Pangnirtung residents don’t need English to get by

PATRICIA D’SOUZA

Meeka Arnakaq doesn’t need to speak English to get her message across.

“Our government should be using the Inuktitut language,” she says in Inuktitut. “If the Inuktitut language is not used, you’ll be far away from us.”

Arnakaq is a unilingual adult educator in Pangnirtung. Last week, she told the special committee reviewing the Official Languages Act that the reason the Inuit language needs to be used more widely in government is not for reasons of cultural protection, as many believe — it is for reasons of simple communication, so the government can interact with the people it serves in the language they speak.

About 35 people, including 10 high school students and a handful of elders, gathered in the gym of Alookie School for the public meeting.

The special committee has travelled to Arctic Bay, Chesterfield Inlet, Baker Lake and Kugluktuk. It was formed last year to complete a review required by the act, and is expected to present a report to the legislative assembly no later than February.

Pangnirtung, with a population of more than 1,200, is about 93 per cent Inuit. Inuktitut is the dominant language in virtually every part of life. Unlike Iqaluit, it is very difficult to interact in the community if you don’t speak the language.

“I have met a lot of people who have lost the Inuktitut language,” said Sakiasie Sowdlooapik, a board member of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association and resident of Pangnirtung. “They are confronted every day with a language they don’t understand.”

Of course, unilingual Inuktitut-speakers face the same challenges, but unlike a qallunaaq travelling in Pangnirtung, they have not entered into those challenges willingly. Indeed, for many, the promise of Nunavut meant the realization of their language as a vital part of life.

Many participants in the meeting told the committee of their disappointment when they realized this was not necessarily so.

“[Inuktitut] should be recognized,” Arnakaq told the committee, made up of MLAs, “but here I thought it already was.”