Akia (The Other Side) of Ilinniarvik (School) and the Inuit Post-Secondary Student
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Akia (the other side) of Ilinniarvik (school) and the Inuit post-secondary student by Norma Jean Mary Dunning A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Indigenous Peoples Education Department of Educational Policy Studies University of Alberta © Norma Jean Mary Dunning, 2019 ABSTRACT This study examines the intricacies of southern resident Inuit post-secondary student life in relation to education and the funding stream made available to them. The Inuit students are all beneficiaries of land claims areas but are not residing inside the land claims area that recognizes them as such. The post-secondary funding stream is used as a catalyst, the agent that demands action from the Inuit students which in turn creates a series of resultant events. Among these events is how Inuit in the south are perceived by the mainstream populations and the effects that the perception has on Inuit identity. Not only are post-secondary students involved in examining their educational process, my study also examines how the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement was created through the experience of lawyer, John Merritt. Merritt has stayed with the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement before it was birthed onto the nation of Canada and throughout its implementation. Jason LeBlanc, is a southern Inuit service provider and Executive Director of Ottawa Tungasuvvingat Inuit. He brings to light the effects that the northern land claims agreements have on the burgeoning southern Inuit population. He also focuses attention on the constraints of Canadian political processes that infringe on the supports that can be accessed. Heather Igloliorte, a professor at Concordia University in Montreal shares some of the harsh realities of being an Inuk academic inside of what should be the most apolitical space in Canada. This study also contains the dilemmas of two Inuit post-secondary students who are currently unable to complete their university education and the policy that surrounds their circumstances. This is Akia, the other side of Ilinniarvik (school) and the southern Inuit post-secondary student. ii AKIA (THE OTHER SIDE) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Ma’na firstly to Dr. Evelyn Steinhauer, who took me on as a doctoral student when I thought no one else would. Dr. Steinhauer has made herself available to me whenever I have asked and her clear-thinking and direction have enriched my work. Her letters of support both for scholarships and employment have made this road much easier to tread. Dr. Evelyn Steinhauer loved me into the completion of this work. Her ways of being and knowing showed me how I shall treat my future students, especially how believing in someone is what matters most. Ma’na, second thanks are extended to my committee members, Dr. Noella Steinhauer, who read and saw more than I did and Dr. Trudy Cardinal, for her gentle insight. Ma’na to Dr. Dwayne Donald and Dr. Patsy Steinhauer-Hill for their input in this work, your insights stayed with me. Thank you to external examiner, Dr. Karla Jessen Williamson. To my sons and grandbabies – you are my treasures. I love you into eternity. Ma’na – thank you. iii AKIA (THE OTHER SIDE) TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………….ii Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………..iii CHAPTER 1 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY 1 1.2 THE SOUTHERN INUK POPULATION 8 1.3 THE BENEFICIARY OF NUNAVUT 11 1.4 THE PARADOX OF BEING A BENEFICIARY 15 1.5 POLITICAL REPRESENTATION OF NONRESIDENT INUIT 18 1.6 THE TERM NONRESIDENT 19 1.7 THE RESEARCH QUESTION AND STUDY 22 1.8 LOCATION OF THE RESEARCHER 27 1.9 THE PURPOSE OF MY STUDY 33 1.10 THE SPONSORSHIP STREAM 35 1.11 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MY STUDY 39 1.12 LIMITATIONS 41 1.14 DELIMITATIONS 44 1.14 CHAPTER SUMMARY 46 CHAPTER 2 49 RESEARCH METHODS, METHODOLOGY AND THEORY 2.1 RESEARCH METHOD 49 2.2 QUALITATIVE OVERVIEW 50 2.3 INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND WORLDVIEW 52 2.4 PARTICIPANT SELECTION AND DATA COLLECTION 54 2.5 USE OF INUIT PROTOCOL 57 2.6 DISCOURSE & DISSEMINATIONS 59 2.7 POST-STRUCTURAL THEORY 60 2.8 INUIT DEFINED THROUGH ENCLOSURE 65 2.9 INUIT LIVING IN AN ANALYTICAL SPACE 67 2.10 INUIT AS A UNIT OF RANKING 69 2.11 INDIGENOUS RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 71 2.12 BLOOD MEMORY 74 2:13 CONNECTING DRAMATURGICAL CODING & INUIT QUAJIMAJATUQANGIT 77 2.14 INUIT QUAJIMAJATUQANGIT 78 2.15 CHAPTER SUMMARY 81 iv AKIA (THE OTHER SIDE) CHAPTER 3 83 LITERATURE REVIEW 3.1 LITERATURE REVIEW 83 3.2 NON-NUNANGAT INUIT ABSENCE 84 3.3 SOUTHERN INUIT IDENTITY 86 3.4 THE HISTORIC PRODUCTION OF INUIT IMAGINGS 87 3.5 INUIT THROUGH DISCOURSE (1932-1949) 88 3.6 PRESENT DAY IMAGES OF INUIT CANADIANS 90 3.7 HISTORIC POLICY TREATMENT OF INUIT CANADIANS (1922-1971) 90 3.8 INUIT ETHNICITY THROUGH CANADIAN LAW 94 3.9 THE BUILDING OF THE SOUTHERN INUIT POPULATION 96 3.10 FILLING IN THE GAPS 99 CHAPTER 4 101 THE POST-SECONDARY INUIT STUDENT INTERVIEWS 4.1 THE QUESTIONS 101 4.2 THE INTERVIEWS – JORDAN CARPENTER 104 4.3 A1 108 4.4 NATHAN LEVESQUE 112 4.5 VINCENT LEVESQUE 114 4.6 AN UNEXPECTED TURN 116 4.7 NOW WHAT? 117 4.8 THE STATS 121 CHAPTER 5 124 HOW DO YOU CREATE HOPE? JOHN MERRITT 5.1 JOHN MERRITT 124 5.2 UNDERSTANDING THE POLITICAL CLIMATE 126 5.3 REFLECTIONS ON THE DRIVING FORCES OF THE NLCA 127 5.4 EDUCATING INUIT CANADIANS 129 5.5 THE EVOLVING DEFINITION OF INUIT 131 5.6 SHOULD SOUTHERN INUIT HAVE THEIR OWN REPRESENTATION? 133 5.7 SUMMATION 137 v AKIA (THE OTHER SIDE) CHAPTER 6 139 THERE IS NO POPULATION IN THE WORLD WHERE YOU CANNOT CORRELATE LEVELS OF EDUCATION WITH LEVELS OF WELLNESS JASON LEBLANC 6.1 OTTAWA TI AND INUIT POST-SECONDARY STUDENTS 139 6.2 THE CONTINUED ABSENCE INUIT NON-NUNANGAT 141 6.3 ADVOCACY FOR INUIT IN THE SOUTH 142 6.4 THE FALLOUT OF MODERN-DAY TREATIES 145 6.5 NORTHERN LAND CLAIMS AND INUIT IDENTITY 146 6.6 THE BARRIERS OF SOUTHERN INUIT POST-SECONDARY STUDENTS 148 6.7 RACISM 149 6.8 OTTAWA TI’S INTERACTIONS WITH ITK 150 6.9 THE WISHES FOR ALL SOUTHERN INUIT 151 CHAPTER 7 153 FROM UNILINGUAL INUKTITUT TO ALMOST NO INUKTITUT ALL IN ONE GENERATION HEATHER IGLOLIORTE 7.1 HOME USE OF INUKTITUT 153 7.2 STRUCTURAL RACISM 156 CHAPTER 8 159 THE THREE PROFESSIONALS – DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS 8.1 JOHN MERRITT 159 8.2 JASON LEBLANC 162 8.3 HEATHER IGLOLIORTE 163 8.4 SUMMATION 164 CHAPTER 9 166 THE ANALYSIS OF THE INUIT POST-SECONDARY UNIVERSITY STUDENTS 9.1 POST-STRUCTURAL THEORY 166 9.2 METHODS IN PRACTICE – DRAMATURGICAL CODING 170 9.3 INUIT QUAJIMAJATUQANGIT 175 9.4 THE MOST IMPORTANT STUDENT CONCLUSIONS 178 CHAPTER 10 184 STUDY SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 10.1 THE FUNDER 184 vi AKIA (THE OTHER SIDE) 10.2 COMMUNITY 187 10.3 PERCEPTIONS 188 10.4 CONSIDERATIONS FOR POST- SECONDARY INSTITUTIONS 189 10.5 QUIVIAHUKTUNGA 192 GLOSSARY 201 REFERENCES 202 APPENDIX A 220 APPENDIX B 221 APPENDIX C 222 APPENDIX D 225 vii AKIA (THE OTHER SIDE) I started my university education when I was three months short of turning 51. I had never been to university. I didn’t know what to expect. For the first time in my life I was unemployed, and I thought I would try going to university to see what it was like. I had never sat in a university classroom. I was excited on that first day. Sitting on a city bus, a ride that would be a minimum of 90 minutes each way. I had bought a thick, green backpack, with several pockets. I had loaded it up with pens, paper, and a couple of binders. I had memorized the bus and classroom schedules, the university building names, room numbers, and what time I had to be in each. When I got off the bus, I had no idea where I was. I had no idea of how I was supposed to find my way around campus. I realized that I was now a foreigner in the city that I had lived in for 20 years CHAPTER 1: Introduction to the study I am Norma Dunning. I am a published and award winning Aboriginal creative writer. Because of my earned standing within the literary community I feel that I must state the following: My dissertation is not creative writing, nor is it creative non-fiction. It represents an Inuit-specific truth. It is a truth that I have spent the past ten years, writing, publishing and speaking about. It is the gathering of a decade of thoughts and words. This work was not completed in haste. The words contained herein are written with the love, care, and concern I have always felt for those who are like me. My dissertation focuses on the experiences of Inuit post-secondary students who live and educate themselves beyond the tundra. My work examines the lived realities of nonresident post-secondary Inuit students and my own post-secondary journey. My work contains information about the creation of Nunavut; and an element that is not written onto government land claims documents. The missing element resulted in the creation of my dissertation. 1 AKIA (THE OTHER SIDE) My dissertation is about the creation of non-Nunangat Inuit1 or Inuit who live outside of their land claims area. As each northern land claims agreement was finalized and celebrated, so too did fixed borders of exclusion come into existence. As northern Inuit were being enfranchised through modern day treaties, southern Inuit were being disenfranchised based on their location.