Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Feb 25/02) - Interpreters and translators are the unsung heroes of Nunavut. Betty Brewster is one of those who has made a significant contribution to Canadian history.

News/North: Do you think people understand the role interpreter-translators played in the settlement of the land claims? Betty Brewster: Yes. They let us know and they always thank us when we're interpreting. I think people know.

N/N: Interpreters played such a crucial role in the negotiations.

BB: I went to all the ratification tours. We were up in the air for about three months. We went to all the communities twice. I was there. During the negotiations, it was in both Inuktitut and English all the time so we were there for it all. We were there right to the final hour of the agreement. It took all night and all day at the House of Commons.

N/N: It must be something to have that kind of history under your belt.

BB: I never really think about it. It's part of my job. I had to interpret a couple of times at the House of Commons when Peter Ittinuar was the member of Parliament. I enjoyed that, with all the ministers and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

N/N: So you were in the House of Commons the first time Inuktitut was ever spoken?

BB: Yes.

N/N: What did that feel like to hear that, to be a part of that?

BB: The way I had to put it in order not to get nervous was that it was just the legislative assembly. I psyched myself up to that because I didn't want to get nervous. Only when we were finished and people started coming up to me and saying Inuktitut sounds good and they asked me to speak some more. It hit me then. Holy cow, I did this?

N/N: How long have you been working as an interpreter?

BB: I started interpreting as soon as I learned how to speak English. I was probably 10 or 11. I mostly did it at a local level at home in Taloyoak with the RCMP or the nurses.

N/N: How did you learn to speak English?

BB: I went to school.

N/N: Were you naturally drawn to interpreting?

BB: I was because my father (Ernie Lyall) was an interpreter as well. I used to listen to him interpret when government officials came in or if the nurse had public meetings. I learned a lot from my father.

N/N: How did you progress into helping settle the land claims?

BB: I got a job with the land claims section of what was the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada at that time. There was no (Tunngavik Federation of Nunavut) or (Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.) then. It was under ITC.

N/N: How did you get that job?

BB: I applied for the job in Ottawa as interpreter-translator. I was living in Yellowknife. I went to school in Yellowknife because, at that time, we only went up to Grade 7 in the smaller communities. After that I went to Yellowknife.

Two of us were tested out to do simultaneous interpreting. It had never been done before. I believe it was Bryan Pearson when he was an (MLA) who started talking about having simultaneous interpreters. We got picked to go to Edmonton to go to a conference of some kind. There were unilingual people there. That was the first time I took a crack at simultaneous interpretation.

About six or seven months later the territorial government wanted four Inuit and five Dene to take a nine-month training interpreting course. We learned about all the departments and we were taught how to listen and talk at the same time.

N/N: Was that a hard thing to do?

BB: It was difficult. We had facilitators coming from New York to train us how to think fast and talk at the same time. We had to take public speaking. We had someone from the Armed Forces every week to teach us how to public speak. That took nine months. We also went to , where they have a simultaneous school. That's when I first started trying harder, after watching at that training centre. That was in 1972 or 1973. After we graduated, the four Inuit split up. There was someone from Keewatin, Churchill, Iqaluit and Cambridge Bay.

After my training, I went to Cambridge Bay. I was there for a couple of years and then I went back to Yellowknife and started working as the head interpreter-translator for the territorial government.

At that time, there were only four of us translators, but after that every year they trained nine people, both Dene and Inuit.

N/N: How long did it take you to be able to listen in one language and talk at the same time in a different language?

BB: You can never really get perfect. It depends what the subject is. You still get stuck, but you catch on. It took me probably a couple of years to get really relaxed when I was interpreting.

N/N: What was it like to be in Washington?

BB: We enjoyed it. There were nine of us and we had a great time. We also went to New York. We were shown different kinds of government and we travelled quite a bit when we were training.

N/N: Did you find it hard to keep up with the travel?

BB: No, all of us really enjoyed travelling. Stuart Hodgson was the commissioner at that time and he travelled around so we went with him. At that time, it was not simultaneous. The only time we did simultaneous was at the territorial council. With the commissioner on his travels, we had to do consecutive interpretation in all of the communities. We went back many times. Every time there was a new act or something, we went with the government people to interpret as they explained what the acts were. The meetings used to last for a long time because there were a lot of questions from the public.

N/N: Was it hard on your family when you were travelling around?

BB: I have two daughters. It was hard on all of us who were with the land claims. We had to be away for a long period of time. It was difficult for everybody.

N/N: Is there a real strong bond between all of you?

BB: Yes, we became pretty close friends.

N/N: How has the field changed since you first started?

BB: It's a lot easier now because it was quite difficult when people were not really sure. They had a lot of questions and people thought maybe the interpreters weren't doing this right or that right. That always came up. After a while they understood it was not easy. It was new to them, too. Before we would go out interpreting, department heads would get together with us and explain it all. We had to learn it first before we could interpret.

N/N: Do you see yourself as a role model for young interpreter-translators?

BB: I don't see it myself, but the younger interpreters do come up to me a lot and also the young people who would like to become interpreters. They ask me if it is hard and what do they have to do to become an interpreter.

N/N: Do you think interpreters are underpaid?

BB: Yes. I think they are for what they do. Eight hours a day, we have to be prepared to change the way we think. It's difficult. You get stressed out simultaneously interpreting, especially for the legislative assembly. That's very stressful. It's long hours.

N/N: If you could leave this all behind for a different career, what would you do?

BB: I was planning to take law. But I always seem to go back to interpreting. I enjoy it.