Kathleen Lippa
Northern News Services

Cambridge Bay (Oct 04/04) - It is one thing to talk about the fragile state of Inuinnaqtun in the western Arctic.

It is quite another to start on the long road to learning it, with an eye on interpreting and translating one day.

Doreen Evyagotailak is training to become an Inuinnaqtun interpreter/translator. - photo courtesy of Emily Angulalik

Doreen Evyagotailak, a mother of three -- Darien, 4, Mariah, 2, and Darla, her oldest, who lives with her grandmother -- was born and raised in Kugluktuk, one of two Nunavut communities where Inuinnaqtun is still used.

Although Inuinnaqtun was spoken by her ancestors and her parents still speak it, Evyagotailak never did pick it up.

Now she is 26 years old. After hearing about the need for translators, she could no longer repress the desire to reclaim the dialect of her own people. She started classes in Inuinnaqtun along with eight other students three weeks ago, and said so far it's a journey well worth taking.

"It's interesting. It's something different, new. It is something for us to gain our language," she said.

"We very much need translators."

That is what resonated with her the most. The course is offered at Nunavut Arctic College in Cambridge Bay through a partnership with the language bureau of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth.

Evyagotailak praises the patience of her Inuinnaqtun instructor Emily Angulalik.

"She is very patient," she said.

"She understands where we are coming from."

Access year one of the program ends April 22.

The two-year course that follows after that promises to be intense at times.

But at the end of it, the students will not just have access to high-paying jobs in translating and interpreting, but they will have added to their own culture.

"I feel good about it," she said. "I am proud I took a step."