Teaching Identities: Lessons from Aujuittuq (The Place That Never Thaws)

CHAPTER 21 Teaching Identities: Lessons from Aujuittuq (The Place That Never Thaws)

Heather McLeod and Dale Vanelli

Introduction

Heather is an arts educator at Memorial University in Newfoundland, Can- ada, and Dale is a writer. We are spouses. In this chapter the everyday life that comes under our scrutiny is our past teaching in Aujuittuq (the place that never thaws), or the hamlet of Grise Fiord, Nunavut, (pop. 150) (cf. McLeod & Vanelli, 2015). Canada’s most northern civilian community on the southern tip of Ellesmere Island, it is 3,460 km north of Ottawa in the High Arctic. Using a duoethnographic approach (Sawyer & Norris, 2013) we examine how this landscape inscribed our bodies, and how we opened both ourselves and the discourses in which we interacted to the possibilities of change; we ask how were our teaching identities constructed in a new landscape and climate (Davies, 2000; Davies & Gannon, 2006)?

Aujuittuq and Colonization in the High Arctic In Aujuittuq most inhabitants are Inuit and their first language is Inuktitut. At 76 degrees 25 north latitude, when a compass is pointed due North the nee- dle will point Southwest since it is above the magnetic North Pole. It is too far north to see the Northern Lights. A huge geographical landmass, Ellesmere Island is considered so remote that many maps of Canada omit it altogether. The hamlet is perched at the bottom of a steep glacial mountain on the very edge of Jones Sound and, for much of the year, the frozen sea ice is referred to as the land. The Canadian government created the community in 1953 for two calculated reasons. The first rationale was to assert sovereignty in the High Arctic during the Cold War, while the second was to discourage dependency by the Inuit on government programs (Dick, 2001; Tester & Kulchyski, 1994). A small number of Inuit families from the communities of Inukjuak (formerly Port Harrison), Quebec, and Pond Inlet, both much farther to the south, were relocated there with the promise of homes and game to hunt. When they arrived, however, they found no buildings and very few familiar sea mammals or wildlife. Although

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2020 | doi: 10.1163/9789004425194_021 Teaching Identities 235 the families had been assured that they could return to their original communities after a year if they so wished, this offer was quickly rescinded. Thus, they were forced to stay, and years of intense hardship resulted in some deaths. Community members now hunt beluga whales, musk ox, narwhal, polar bears, and seals over a vast range of territory. As well, eco-tourism, various forms of art and craft production, and territorial and federal government positions pro- vide employment. In 1993, the Canadian federal government investigated the earlier relocation program. The report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples entitled The High Arctic Relocation: A Report on the 1953–1955 Relocation, recommended a settlement and, as a result, financial restitution was offered to the original survivors and their families. The Canadian government also offered a formal apology in 2010.

Teaching at Umimmak School

We taught at Umimmak (Muskox) School, which involved about 50 students enrolled in Grades K-11, five fulltime teachers, and two part-time educational assistants. Heather was an experienced teacher and taught the high school grades and served as the principal. Dale was new to teaching and worked fulltime as a substitute teacher. Teachers in Umimmak School used a combination of the new Nunavut curricula that was still under development (the territory of Nunavut came into being in 1999), and curricula from the Northwest Territo- ries and Alberta. The staff were mostly Qallunaat (white people) who are also known as Southerners.

Teaching Identities and Landscapes We wondered about integrating Inuit content throughout our educational practices because schools and teacher education have long been tools of colonization and suppression used to oppress and objectify all learners in gen- eral and Aboriginal peoples in particular (Neegan, 2005; Sanford et al., 2012). Moreover, integrating Aboriginal content is relevant for each and every learner because it can challenge negative stereotypes within a racist mainstream cul- ture (Davidson, 2014). Ethical forms of relationality as well as curricular and pedagogical enactment have become a matter of survival. As Donald (2009) writes, “Aboriginal peoples will soon have a responsibility to teach others what it means to be a citizen living on this land” (p. 19). As Southerners, we also wondered what this new landscape could teach us. Bronwyn Davies (2000) discusses the separation of bodies and landscapes and