Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, February 7, 2007

RANKIN INLET - Mix one part elders with a large group of kids, stir in a large helping of practical experience, and add a dash of spicy delivery and you create a satisfying dish of learning.

That's the recipe for cultural learning followed as often as the budget allows at Leo Ussak elementary school in Rankin Inlet.

Principal Harold Goobie scheduled a day of concurrent sessions with a number of elders at the school this past week.

The elders were invited by school community counsellor Mariah Aliyak.

Goobie says each elder invited possessed a special talent the school prefers to focus on, such as drum dancing, string games, personal stories of their youth and expertise with traditional tools.

"Mariano Aupilardjuk has preserved a tremendous number of traditional tools he actually used years and years ago," says Goobie.

"Not only does he display them and talk about their use, but he gets the kids to say the name of each tool in Inuktitut, which is another area we're trying to promote with these gatherings... language use and preservation.

"We also had sewing, beading and the proper way to light the qulliq demonstrated for the kids."

Goobie says the sessions encourage verbal interaction in Inuktitut between the kids, staff and elders.

The recent gathering was taken a step further by a special meet-and-greet session held at the end of the day, which included both traditional and non-traditional food trays prepared by Kelly's Catering.

The hour-long session provided the opportunity for further bonding between the elders and school staff.

"When you walk around the school on days the elders visit, you see a high degree of interaction between them and the students.

"You could go to any of the sessions and see the students being amazed by what they were experiencing.

"There's a lot of respect for the elders with this particular age group and they're eager to learn more about Inuit culture."

Aupilardjuk is one of Nunavut's most-respected elders.

He enjoys his time with the kids and would like to see the Nunavut government provide young students with more opportunities to learn from elders in the school.

"Drum dancing is very important to Inuit culture and I would like to see the government provide more money for us to teach it to the children," says Aupilardjuk.

"They have to learn to make their own songs for drum dancing because they don't know too much about it.

"The government should get it started because it will be a slow process."