Gwen K. Healey Akearok, co-founder of Qaujigiartiit Health Research Centre, holds a cardboard model of the Inuusirvik Community Wellness Hub prior to its opening, in this file photo. (Photo by Corey Laroque)
Nunavut’s need for post-secondary education legislation
Letters | Qaujigiartiit director makes the case for Nunavut institutions to provide university-level training
Gwen K. Healey Akearok (Submitted photo)
As Canada’s youngest territory celebrated its 25th anniversary, Nunavut continues to stand alone as the only jurisdiction in Canada without post-secondary education legislation outside of the Nunavut Arctic College Act.
This legislative gap represents a fundamental barrier to self-determination and a missed opportunity to harness the immense knowledge and capacity that exists within our territory.
For the past 19 years, the community-led Qaujigiartiit Health Research Centre in Iqaluit has operated like a “mini university” — without the ability to grant a degree. In this time, Qaujigiartiit has brought more than $60 million in research and training funding into Nunavut.
The centre is independent and does not have any affiliation with a university or government. It does not even have core funding.
Despite chronic underfunding and a national granting system that privileges the ‘U15’ (the 15 largest research universities in Canada), Qaujigiartiit has been successful to date because of the spirit of collaboration across Nunavut to achieve what we as community members know in our hearts to be possible.
Our people are our greatest strength. Having more post-secondary options in our territory would help us harness that strength.
Nunavummiut deserve the best possible education from early childhood to graduate school. A university and degree-granting capability — simply having the ability to provide university credits for Nunavut-led education and training — are an important part of the learning continuum.
The absence of a post-secondary education act has created a paradoxical situation where community-led educational institutions must seek validation from southern universities to accredit programs that are deeply rooted in Inuit knowledge and teaching approaches.
This requirement for external validation runs counter to the very principles of self-determination that led to the creation of Nunavut.
Our territory possesses rich educational traditions and innovative approaches to learning that deserve recognition in their own right. Yet without proper legislative recognition, these valuable knowledge systems must continually seek legitimacy through southern institutions that may not fully grasp their significance.
The impact of this legislative void extends beyond philosophical concerns. Each year, many Nunavummiut who wish to pursue post-secondary education must leave the territory to do so.
This exodus of talent creates both personal and community challenges as students face the additional burdens of geographical displacement and cultural adjustment alongside their academic pursuits.
Nunavut Arctic College is our only post-secondary institution and has demonstrated innovation in delivering community- and culturally-relevant programs throughout the territory.
More institutions in Nunavut, like Qaujigiartiit, as well as Pirurvik and others, can provide both undergraduate and graduate-level training but are prevented from providing credits by the current legislative gap — unless a university outside of the territory is the partner.
The time has come for Nunavut to join every other Canadian jurisdiction in establishing comprehensive post-secondary education legislation. Such legislation would empower our institutions to develop and deliver programs that reflect our unique context and needs, validate our educational approaches such as land-based learning, and support the growth of home-grown academic.
This is not merely about administrative alignment with other Canadian jurisdictions — it’s about recognizing and enabling Nunavut’s capacity to shape our collective educational future.
As we look toward the next quarter-century of territorial development, establishing a post-secondary education act must be a priority. Our youth — our children and grandchildren — deserve the opportunity to pursue higher education that honours who they are while preparing them for the challenges of tomorrow, right here in Nunavut.
Gwen K. Healey Akearok, PhD was born and raised in Iqaluit, Nunavut, where she continues to live, work, and raise her family. She is the co-founder of the Qaujigiartiit Health Research Centre and has served as its executive and scientific director for the past 19 years.
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“Each year, many Nunavummiut who wish to pursue post-secondary education must leave the territory to do so.”
With that logic, why not start by putting the NS summer camp in nunavut then instead of Ottawa?
NS also serves to expose attendees to southern culture, as well as showcasing the north to southern people.
“This requirement for external validation runs counter to the very principles of self-determination that led to the creation of Nunavut.”
Well, if you want to be free of the constraints of “external validation”, why not just give out some made-in-nunavut degrees now? Of course, the “externals” won’t recognize your “degree”, but since people want a Nunavut University so that students will never leave and see what life is like in the rest of the country/world, that won’t really matter.
Come to think of it, this degree-granting project won’t need external funding then, either? Self-determination can cover that, too.
How many other students leave thier home province to attend universities in other provinces, other cities other countries. Lots. What the …… build a uneasily and staff it for a handful of students who get education free anywhere. Really now!
Lots do leave home for university. But they don’t HAVE to.
Not many, if any, towns in Canad, let alone the world with under 7k inhabitants have a full university. It is the norm everywhere in the world to move from a rural area to one with more population for advanced education.
There is also already a university on Inuit lands, in Greenland. Why not try to work with them as a place to start?
Or all of NS? Oh wait, the facilities would have to be built, after the wrangling over a location – that will be a battle royale.
Would Carleton still offer its stamp of approval if it were in Nunavut?
Where are we going to house all these students. And house all the professors who will most likely come from the south or abroad. What we really need is more teachers in our communities. Most communities are lacking teachers and have to rely on community members. Teacher in nunavut also have share accommodation due to lack of housing. Nunavut is trying to grow too fast. We are only 25 years old. Qaujigiaqtiit and pirurvik should join the Nunavut Arctic College to enhance the programs that currently exist. Imagine if the nursing, teacher and environmental programs had direct access to pirurvik. That would be just wow! And help enhance the interpretation translations program.
A feature of cultural obsessions around identity is the belief that cultures possess exclusive “ways of knowing” privy to their members alone.
It’s rare to hear these nearly mythical “ways” explained. The vagueness of their defense owes to the point. We aren’t meant to ‘know’. These aren’t serious epistemological statements, but incantations meant to broadcast affiliation with one’s group.
In this piece we hear of “educational approaches such as land-based learning”. But can you imagine a natural science program in any university that doesn’t work in the field? What is land based learning that is distinct here? How is it that southern institutions might not see value in them? Are those institutions really concerned about learning “on the land” or are they rightly concerned with how the institution determines what counts as knowledge?
For example, western science is built on empiricism. It ‘privileges’ quantitative data, rigorous testing, falsifiability; as it should.
Are you doing the same? If not, you’re not doing the work of a university.
Nunavut needs a real trade school that will produce 1,000 construction workers, who will build the houses and other facilities that Nunavut needs.
Until Nunavut has its own 1,000 construction workers, it will continue to bring in temporary construction workers from the south and continue to send Nunavut’s money south.
You mean will continue to funnel southern money through Nunavut back to the south.
There, fixed it for you.
You mean money that was funneled into the north from the south?
I have to wonder how an epistemological system that rejects ‘external validation’ would treat that feature of the scientific method that subjects knowledge claims to critical scrutiny?
With that in mind I suspect people who argue traditional knowledge and science represent two different, equally valid ways of ‘knowing’ are engaged, primarily, in a cultural battle. They rely heavily on the status ‘traditional knowledge’ enjoys as a buffer to criticism.
Remember, science is not so much a body of knowledge as it is a systematic methodology for discovering knowledge that includes mechanisms to correct for mistakes. Without an openness to challenge and criticism knowledge cannot grow, and bad ideas can take hold.