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    Keeping her language strong

    Karen Mackenzie
    Northern News Services
    Published Wednesday, August 20, 2008

    RANKIN INLET/CORAL HARBOUR - After 40 years in Kivalliq classrooms, Rosemary Sandy has turned her attention to other things.

    The elementary school teacher, who taught for the past two decades in Rankin Inlet, retired this year. She said she is gradually adjusting to the change.

    NNSL Photo/Graphic

    Leo Ussak elementary school co-principal Sarah Ayaruak, left, Kim Falkner and Heather Campbell present recently retired teacher Rosemary Sandy with a plaque of recognition of her work. - photo courtesy of Tyrone Power

    "I've been around kids for so many years, I think I'm going to miss it," said Sandy with a laugh. "But it was a little too much and my parents were getting older. I came back to Coral Harbour to be with them for a few months."

    When her career began, Sandy was only 17 years old, and the school system looked a lot different than it does now. At that time there were no other Inuit teachers in her community, and little Inuktitut was spoken by staff or students at school.

    "It was 1968. That was the year I started here in Coral Harbour," she said. "The principal of the school here said he wanted to see me in his office. I didn't have a clue what he wanted to talk to me about. I went to see him and he asked if I was interested in working at the school. So I tried it out helping with a class of beginners ... I thought we would be teaching all in English but my excitement was when they told us we could start teaching in Inuktitut too."

    The job stuck, and she attended courses each summer to learn more skills. She continued teaching when her family moved to Rankin Inlet in 1984, balancing her job at Leo Ussak with a growing family.

    A passionate advocate for her language, Sandy said she worries how the strength of Inuktitut has eroded over time among her young charges.

    "Each year it would get harder and harder, when kids would walk in after summer not knowing any Inuktitut," she said. "Inuktitut is said to be their second language now, even though their mother tongue is Inuk.

    "I want to keep my language strong in the future. Even myself, I know quite a bit, but my parents are elders and sometimes we speak all mixed now and they don't understand it."

    Sandy pointed to a suggestion she overheard recently on the local radio in Coral Harbour, that elders could be hired to spend time at local daycares.

    "I think that's the best thing to do, is to start early when they're young. If we start late we're going to be too late. We're getting to be too late already," she said. "That suggestion, to pay an elder four hours a day to spend time at kindergarten, to tell stories, maybe answer questions, at least they know they will be hearing Inuktitut."

    For now, Sandy said she'll soon be returning to Rankin Inlet and her role as pastor at the Glad Tidings Church in Rankin Inlet.

    "Maybe sewing, because in the past I've been asked to make amautiq too, so I will have some time to take and make them," she added.