IQALUIT - Nunavut News/North sat down with Nunavut languages commissioner Johnny Kusugak last week, which marked Languages Week in the territory.

News/North: To start, with Languages Week itself. What is it and why do it?

Johnny Kusugak (JK): First of all, it's the language of Nunavut. I always stress that if it wasn't for our language, the Inuktitut language, you can even say that we might not have Nunavut because it's our culture and we have to recognize our culture. It's (about) the style of our life, the style we lived, but also the language that we use to speak to tell our story, to tell our history. Therefore, language is the key to our culture.

So we have to recognize a week, if not every day.

News/North: In general then, what is the state of Inuktitut today as a working language in Nunavut?

JK: Well it all depends on what you talk about, "working language." Working language can be the working language of the government, or is it the working language at home when you're speaking to one another as a family?

As far as the government is concerned, the government has set a target of 2020 and they have started putting some tools in place. For example the deputy ministers will be able to speak Inuktitut to communicate.

News/North: About the Inuktitut Protection Act, how much do you know about it and what it's intended to do?

JK: The Inuktitut Protection Act protects the Inuktitut language. I think that's the number one role.

Like in Canada, the languages that are recognized are English and French and you have that right in Canada. In Nunavut, (the idea) is to put Inuktitut at that level.

News/North: Does that mean we're going to see mandates for Inuktitut in signage?

JK: That's what we're working on. We want to see that day when that will be required. And we're still in the process of putting into the act those kinds of requirements.

News/North: How important is it for Inuit students to get instruction in both languages?

JK: First of all, I really think it's important for an Inuk child to have a strong foundation in knowing his or her first language which is Inuktitut. There has to be a strong foundation set so that the person, the child can develop and get stronger in his own language before being introduced to the second language which in this case would be English.

I really feel that in today's society there's a lot of English in our surroundings and I cannot stress enough how important it is for families to teach their child, speak to their child in Inuktitut. With the help, their child has an opportunity to learn more Inukititut in the school as they get older, before they really jump into their second language, which is most likely English.

News/North: That anticipates the next question that I had which is are there ways to do what you're talking about with out having to make a lot of wide institutional changes (to the education system) and spending a lot of money?

JK: When you talk about Inuktitut teachers as a whole, people who have graduated from the (Nunavut Teacher Education Program), I believe there have been over 240 Inuit graduates that have become certified teachers with diplomas, that's the fortunate part.

The unfortunate part is that they get taken by different jobs that come out. I'm a prime example of one, because I graduated from the program, and I taught for four years before I left teaching. Everyone has their own reasons, but it goes back to starting from the home.

As a teacher in the early 1990s, I saw unilingual speaking Inuit elders, mothers telling their child or their grandchild to go through the English stream because that's how they were going to get the great jobs.

But now, with Premier Okalik announcing that the deputy ministers will have to be able to speak Inukitut, I think that totally changes the way of thinking of when I was growing up, where (people would say), "I really have to go get my high school education so I can go further, so I can get a great job and be able to contribute."

News/North: There is one other thing I should ask and that is about Innuinaqtun specifically. I recall hearing some months ago a study saying that Innuinaqtun is not doing as well as a language as Inuktitut.

JK: ...it's hard to discuss as its own language because we look at it as part of the Inuktitut language and it's a dialect, but Kitikmeot west look at it like it's the fourth language.

It's been very difficult and our office is put in the situation, "How do you see it?" What we interpret is what the government says: it's part of the Inukititut language. We're talking about Inuktitut as a whole being protected and (Innuinaqtun) is a part of it.

Millie Kuliktana and others have really taken the role and have gone and found some funding and had community consultations where they invited other key leaders or people working in the field to come to Kugluktuk last year in June and discuss how they can start getting their language back.

It was just an incredible conference, workshop that they held in Kugluktuk, where I was invited to go speak, and it was so nice to see people who were working at the solution because they knew what the problem was.

News/North: This is maybe another possibly controversial topic that you hear every once in a while about the idea of standardizing Inuktitut, because of course North Baffin and South Baffin is different, Kivalliq is different. What do you say to the idea of developing a standardized Inuktitut? Is that something the office would pursue?

JK: It's one thing to standardize. What's an example? If we were to standardize the Inuktitut language and, like you mentioned there's North Baffin, South Baffin, Kivalliq, and then you have Kitikmeot, by standardizing it I could see it being a lot easier to retain the language and learn the language, if that's a working language (you're looking for). That does not mean you lose your dialect, because when you're in your community you use your dialect.

One of the fascinating things I found about a year and a half ago, I was invited to go to Arviat to meet with the elders that are working on the Inuktitut curriculum. There were at least three men in their seventies, late sixties, early seventies. And I always tell the story where I walked in and this man in his seventies was using a computer with a keyboard typing. And my jaw just dropped because how often do you see an Inuk elder, unilingual speaking elder, who was born, lived in an iglu and all that, with a computer typing something.

And I walked right up to him and we're sitting there and we're discussing teaching materials that are Inuktitut and the elder said, "You know what? Why are we fighting over syllabics, over Roman orthography?"

That's the most important thing. If this (computer) can enhance our language, make it stronger, then do it!

We have to be innovative and creative. And he said, "I'm in my seventies now and I don't see what the big issue is here."

And that's when my jaw literally dropped because the way I grew up I was taught how to write in syllabics and that's what I recognized Inukitut as, but when you think of the Roman orthography the west uses it and the younger people start picking it up, so it's how you look at it. If it works, adapt.