Ottawa students get chance to learn Inuktitut
Ottawa-Carleton District School Board launched program on Feb. 3
Jasmine Doig, left, Indigenous graduation coach at Ottawa Technical Secondary School and Ginnifer Menominee, the Indigenous languages co-ordinator for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, stand in the smudging room of the secondary school where the first-ever Inuktitut course in Ontario was launched Feb. 3. (Photo by Nehaa Bimal)
Sam Aipellee sits in an Ottawa Technical Secondary School classroom, watching as language specialist Nina Kuppaq carefully lights a soapstone qulliq after filling it with olive oil and cotton.
Kuppaq addresses the group of five students seated before her, describing how the qulliq is historically a crucial source of light and warmth in Inuit households.
When a student asks how animal fat was used to light the lamp, Kuppaq explains that seal or whale fat was rendered into oil.
Aipellee, who is in Grade 12, is one of the first students in a new Inuktitut language class offered at the school as of Feb. 3. She said she sees it as an opportunity to practise speaking Inuktitut again.
“I get to relearn my language and understand and answer in Inuktitut when speaking with my family. Since it’s my first language but I lost it, I would love to relearn it again,” she said.
This is the first time the course has been offered by Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.
“It is a really historical moment for Indigenous people, especially the Inuit community, with regards to language revitalization and maintaining their connection to their culture,” said Ginnifer Menominee, the Indigenous languages co-ordinator for the school board.
Sam Aipellee, a Grade 12 student at Ottawa Technical Secondary School, strikes a pose Wednesday as her teacher, Inuktitut specialist Nina Kuppaq, lights a qulliq in class. (Photo by Nehaa Bimal)
The course has eight students enrolled from grades 9 to 12. While most students in the class are Inuit, there are a few First Nations students as well.
“We know that there is a definite need for Indigenous languages within the education department, so it is really vital,” Menominee said, adding students and families across the district have inquired about how they can participate.
Jasmine Doig, an Indigenous graduation coach at the school, played a key role in supporting the program.
“I once went to the same school board as an Inuk student who definitely didn’t have the same opportunities,” she said.
“When I started as a grad coach about four years ago, I was serving a high population of Inuit that I already supported in the community, and I knew a lot of families and elders. I really tried to get the school board to understand the importance of the diversity amongst Indigineity and Inuit culture, language, and history.”
The course is taught by Kuppaq, whose Inuktitut certification with the Ontario College of Teachers was made possible through years of advocacy by Tungasuvvingat Inuit and the Uqausilirijiit Circle.
The Uqausilirijiit Circle is a group of Inuit elders who put forth recommendations to the Ontario College of Teachers regarding instruction of Inuktut languages within Ontario.
They also assess students’ language skills, giving those who already know Inuktitut a chance to earn credits. So far, three students have received credits.
The Inuktitut course provides students with a credit that can be used as a substitute for the French language requirement in the Ontario Secondary School Certificate and Ontario Secondary School Diploma.
The course also incorporates Inuit games, throat singing, drum dancing, and traditional land-based activities.
“The teacher will actually be intertwining culture into the everyday,” Menominee said.
“So it’s not just going to be your typical classroom session. She is going to be bringing in guests, taking kids out onto land, going out to community partnerships, and learning how to build their own qulliqs and stone carvings.”
Of all the activities planned for this semester, Aipellee said she is most looking forward to making parkas.
The school board hopes to expand the program in the future.
“There is a lot of interest from other schools within the board and the district wanting to provide Inuktitut to other students,” Menominee said.
“So we’re going to be expanding, but right now we’re really focusing on this semester as our startup, and then we will expand outward.”
I am opposed to teaching Inuktitut to southerners. English is a primitive language, everybody should stick to it.
Good thing nobody really cares what you think, and people will teach their language as they see fit.
Yes, and I am equally opposed to teaching our language to Inuit. There we go, with our attitudes we make a great team, don’t we? /S
How about mixing English and Inuktitut like “Spang-glish”?
.What would the lingo be called?
I suppose you say to people, “If you cant speak Inuktitut, you are not Inuit”…LOL I speak about 70% of my mother tongue. I remember that was one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard growing up. How ignorant can you be…..Ignorant means “lacking knowledge or awareness in general; uneducated or unsophisticated”.
I’d like to ask Ms. Doig to explain how the Inuk student she “once went to the same school board as” didn’t have the same opportunities.
“understand … the diversity amongst … Inuit culture, language, and history.”
What does that statement mean? What is the significance of the referenced ‘diversity’? To whom is it significant?
Inuit don’t smudge, please don’t ask.
And…. there’s no such thing as an “Eskimo kiss” and we , at least I don’t prefer the cold or iglus.😳😳😳😳
Aren’t you supposed to be providing for the community like the real hunters in Arctic Bay? Being in bed, using milusiq, or using your little red atv is not part of QIA’s job description for you
Did you know that at qallunaarjuat England, they teach inuktitut with absolutely no Inuit instructors or teachers but very surprisingly speak very good Inuktitut speaking qallunaarjuat whom never met Inuit.
I would love to be able to learn Inuktitut in our schools in Nunavut but that is nearly impossible, Inuktitut only goes to grade three and that level is too low.
Our GN continues to minimize Inuktitut every year and delays the education act decades.
Our own Government doing this to us. Nunavut is still be colonized to this very day, Nunavut has actually gone backwards since the split with NWT.
Why is that?
Can we find the Inuktitut program for grades 1 to 3 online? What are they doing in class? Are there any specific books? Songs and TV shows are fine, but I’m looking for more…
Learn it on your own. Stop constantly blaming and then cry that authority is too paternalistic and won’t let you.
Nobody is oppressing you now.
Besides, English is the operational language of this country.
Stop demanding hand outs.🤬😡🤬🤬😡
This is a fine example of why Inuktitut is dying in our own territory, its amazes me how arrogant some people can be, like this guy.
Let’s flip this the other way, if we took English out of our schools and have it only up to grade three without any curriculum or text books books and tell you just learn it on your own stop blaming everyone but yourself, how stupid does that sound? That’s exactly how stupid you sound spewing your garbage and intolerance towards Inuit, way too many of your kind in our Nunavut Government, it’s not the 1960s anymore but we still have too many stuck in that mindset.
What a nob you are Ned.
Inukti-TUK is dying.
The main languages of North America will be Hindi and Mandarin according to a professor on the study of population demographics.
Learn Spanish and Filipino. It’s fun.
I doubt Hindi and Mandarin will ever dominate the US. Canada maybe, but never the US. Their culture is very much “America first English first”. Look how quickly they killed french in Louisiana by banning the teaching of the language in public schools.