My Mother Tongue

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My Mother Tongue SOCIETY My mother tongue Aviaq Johnston y name is Greenlandic, but I am not. I am upon him, “You know what? I am Inuk, see? Hear a 20-year-old Inuit girl from a small com- me speaking my munityM in Nunavut called Igloolik. My mother is an his own Inuktitut TV show on APTN that addresses Inuk born on the land in Nunavik and she grew up the issues of language and youth. in Quaqtaq, Quebec. My father is a Qallunaaq — a My sister understands Inuktitut better than I do, though she chooses not to speak it. I think it’s Quebec. He has been living in the North, always because of pronunciation. As I was growing up, I surrounding himself with Inuit, for over 30 years. had trouble pronouncing certain Inuktitut words, He has lived in Inukjuak, Kimmirut, Pond Inlet, particular throaty consonants. I couldn’t decipher Cape Dorset, Igloolik, and many other places in the North, but for now he resides in Iqaluit. My mother and I managed to make something that could be understands and speaks many of the Inuktitut dia- explained simply into harder and more complicated lects, including a bit of Greenlandic, while my father words and sentences that made absolutely no sense. has learned Inuktitut in the years he has lived in the For example, say I was asking you to go and grab Arctic. It is a daily part of our lives. something for me, rather than saying, “Taanna I, however, lost the language when I was in my adolescence. mouth and brain and say something like, “Can you I grew up with two dialects: the Igloolik dialect, go and get that thingy over there, not in that spot which corresponds with other dialects in North Baf- but in the other spot. And then could you bring it came to know them very well when I was a child. this in common. Truthfully, I’ve never spoken to her That is, until I started to learn English. And then much about Inuktitut. other children in school began to tease me. For my high school years, I only knew the sim- See, looking more like a Qallunaaq than an Inuk plest terms in Inuktitut and hardly understood any- has its cons when you live in a small community. It thing anyone ever said to me. And, over those tender, means the other kids don’t think you have any Inuk impressionable years of childhood, I came to believe blood in you at all. What begins with one ignorant that I had no Inuk at all inside of me. I believed I was child spreads out to their parents and their friends Qallunaaq through and through. My childhood was and so on until the whole community thinks, “This riddled with confusion, hearing people calling me a Qallunaaq throughout my life, telling me that I was not an Inuk. I would think to myself, but isn’t my mom my brother and sister can. Inuk? But... my grandparents are unilingual. When I visit my So, naturally, the half-Inuit children get targeted mom’s family all we speak is Inuktitut... I thought, some- growing up. I’m not blaming the teasing for making how, that I could be a Qallunaaq even though I was me lose my language. (Well, maybe just a little). On related to Inuit. I didn’t grasp the concept of half- the contrary, I know that my brother went through Inuk half-Qallunaaq until I was much older. It also the same teasing throughout his childhood, and my didn’t help that English became the prime means of parents have told me that as a child, he wasn’t the communication at home and at school either. best at Inuktitut and chose to lean more to the Eng- lish side of conversation. Since then, he’s become to Iqaluit, where my brother was already living. I an amazing Inuktitut speaker. I suppose he realized that it would only get worse if he believed what the I also went through a semester at a private school other kids said, “You’re a Qallunaaq, you don’t be- in Australia for an amazing educational experience. And I think these two experiences are the reason I my brother, being the wonderful and innovative per- have regained my language and am now thriving as son he is, decided to say to those who looked down I relearn my mother tongue. 42 Northern Public Affairs, Spring 2013 Photo credit: Northern Affairs Photo credit: Public Because if I hadn’t gone to Iqaluit, I wouldn’t school or at places they hang out. This means that have realized how poorly Inuktitut was spoken among people my age, and how poorly it was be- down to a handful of Inuit kids being raised by ing taught in schools and that when I would have proud Inuit parents, and to half-Inuit with a Qal- kids they would probably never learn the language. lunaaq parent who supports and takes interest in the It was pretty much a slap in the face. I love being Inuit culture and language (much like my father). Inuk, I love my culture, and I love my home in But schools also need to take the initiative and Nunavut and everything else about Inuit. I suddenly get students to actually speak Inuktitut in their class- grasped for anything I could reach that was related rooms, to correct them when they are wrong, to tell to my Inukness, particularly while I was in Australia, them how they could reconstruct their sentences and experiencing a place where I was the only person to pronounce words better. It serves no purpose to of my culture. The people I met there, my second - family and all the friends I made, were so interest- estly, a student will not learn the language on his or ed in where I was from, the Inuit and their culture. her own. If the teacher is not the one teaching the One thing I realized while I was there, however, was language, then no one will. And consequently, that that I didn’t fully understand my homeland and my is how the language is still being lost. It is a teacher’s culture. job to teach, isn’t it? High school Inuktitut classes are certainly not However, it is not only the Inuktitut classes that up to par. I heard of them being referred to joking- are inadequate. It is also the Alberta curriculum that ly as spares, a sad comment I certainly agree with. the education system is still under. Word searches just don’t cut it. Copying words from High schools in Nunavut and the other Inuit re- one sheet to another doesn’t cut it. Typing the syl- gions need to start incorporating relevant topics into what they labics into word documents going from “ti ti ti ti ti ti teach Inuit students. I cannot stress this enough. They need to learn about politics and Inuit organizations point in learning how to type in Inuktitut when you and Inuit history, not about farms and trees and ani- do not understand the constructs of the sentence or mals that some of the students will never see except the meaning behind the words that you type into the on the television. Inuit are very much involved in document? politics, from the local to the international level. Inuktitut needs to be spoken at home, yes. And Inuit are recognized for their contribution to Can- I’m sure it is, it truly is. I was surprised when I met adian sovereignty in the Arctic, and with the settle- - ment of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement in 1993 we have real control over many parts of our economy. they are shy or embarrassed to speak it in front of Despite these important developments, many young peers and acquaintances because it is not spoken at people still don’t understand our treaty, our political Igloolik Radio Station, Igloolik, Nunavut, February 2013. organizations, or our political history. Inuit history is bursting with interesting but extremely saddening deeply sought after in the workforce, particularly things that are still completely relevant to the every- in the government. Let that sink in. Can you speak day lives of young people because of the intergener- Inuktitut? Are you educated? If you are, you can ational effects that those tragedies have on us. This is go and get a job at the Government of Nunavut. important especially for Inuit youth to learn, as they If you aren’t, you have all the resources to learn at are the ones that make up over half of the population in Nunavut. They need to learn – to be taught – that parents, grandparents, your friends, someone you what they do or don’t do is important to the better- trust. Finish school. Get your high school diploma. ment of their lives. Do something to improve your life, for if you do that Thomas Berger recommended to the federal you will help the rest of Nunavut. government and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. that an The hardest thing to describe is the feeling I get Inuktitut K-12 education system be implemented in when I have a conversation in Inuktitut with some- Nunavut, with proper curricula. Why has this not one and understand every word of it, or when I read yet begun? Why is it that through middle and sec- in syllabics or roman orthography and it’s not just a ondary schooling there is a gradual withdrawal from jumbled mix of the words I know and words I don’t.
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