, because there are no universities in our homelands that we can strive for (no visible proof, making it much more pie-in-the-sky). Our parents have never seen universities, so they can’t prepare their children, let alone give them reasons to complete high school and go on to the next step. There are not enough jobs to go around with a high school diploma nowadays.

If we are serious about our children making the next step, let’s not only talk about creating universities in Nunavut, but allow for Inuit to attain a higher education in the South no matter where they reside, while we make this transition.

Most southern Inuit, and there are many – we are told over 1,000 Inuit live in and surrounding rural areas of Ottawa – have come south for a reason and should be entitled to every benefit that is afforded to those Inuit living in the North, as most go back to their community eventually.

Simona Arnatsiaq
Plantagenet, Ont.