Sanikiluaq principal recognized for innovative teaching

KIRSTEN MURPHY

Sanikilauq educator John Jamieson has made history teaching Inuit history.

The lanky co-principal of Nuiyak school received a Governor General’s Award for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History on Nov. 16 in Ottawa — his third national teaching award.

Jamieson, who is also a hamlet councillor, is the first Nunavut resident to receive the award.

“It was great. Fantastic. I did not expect to win,” Jamieson said with his trademark enthusiasm. “I’m not even a history teacher but people are realizing that in aboriginal communities we don’t teach history like they do in other places and there are other ways of learning about the past.”

Trained as a scientist specializing in parasites, the veteran teacher has dedicated the past 14 years to bringing the contemporary classroom modules out onto the land and into the real world.

One of Jamieson’s earliest projects was getting students to construct sod houses.

More recently, he complied a detailed school yearbook and launched a student-driven framing shop. The workshop incorporates traditional stone carvings and fish skin dolls mounted in handsome object boxes. Other projects include kayak- and tool-making. And even then, there’s more.

“Four students and I are working on starting an outfitting company for the Aboriginal Entrepreneurial Plan business competition,” he said.

As part of the venture, 23 polar bear skins are being sewn into four pairs of polar bear pants.

“It’s cultural, it’s been done in the past and we want to concentrate on the hunting market and we think there’s money there to bring into the community,” he said.

Jamieson is credited with founding the community’s daycare society, which allows mothers to leave their children while they attend school or work in the framing shop.

Also to Jamieson’s credit is the student-run radio and cable television station.

Although quick to praise students and the community for their involvement, Jamieson deflected praise about his contributions.

“We’ve got a good group of people here and when you come up with something that’s culturally based they just go with it,” Jamieson said.

Last week’s award came at the prompting of Canada’s National History Society (CNHS). Pleased with Jamieson’s accomplishments and references, the CNHS recommended his name to the Governor General’s office.

“The judges came up to me later and said ‘We have never seen anything like this before. Is this history or not and we agreed it is but it’s a different form,’” he said with a chuckle.