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Youth demand more Inuktitut in schools

Students in Iqaluit find it a struggle to retain their language

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

Nunavut youth and parents are demanding more Inuktitut in classrooms like this one to reverse the erosion of the language. (PHOTO BY GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS))

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Inuit youth interviewed about the health of Inuktitut in Nunavut want the territorial government to improve Inuktitut teaching in school as soon as possible, a recent study says.

The study, done in English with 37 young Inuit in three different communities, was the basis of a presentation held on March 31 at the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum in Iqaluit.

The study, called Inuktitut and Inuit Youth: Language Attitudes as a Basis for Language Planning, was conducted from 1999 to 2001 by a PhD student from Laval University in Quebec City.

The research gives a snapshot of how youth in Iqaluit, Pangnirtung, and Pond Inlet feel about their Inuktitut skills, and presents their ideas about preserving the language. The study defines youth as 18-25 years old.

In some cases, youth were left wondering how the government planned to create a workplace where Inuktitut was the main working language, when so many Inuit were losing touch with Inuktitut.

Even when Inuit are bilingual, the youth reported that they usually revert to English in the workplace. At home, young bilingual parents find their children refuse to speak to them in Inuktitut.

Often, the young parents blame themselves, saying their children are only copying their own speaking habits.

Inuit youth in Iqaluit, in particular, complained that they've lost Inuktitut skills to the point that they need a translator to understand their elders.

"They're telling stories or something, and I'll be interrupting them," said an 18-year-old woman from Iqaluit. "I don't want to do that. I was raised to respect elders and keep our language strong."

Shelley Tulloch, the report's author, said she launched the study because she found that at the time, youth weren't being asked for their opinions on the state of Inuktitut in the territory.

The results confirm what Nunavummiut already know, Tulloch said, but there's still valuable lessons to be learned from the youth's feedback.

"They recognize that if Inuktitut is to survive," she wrote, "it will be because the Inuit... wanted it to, and have done something about it."

The study suggests youth struggle with Inuktitut more in Iqaluit than other communities. They say they're too shy to speak their ancestral language, and they're often having family conversations in a mix of English and Inuktitut.

One Inuk interviewed for the study spoke so much English at home, his parents called him Qallunaaq.

But the youth interviewed in Iqaluit aren't despondent. The study reveals they're keen on improving their Inuktitut, but they want the government and Inuit organizations to step in and give them more opportunity to do so.

Youth in Pond Inlet and Pangnirtung were less demanding. They showed a much higher level of confidence in their Inuktitut, and said they weren't worried about the language deteriorating.

However, Tulloch warns that smaller communities shouldn't be over-confident about the health of the language. Youth in Iqaluit told her repeatedly, they didn't notice their Inuktitut skills eroding until it seemed too late to refresh them.

Lena Ellsworth, a mother who attended the research presentation, said the main responsibility to improve Inuktitut in Nunavut rests with the territory's school system.

Ellsworth said many parents feel their kids get a poor education in Inuktitut in Nunavut, so they put their children in English classes.

"We're losing the Inuktitut language faster than some people will say," Ellsworth said after the meeting. "By the time the government plans to get Inuktitut in the workplace, there won't be anyone to speak the language."

The government of Nunavut plans to turn Inuktitut into the working language by the year 2020.

Some young Inuit stressed their own personal responsibility in keeping up their Inuktitut skills.

"Personally, I learned most of the Inuktitut I know at home," said Miali Coley, a 23-year-old teaching student at Nunavut Arctic college.

"I think one of the key elements to Inuktitut is having it at home."

The study has been presented to the GN and the federal government, through the department of Heritage Canada. Tulluch plans to re-visit the communities to do more interviews, but this time, done through an interpreter in Inuktitut.

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