Parisian Inuktitut speakers visit Iqaluit

SARA MINOGUE

Three students from France recently spent time in Iqaluit as part of a program of study in Inuktitut at the Institut National des Langes et Civilisation Orientales in Paris.
The visit is part of an established exchange program between the college’s interpreter-translator program and the degree program in Inuit language and culture that Quebecer Michéle Therrien has taught in Paris since the early 1980s.

Celine Petit is in her fifth year of the program. She recently spent two weeks in Iqaluit following a four-month stay in Igloolik where she was doing anthropological research on Inuit games for the Université de Paris at Nanterre and Laval University.

Petit first visited Nunavut two years ago, during the Arctic Winter Games. This time, she hoped to improve her Inuktitut even more.

To learn the language, the students start out with basic grammar and a few phrases. They then learn to read and write in syllabics, and practice translating documents from Inuktitut to French.

How is their Inuktitut?

“Usually people are pretty impressed,” Petit said. “There is a strong focus on orality. We try to speak in Inuktitut amongst ourselves, we try to have conversations.”

Petit has found people to be very patient, and willing to speak slowly enough that she can understand. She has tried out her Inuktitut on unilingual elders.

For materials, the students in Paris rely on a limited number of Inuit texts brought by their teacher from Nunavik. They also get familiar with a dictionary produced by Thomasie Qumaq, the Interviewing Inuit Elders series, a cookbook, and several children’s books written in syllabics.

They used to read copies of Nunatsiaq News until the subscription ran out. Now, they listen to webcasts from CBC North, although it is “not the most fine reception.”

The students’ fascination with the Canadian Arctic is not entirely unusual in France.

All three of the students are members of the Association Inuksuk, a group formed by graduates of the program, and aimed at promoting Inuit culture in France and Europe.

In June 2004, the group opened the Espace Culturel Inuit in Paris because, a press release explains, “French people have shown a growing interest for this culture these last years.”

The two-room cultural centre attracted 2,000 visitors in its first six months of business, either form people visiting the gallery or bookshop, or at its frequent lectures, workshops and art shows. There are performances and demonstrations of Inuit games.

People are also interested in the contemporary realities of Inuit life, Petit says.

“Many French people are interested in Inuit culture,” Petit says. “I really took the time to research it.”

Patrick Bismuth, a professional musician just beginning his fourth year in the program, feels the same way. Asked why he wanted to learn Inuktitut, he answers:

“The language itself is a vehicle. It’s a way of knowing the people, discovering who is there behind the appearance of a foreign person.”

Bismuth also came to Nunavut hoping to speak Inuktitut with as many people as possible, but he complains that the biggest difficulty is that people speak mostly English to him.

Bismuth also wanted to learn throatsinging, and possibly compose a piece of music including some ayaya songs.

“Why not an opera for children, for instance?” he asks.

Instead, Bismuth spent his first two weeks in a medical interpretation course with Inuit students in Nunavut Arctic College’s interpreter/ translator program, which Bismuth says he found “very, very interesting.”

Pauline Huret was an anthropologist before she joined the program three years ago.

She hopes her trip here will help create new links between the cultural institute in Paris and the Inuit people that it represents. During an interview with Nunatsiaq News she stressed several times that Inuit people were invited to visit Paris anytime, although no funding was available.

“We would like to know what Inuit think of this project,” Huret said. “What they want to say and what they want not to say.”

All three say they are more interested in creating a dialogue with Nunavummiut than objectifying them through study.

“I came here with the idea of being here not only to learn something, but to help people in whatever subject I could,” Bismuth said. “I am still expecting it. I discover every day. I am like a child.”

He partly achieved that goal by bringing his violin to a Halloween party at the Elder’s Centre, and last Saturday, playing a Bach suite on his violin at the Iqaluit Music Society’s fall concert.