Partner in translation service slams editorial

Enoki Irqittuq was born on February 5, 1955, near the community of Igloolik. He was elected to the Nunavut Legislative Assembly on February 15, 1999, to represent the Amittuq riding of Hall Beach and Igloolik.

On March 6, 2001, Enoki told this story of Inuit coerced into digging up the graves of their ancestors to make way for the “progress” of a foreign way of life:

“These graves had to be moved because they were too close to houses that were being built as the population grew…

It was only after the ground had thawed enough that they were able to dig out the graves. They did a good job of it. They used their own dog teams to transport the graves… and had to deal with things like corpses thawing out and flesh falling off and very putrid smells… some of the blood that melted off these corpses ended up on their mitts as well, not just their kamotiks but also on their mitts. After they had transported the corpses they couldn’t eat for days afterwards because the smell of death was so strong, and the sights had been so horrible. They couldn’t eat.”

Uriash Puqiqnak was born on March 15, 1946, in Ukkusiksalik, about 110 miles from Gjoa Haven. He was elected to the Nunavut Legislative Assembly on February 15, 1999, by the people of Gjoa Haven and Taloyoak, to represent the Nattilik Riding.

On November 20, 2001, Uriash told this story about a 15-year-old boy from Taloyoak:

“I rise today with a picture in my right hand to make a statement. At the end of my statement you will understand why I have this picture and what I am talking about… last May when we held a session in Cambridge Bay, a few young kids from Taloyoak came to be the pages for two days. Once the session was over, on the last day of our session they took pictures of the speaker, my community pages and myself.

I have that picture with me and here it is… one of the pages, Jayco, on October 25 committed suicide in Taloyoak at the age of 15 years old. It was just 26 days prior to his 16th birthday when he committed suicide. He did not make it to his 16th birthday. He was our page, he worked with us and he would deliver our water during the session… but he cut his life short… ”

Manitok Thompson was born in Coral Harbour, Nunavut. On Feb. 21, 2002, Manitok reminded us why there is hope for the future.

“…(Terrance and Jordan Tootoo)…have been very successful… I would like to use them as examples of what youth in Nunavut can achieve… (they are) both on a successful road and reaching for their dreams…”

The stories of past grievances, present tragedies and hopes for the future are being recorded in the Nunavut Hansard the moment they are spoken by the men and women chosen by the people of Nunavut as their voice to the world.

Unlike your opinion in the editorial of April 26, I don’t believe these stories are “garbage.” When I read these stories I don’t just see Enoki’s words in English or Inuktitut, I begin to understand the scars left by colonialism. Perfect grammar isn’t important because Uriash has helped me to feel the pride of a family in their 15-year-old participating in a dream made real by the efforts of the past, and the pain of that boy as his spirit was crushed by the realities of the present. I don’t need to remember the exact terminology used by Manitok because she is not sharing her words, she is sharing dreams, and by doing so she helps people find hope for the future.

Not everyone can be present to share these stories when they are told, but we can record them and publish them and make sure these voices still speak long after we are gone and can no longer hear them ourselves.

Donald Duck might like water, but we can’t use his translated comics to teach environmental studies. We can, however, use Sanikiluaq’s publication on the potential damages to the traditional food chain as a result of hydro and mining developments in northern Quebec.

Superman might teach us how to beat up bad guys but he doesn’t show us how democratic decisions that affect the lives of all Nunavut residents are made in a consensus government. The Hansard can be used to teach civics.

Uncle Scrooge may have a unique insight to business, but he doesn’t identify the structural problems facing the Nunavut economy the way the Conference Board of Canada did in Nunavut’s first Economic Outlook, an excellent tool for teaching relevant economic theory.

You are correct in saying that a lot of time and effort is spent by very skilled and experienced interpreter/translators both creating documents in Inuktitut and translating English documents into Inuktitut. The problem is not with the creation of these documents, it is with the lack of follow-up.

Comic books and stories are a great idea to help kids starting out in the school system, but we all know that in many cases the high schools can’t even provide text books in English, much less Inuktitut. Why aren’t these materials being used in the high schools to teach advanced concepts in both languages? There is no shortage of available materials for the high schools, just a shortage of innovative use of the materials that are available.

I moved on from comic books and now I can actually read your paper. For a product that has to meet a quota of “stories” every week, I must admit that I don’t find all of it garbage. At least I have the choice to read what I find interesting or informative.

Your editorial reminded me of a story I read when I was growing up and I decided it was my turn to yell: the Emperor-editor has no clothes!

Peter Kattuk was born on June 2, 1950, in the southwest area of the Belcher Islands. On April 25, 2002 he said:

“I rise today to talk about my constituency and some information that I’ve received from our community. There were geese seen and the geese are starting to come in close to the community. A lot of our hunters will be going out to catch some geese. I envy them for being able to do that.”

Thanks to Peter, now I can be there too.

Chuck Gilhuly
Iqaluit

Editor’s note: Chuck Gilhuly is a partner in Innirvik Support Services Ltd., the firm contracted to produce and translate Nunavut’s Hansard. He need not fear that we will ever advocate that the production of Hansard should cease. For the record, our comments about Hansard were made in jest, and were not intended to be taken literally.