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Glimpse of the outside world Pangnirtung resident Madeleine Qumuatuq remembers her siblings leaving for residential schools and coming back as different people with bell-bottoms
Miranda Scotland
Northern News Services
Published Monday, August 12, 2013
PANNIQTUUQ/PANGNIRTUNG
By the time Madeleine Qumuatuq was born in the mid-60s, one of her siblings had already been taken to residential school and five others would follow later.
Madeleine Qumuatuq never went to residential school but six of the eight children in her family were sent away from Pangnirtung to study. - photo courtesy of Madeleine Qumuatuq |
She remembers the sadness of seeing her brothers and sisters leave Pangnirtung but also the joy of them returning with stories of the unknown.
At the time, her only other insight into the rest of Canada came from listening to CBC radio.
She sat in awe listening to her siblings' tales of meeting new friends who had come from places around the country, such as Kuujjuaq.
"I'm going, 'Wow, is that a very far away place?'" recalled Qumuatuq, adding it was a big deal given they didn't have the ease of connecting with people over the Internet.
Her brothers and sisters introduced her to fashions she had never seen.
"I remember (my siblings) coming back with these bell-bottom pants they were called. They had big flare-ups down at the bottom, so huge you could make a tent out of them. But I thought those were the coolest pants on earth."
It wasn't until she was older that Qumuatuq learned the negative side to residential schools during Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings.
"To us younger ones it was all new and exciting," she said.
"It must have been super hard on my parents. Six of eight (of their children) went to residential schools."
Qumuatuq herself never had to attend a residential school.
Instead she has fond memories of growing up in Pangnirtung.
She would go camping with her family for months at a time in the summer, bringing only flour, baking powder, sugar, juice and outdoor gear.
Nowadays, she said, families only go for a couple weeks and bring a ton of food with them.
"How are they going to learn with 20 boxes of food easily available to them?"
When Qumuatuq reached Grade 9 she went to Iqaluit to finish her schooling.
Upon graduation she attended Nunavut Sivuniksavut, an eight-month college program based in Ottawa.
It was there she learned about the land claim process and heard traditional stories.
"It really opened my eyes to work for Inuit, to work for a better life," said Qumuatuq.
Over the years, she has worked in various departments for the Government of Nunavut, at Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Inuit Circumpolar Council.
She also became president of the Qulliit Nunavut Status of Women Council a few years after moving back to Pangnirtung in 1999.
Her focus as president was on working to improve issues surrounding parenting and violence against women.
Since then, violence against women has actually gotten worse because people have stopped talking about it, said Qumuatuq.
"It's a lot of shush, which is very unfortunate," she said.
Residents need to stand up and speak out against violence, even if it means being shouted at, she added.
There also needs to be more support for the men.
As for parenting, Qumuatuq said she's seeing more and more guardians becoming interested in returning to the traditional techniques.
They are looking for more ways to become active in their child's education and helping them with their homework.
"I can only see improvement from here on," said the mother of three.
"I keep telling, especially young parents, to sit down with their children at the end of the school day and just ask questions as to how their schooling went."
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