Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Arviat (Feb 16/00) - Making Nunavut schools more representative of Inuit culture, value and beliefs won't happen overnight.

But the process did move forward earlier this month when about 40 educators involved with the early childhood school services program division of the Department of Education met in Arviat.

The division's acting director, Shirley Tagalik, says the meeting helped form a positive working relationship between personnel in Arviat and the regional board offices.

The focus of the gathering was to examine ways to follow the government's mandate of bringing Qaqjimajatuqangit (Inuit culture) into Nunavut schools.

"We need to ensure Qaqjimajatuqangit is a foundational element in schools," says Tagalik. "We did a lot of brainstorming to gather information on where we need to be making changes in the school system."

The program division will take the information and incorporate it into a set of priorities which will be part of a strategic plan.

Tagalik says discussions ranged from how to support schools in their daily operations to restructuring the system so that it is more representational of Inuit values, culture and beliefs.

Chris Purse, director of the Kivalliq Divisional Education Council, says some people may be frustrated with the outcome because there's a lot that needs to be done and it's not going to happen overnight.

"When you look at the Inuktitut language in our schools, we're critically short of resources and always have been," says Purse.

"We're slowly making headway, but in August 2000, we're not going to be able to say we have all the resources we need. That's one of the most frustrating aspects. After all these years, the solution still isn't anywhere close."

The meeting also produced some strained sentiment over examples of cultural differences cited by facilitator Jose Kusugak.

Tagalik says Kusugak warned the gathering he was generalizing in an effort to make them think about the problems they're facing, adding that Kusugak never intentionally tried to offend anyone.

"The idea was get us to think about the different perspectives we may bring to the school," says Tagalik.

"He was challenging us to be more sensitive to the fact other people on our staff, children in our classrooms and parents in the community may be operating under a completely different perspective."

When questioned on Kusugak's comments, Purse said some people did find them divisive rather than uniting.

"I'm comfortable enough with my cultural background that I could see where he was coming from with some things, although I might not agree with it.

"I understand some people were troubled by some things," he said.

"While there were some positive aspects to come out of the meetings, some comments have left very strong negative feelings, so I don't believe it was an entirely positive experience."