Inuit Education And Schools In The Eastern Arctic

Since the mid-twentieth century, sustained contact between Inuit and newcomers has led to profound changes in education in the Eastern Arctic, including the experience of colonization and progress toward the re-establishment of traditional education in schools. Heather McGregor assesses developments in the history of education in four periods � the traditional, the colonial (1945-70), the territorial (1971-81), and the local (1982-99). She concludes that education is most successful when Inuit involvement and local control support a system reflecting Inuit culture and visions.

This unique collection features auto-ethnographical essays by nine Inuit women educators who were part of the inaugural cohort of the University of Prince Edward Island’s Nunavut Master of Education program, which offered Nunavut’s first graduate-level degree for Inuit educators. These essays provide important first-hand perspectives on Inuit education, reflecting upon the dramatic changes that have taken place in the Eastern Arctic over the past fifty years. The chapters offer insight into both the effects of colonialism and the efforts to build a new educational system grounded in Inuit culture, values, and traditions. Inuit voices have yet to be heard within education scholarship in Canada, making this volume a significant contribution to the literature. This anthology will also be of interest to students of Indigenous and Arctic studies, sociology, and anthropology.

In 1987 Joanne Tompkins travelled to the Baffin Island community of Anurapaqtuq to take on the job of principal at the local school. This is the story of the four years she spent there and the many challenges she faced.

"Odette Barr and her partner, YoAnne Beauchamp, spent nearly ten years completely immersed in Inuit culture in the decade prior to the official birth of Nunavut Territory in 1999. This is the account of their experiences as teachers and community members in Pangnirtung, Hall Beach, and Grise Fiord. It centres on Grise Fiord, Canada's most northern permanently inhabited community, nestled on the south shore of Ellesmere Island. It is a stunningly beautiful hamlet of about 150 people (at that time). It is also one of the High Arctic Exile communities--the history of which very few Canadians are aware. This memoir is a love story of sorts that expresses great respect for Inuit people, their culture, and the magnificent Arctic landscape. Odette and YoAnne learned quickly that to be successful northern teachers, you must enter into the lives of your students and their rich culture in meaningful and significant ways. They enthusiastically participated in community activities; they ate Northern foods; they snowmobiled out onto the land to take part in camping, fishing, and hunting activities; and they learned as much Inuktitut language as they could. In turn, Odette and YoAnne were warmly welcomed and they were deeply touched by their complete acceptance as a lesbian couple in these remote places. Odette Barr is a writer, an artist, a naturalist, and an educator. She now works for the Department of Education, developing and facilitating online courses, mostly science, for senior high school students throughout New Brunswick. Odette and YoAnne live on the Northumberland Strait shore in the southeastern part of the province."--

The Inuit have experienced colonization and the resulting disregard for the societal systems, beliefs and support structures foundational to Inuit culture for generations. While much research has articulated the impacts of colonization and recognized that Indigenous cultures and worldviews are central to the well-being of Indigenous peoples and communities, little work has been done to preserve Inuit culture. Unfortunately, most people have a very limited understanding of Inuit culture, and often apply only a few trappings of culture — past practices, artifacts and catchwords —to projects to justify cultural relevance. Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit — meaning all the extensive knowledge and experience passed from generation to generation — is a collection of contributions by well- known and respected Inuit Elders. The book functions as a way of preserving important knowledge and tradition, contextualizing that knowledge within Canada’s colonial legacy and providing an Inuit perspective on how we relate to each other, to other living beings and the environment.

Inuit have lived in Canada's north since time immemorial. The Canadian government's administration of Inuit affairs, however, has been generally shorter and is less well understood than the federal government's relations with First Nations and Métis. We hope to correct some of this knowledge imbalance by providing an overview of the federal government's Inuit policy and program development from first contact to 2006. Topics that are covered by this book include the 1939 Re Eskimo decision that gave Canada constitutional responsibility for Inuit, post World War II acculturation and defence projects, law and justice, sovereignty and relocations, the E-number identification system, Inuit political organizations, comprehensive claim agreements, housing, healthcare, education, economic development, self-government, the environment and urban issues. In order to develop meaningful forward-looking policy, it is essential to understand what has come before and how we got to where we are. We believe that this book will be a valuable contribution to a growing body of knowledge about Canada-Inuit relations, and will be an indispensable resource to all students of federal Inuit and northern policy development.

Between 1867 and 2000, the Canadian government sent over 150,000 Aboriginal children to residential schools across the country. Government officials and missionaries agreed that in order to “civilize and Christianize” Aboriginal children, it was necessary to separate them from their parents and their home communities. For children, life in these schools was lonely and alien. Discipline was harsh, and daily life was highly regimented. Aboriginal languages and cultures were denigrated and suppressed. Education and technical training too often gave way to the drudgery of doing the chores necessary to make the schools self-sustaining. Child neglect was institutionalized, and the lack of supervision created situations where students were prey to sexual and physical abusers. Legal action by the schools’ former students led to the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada in 2008. The product of over six years of research, the Commission’s final report outlines the history and legacy of the schools, and charts a pathway towards reconciliation. Canada’s Residential Schools: The Inuit and Northern Experience demonstrates that residential schooling followed a unique trajectory in the North. As late as 1950 there were only six residential schools and one hostel north of the sixtieth parallel. Prior to the 1950s, the federal government left northern residential schools in the hands of the missionary societies that operated largely in the Mackenzie Valley and the Yukon. It was only in the 1950s that Inuit children began attending residential schools in large numbers. The tremendous distances that Inuit children had to travel to school meant that, in some cases, they were separated from their parents for years. The establishment of day schools and what were termed small hostels in over a dozen communities in the eastern Arctic led many Inuit parents to settle in those communities on a year-round basis so as not to be separated from their children, contributing to a dramatic transformation of the Inuit economy and way of life. Not all the northern institutions are remembered similarly. The staff at Grandin College in Fort Smith and the Churchill Vocational Centre in northern Manitoba were often cited for the positive roles that they played in developing and encouraging a new generation of Aboriginal leadership. The legacy of other schools, particularly Grollier Hall in Inuvik and Turquetil Hall in Igluligaarjuk (Chesterfield Inlet), is far darker. These schools were marked by prolonged regimes of sexual abuse and harsh discipline that scarred more than one generation of children for life. Since Aboriginal people make up a large proportion of the population in Canada’s northern territories, the impact of the schools has been felt intensely through the region. And because the history of these schools is so recent, the intergenerational impacts and the legacy of the schools are strongly felt in the North.

"In the pages of this book, you will read of the efforts of many to fearlessly audit the state of education in Nunavik. To diligently seek improvement of an already good system. To fix what is not necessarily broken so that those who come after us will have it even better than we did. The various tensions and differences of opinion are, to me, not contentious at all. The status quo, however good or excellent, is no place to stay. I think all recognize this." - Zebedee Nungak, from the Foreword As a history of the development of self-government in education, Nunavik: Inuit-Controlled Education in Arctic Quebec provides Native perspectives on formal education in Nunavik while offering readers a unique view into contemporary Inuit society. This book documents the development of education from the arrival of the first traders and missionaries in the mid-nineteenth century through the creation of the Kativik School Board and the evaluation of its operations by the Nunavik Education Task Force in the 1990s. Nunavik takes a detailed look at the complex debate of the Inuit of Northern Quebec about the purposes, achievements, and failures of the public schools in their communities, the first Inuit-controlled school district in Canada. Participants in these debates included elders who were educated traditionally, their children with a few years of education in mission and government schools, their grandchildren who attended southern high schools or residential schools, and current students and recent graduates of the Kativik schools. Qallunaat (non-Inuit) were also participants, as residents of Nunavik communities, parents of Inuit children, teachers, administrators, and expert consultants. Illustrated with rich historical photographs (many in colour) and maps from the collections of the Avataq Cultural Institute and the Makivik Corporation, Nunavik provides a uniquely Native perspective on school change in indigenous communities.