Uqaujjuusiat - Gifts of Words of Advice: Schooling, Education and Leadership in Baffin Island A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Education In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Education University of Prince Edward Island We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standards Dr. Fiona Walton Dr. Alexander McAuley Naullaq Arnaquq Iqaluit, NU April, 2008 © 2008 Arnaquq Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-49838-5 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-49838-5 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Plntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privee, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont ete enleves de cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. Canada PREFACE Elders often begin their storytelling by stating, 'This is my story. I will do my best to tell it as accurately as I heard it or experienced it. (Anugaaq & Baaqtita Arnaquq) Not only do stories shape and transform our thinking, but the resulting new perspectives help shape the educational worlds we live in. (Ah Nee-Benham & Cooper, 1998) Introduction I started school in 1965. I left in 1975. During those ten years I had to learn a new language, history, traditions, songs, writing system and customs, all within my own country, within my own community and within a few hundred yards of my home. Yet only a few months after leaving school, I was asked to re-enter the school system as a classroom assistant. I was 15 years old. Where the two cultures clashed, was a volatile place to be when you cannot express what is happening, when no one else can seem to help you express how it feels, where you must sort out the chaos, the confusion, anger, hurt, grief and pain all at once. The impact on my family and on me was so profound that it is only as I wrote this thesis that I was able to reflect on the extent of the impact. This impact manifested itself in many different ways throughout the whole society. I felt like an immigrant in my own country at times and an outsider even in my own community. Writing this thesis has helped me to better understand how things iv happened and what it must have been like for my parents, grandparents and Elders. For many years I would try to write but could not get beyond the first few pages. Finally, it has been a healing and transformative experience to put it all in perspective in one continuous narrative, with all the unspoken hurt and anger openly identified. When I moved on to become a student teacher in 1979 I discovered that even a teaching certificate was only a beginning. I had to put the idea of research and graduate work to the back of my mind. I received my B.Ed, in 1986, putting me one step closer, but somehow I still struggled to find time. I was too busy establishing myself as a teacher and, ironically, acting as an informant for others, in their studies. Since 19901 have met and talked to many M.Ed., Ph.D. students and writers who came to Nunavut to ask questions about Inuit, and our land, Elders, culture and traditions. I was very conscious of being the interviewee and realize now that I probably helped many of them acquire their degrees or meet their deadlines by satisfying their requirements for research. Many of my Inuit colleagues and friends have done the same. We have read many books about Inuit written by such outsiders. It is time for me to write as the 'insider' claiming and reclaiming that space. This autoethnography is therefore my story, from my experiences as a young school girl, teacher and later as an educational leader. It is important that my children and their children know how our Inuit way of life was transformed through us, the first generation of Inuit that attended schools. By describing this imported school and government system as it appeared through our eyes, I want to record how assimilation of this new way of life impacted me and my peers, especially when these Southern imposed policies and methods ignored the rich unique history, culture and legacy of my parents and grandparents. When first considering and discussing the theme for this thesis with my supervisor, I found it difficult to accept that my own story could be research and kept asking and questioning the criteria for a justifiable piece of work. My colonial reflex is to remain apprehensive, not just because of the usual critics, prying eyes and ears, but also because of those whom I and my friends have encountered over the years who inadvertently or deliberately questioned and denigrated Inuit culture and language. Ignorance runs deep, but colonial scars run even deeper. Education and literacy are pillars of modern society and I hope my written story is helpful to others in their search for their own answers. As the writing process has unfolded, completing the story itself soon emerged as the top priority. Critical academic analysis can follow this thesis, something I will extend in my next level of studies. This thesis is the foundation, therefore, and submitted as an autobiographical text, as an autoethnographical text and as a history of my schooling and leadership development. I know my own experience to be only one among many that have yet to be told. I urge my peers and friends to document their stories because future generations will never be able to go to a library and take out such journals, writings or accounts about us unless we write them ourselves! I have found precious bits of information about my own family in various books over the years and realize now how my children and their children might find this document a valuable piece of their own history. vi This narrative can be read and interpreted not just autoethnographically, but also historically, critically, sociologically and anthropologically. One piece of advice I would like to give to individuals who want to read, analyze or refer to this writing without understanding Inuit culture, is to realize this is one person's experience or version. It is easy to paint one picture with one broad stroke and assume that all Inuit have experienced the same way. That is my one concern. It is so easy to take events out of context and generalize them as has often been done. Nevertheless, I look forward to reading work from other Inuit in the future. We need to have many versions of stories written down and passed on. As Marie Gomez says about her work, For my students, for the children and adolescents whom they will teach, as well as for myself, I hope and plan for continuing opportunities to tell our stories in the service for creating a more just world for all people. In telling stories about my childhood and my adulthood as a teacher here, I have found a way to heal some wounds, to reconsider who I am and how I am to be so, and to articulate the power of our words and the words of those with whom we live and labor in shaping our ideas, our actions, and our possibilities. (Gomez, 1998, p. 87). Figure 1. 'Inner Child', Naullaq's drawing, 1998. vii Captain Charles Francis Hall, an American explorer writes in his narrative, Life with the Esquimaux. After eliciting all the information I then could from the old woman, I left her, with great astonishment at her powers of memory, and the remarkable way in which this strange people of the icy North, who have no written language, can correctly preserve history from one generation to another. Nine generations have passed away since the visit of Frobisher, yet now, on the 11th of May, 1861,1 received from an old woman, probably a hundred years old, statements which I could not otherwise than believe to be facts concerning him and his co-adventures (Hall, 1970, p. 245)! Hall compared the facts he heard from Uqijjuaksi on that day, and the written book by Barrow, Chronological History of Arctic Discovery.