Ottawa (Sep 25/06) - Natan Obed brought a message to members of the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development: fund education if you want Nunavut to succeed.

Tommy Akulukjuk: Sees erosion of traditional Inuit skills

Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.'s social and cultural department was part of a posse of representatives from NTI, an Inuit land claims organization, and Nunavut Sivuniksavut, an Ottawa-based program that prepares Inuit for university, that descended on Parliament Hill last week.

Citing Thomas Berger's report on the state of Nunavut's education system, Obed called on federal politicians to step up with funding for fully bilingual kindergarten to grade 12 education, as well as the Nunavut Sivuniksavut program. Berger's report, entitled the Nunavut Project, was released March 1.

"The Nunavut Project recommendations are designed to create a healthy, functioning territory without sacrificing Inuit society and culture to do so...," Obed told the committee. "(It) is not so much about territorial education as it is about the federal government providing funding to implement the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement."

Morley Hanson, coordinator of Nunavut Sivuniksavut, said the program lacks annual core funding. It must therefore cobble together a budget, with 70 per cent of the money coming from NTI and the regional Inuit associations.

Despite that, Hanson told MPs the program is a success. Virtually all of its graduates return to work in Nunavut, he said. A 2005 survey of 180 graduates showed only four per cent were unemployed.

"There's no problem with retaining people in the territory," Hanson said. "That's their home and that's where they want to be."

The witnesses also urged the committee for action on implementing a fully bilingual education system in Nunavut. NTI lawyer Laurie Pelly noted that a March 7 letter to Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Jim Prentice has yet to be answered.

Students now receive Inuktitut-language education until grade 3, then switch to English only. That shift hurts students' abilities in both languages, the committee heard.

NS alumnus Tommy Akulukjuk told MPs that Inuit youth are losing traditional skills and those with unilingual Inuktitut parents can't get help with English homework.

"I always question my parents why they support us so much learning English, learning science...when they are losing their actual way of being themselves," he said.