Kerry McKluskey
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Jan 24/00) - It was perhaps Leah Otak's upbringing that led her to her life's work.

Raised primarily by her grandfather, Otak said she learned tremendous respect for elders and their ways of doing things early on.

It was a natural transition for her to work with the local elder's group -- formed in 1986 as the Inullariit Society as a way of promoting and preserving Inuit culture in Iglulik -- in her role as operations manager of the Iglulik Research Centre.

"My grandfather showed me everything. I had total confidence in him and I always had special thoughts about elders," said Otak, now the director of culture and heritage for the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth in Iglulik.

"My grandfather died when I was 12 years old, but it was like I always had him with me," she said.

While Otak was lucky enough to have such lessons instilled in her at an early age, all too often the wisdom of elders is not passed on to younger generations.

But thanks to the some 450 hours of taped interviews with Iglulik's elders, which have been transcribed and archived, those priceless words will be around and accessible for years to come.

Capturing stories about wildlife, survival, traditional leadership, legends, child-rearing, marriage advice and hunting and skin preparation, the intrinsic value of the oral history project has long been recognized by Iglulingmiut.

That recognition moved to a whole new level last week however, when the Inullariit Society received the Northern Science Award.

It was the first time that an aboriginal group won the prestigious medal. The award, handed out annually by the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, was created to acknowledge the important role of scientific knowledge in the North.

By giving it to the Inullariit Society, the federal government effectively and publicly showed they place as much value on traditional knowledge as they do on modern scientific knowledge.

"The elders are keen that this was recognized," said John MacDonald, the coordinator of the Iglulik Research Centre.

"It recognizes that traditional knowledge can complete the understanding of Northern reality," he said, "That's important."

Heading up the award selection committee, chair Milton Freeman said the award also served to encourage other people or groups to continue with their own work.

"It's a bit of a carrot to hold up in front of the younger people," said Freeman, a notion also echoed by Otak.

"We need to collect a lot more from the Kitikmeot and the Keewatin. They're all such different lifestyles and we need to record them," she said.

She added that by instilling the elder's lessons in today's youth, Nunavummiut will find the answers to some of their problems.

"Things are not working right. We didn't transfer the social and cultural control onto the modern generations. We don't have that control any more," she said.

"We need to get the younger people to respect the elders and their knowledge," said Otak.

Speaking on behalf of the elders involved in the project, Inullariit Society secretary Thoretta Iyerak said they were extremely honoured to receive the national tribute.

"They were really pleased, very, very happy about it," said Iyerak.

"They kept all this knowledge with them and a lot of it has now been put on tapes. It makes them happy to know these things are going to be used for education and programs," she added.

"They put these things out in the open so the younger people can learn."