Jennifer McPhee
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (May 27/02) - Jose Arreak is the translator and municipal liaison officer for the City of Iqaluit. Originally from Pond Inlet, he says a strong family and good education helped him succeed.

N/N: Whenever I'm here, you seem extremely busy. Besides interpreting, what does your job include?

JA: I'm a certified interpreter. That is incorporated into my job duties. But I am also a clerk to council and a municipal liaison officer. I deal with the public and council. If there is a public meeting going on, I am involved with notifying the public, organizing the meeting. We try to keep the public as informed as possible.

N/N: So how long have you worked here?

JA: I stared working on and off around 1994. But I became a full time employee in 1995. But I've also worked 12 years and counting in municipal administration.

N/N: Is Inuktitut your first language?

JA: Yes, although I had exposure to English, watching the NFL, Three Stooges and all those sort of programs while we were growing up. That really helped.

N/N: Which language do you think in?

JA: Probably Inuktitut. Although I've been practising English for so long, it's second nature. I just let it naturally flow.

N/N: When you're translating, is it hard to switch languages back and forth?

JA: That's where a knowledge of English comes in very handy. I've worked on my English all my life. The more education you have -- it really comes in very handy ... I evolved like a lot of interpreters down South. They get trades in different fields and then they go into interpreting and translating

after. I specialized in municipal administration.

N/N: Where did you go to school?

JA: I took a municipal administration certificate through (Nunavut) Arctic College and McMaster University. But that was during the 1980s and it went along with my job as a GNWT municipal affairs officer.

N/N: Where are you originally from?

JA: My roots are in Pond Inlet, but this is basically my second home. It's where I went to school, where I work and work and work (laughs).

N/N: When did you leave Pond Inlet?

JA: I was the senior administrative officer at the Hamlet. I took upon the challenge to move back to Pond to help with their deficit recovery program.

N/N: Did the program help?

JA: They were moving from a deficit to a surplus when I left. That's the main reason I was there, to help with the financial problems.

N/N: You once told me you had an experience that changed your life -- when your friend died.

JA: Yes, I went south for four years and during that time my best friend died. That got me thinking that I was becoming a stranger in my own home town. I took a good look at myself to decide what I really wanted to do. I felt obligated to return back home because Nunavut needs a lot of help. I felt just leaving (Nunavut) wouldn't be appropriate. So I committed to return back home.

N/N: Where were you living then?

JA: At Trent University in Ontario ... I took it as a wake up call. Here's my best friend passed away, it was determined he committed suicide. That got me thinking, there's got to be something we can do to try and minimize that.

I knew at that time that I was learning a lot of English, but I was losing a bit of Inuktitut. Academically, I was doing very well, and I was adjusting to southern culture. Maybe I was making too big of a jump. A lot of those issues came to me at that time. Sort of like soul searching. I wanted to go home and find new goals and objectives.

N/N: Do you have children?

JA: I have three kids. The oldest one is in my care. I keep in continuous contact with the others.

N/N: What do you do for fun?

JA: Spend time with my two-year-old adopted son. I take him out quite often. I play guitar, computers, chess, backgammon.

N/N: When did you learn to play guitar?

JA: I had a lot of brothers who liked to go hunting a lot, so I was always left behind. My father knew I was going to be different, I was going to be adjusting to the more modern world. So he bought me a Gibson electric guitar. I was seven years old.

N/N: That was pretty good of your dad.

JA: He knew that there were changes to his younger kids. And he accommodated our needs really well. And that was much appreciated.

N/N: Did you ask for it or did he just buy it?

JA: He knew I was interested in music. He decided to buy me a guitar to keep me busy.

N/N: Do you play in front of people?

JA: I was the lead guitarist in the high school band, and the band at the student residence. I had quite a bit of exposure to music here and, to some extent, outside of Iqaluit.

N/N: What do you listen to?

JA: A cross section. Roots music. I like Eric Clapton, George Harrison, a jazz guitarist Lee Ritenour. I like some blues too -- BB King. I played a lot of '70s music in the high school band.

N/N: Did you have long '70s hair?

JA: I was just a 14-year-old kid, but it was the in thing at the time to have long hair. So I had long hair. I was playing along with the fashion of the times. Although I never liked bell bottoms.

N/N: Are you parents still in Pond Inlet?

JA: My mother passed away in 2000 but my father is still alive. We had a good, strong family. My father was a special constable. He worked for the RCMP for 20 years. My grandfather worked for 25 years and my other grandfather for 30 years. I come from a long line of distinguished special constables.

N/N: How did your family help you?

JA: Just knowing who you are and where you come from makes a difference in life. The reason why I've been quite successful is I know who I am. I had a healthy upbringing and that really helps.

N/N: You seem like a pretty introspective person.

JA: I'm a survivor. I was an alcoholic too.

N/N: How did you quit drinking?

JA: It's a personal journey for each of us to quit. I think the more healthier upbringing you have, the better it is. It really comes down to love. A lot of people don't realize that. That you really have to care about who you are and what you are.

...It's just addiction. I knew it was the wrong thing to do but I did it anyway. I had a marriage that didn't work and I used that as leverage to start drinking.

N/N: Did you start drinking after your marriage broke up?

JA: I started drinking after I started living with her. It was a lot more difficult than I thought and I got into marriage blindly.

N/N: How so?

JA: I was naive. I thought life would fix itself. But you can't change another person. It was a long struggle for me to learn that.

N/N: You mentioned the value of education. What did it do for you, besides getting you a job?

JA: It gives you a lot more confidence, too. A lot of people underestimate the value of education. Education and information go hand in hand. You've got to have information to learn how the system works.

I like to do things thoroughly. I like to do a proper job. I care about what I'm doing. I like where I am. It fits in with my specialities. But a lot of those things don't happen on their own. You have to really work on them. Sometimes you have to give it a little time to figure out where you fit in.

There's the older generation who went to vocational school. And then us, the middle age group, who refined the process more by going to college and university. I hope younger generations see what we're doing. I hope it will be helpful for them.