KITIKMEOT
Helena Bolt is a rarity in the Kitikmeot. At 22, she is fluent in Inuinnaqtun and works as a language specialist at Kugluktuk High School.

Ida Kapaktoak, left, and language specialist Helena Bolt teach Inuinnaqtun classes at Kugluktuk High School. - Jennifer Geens/NNSL photo

"My grandparents adopted me from my mom, and they only spoke to me in Inuinnaqtun. I learned Inuinnaqtun at home. I learned English at school and with my friends."

The language is mainly spoken in Cambridge Bay and Kugluktuk, and to a lesser extent in Gjoa Haven and Ulukhaktok. According to the 2006 census, 580 people reported speaking Inuinnaqtun, and 70 of them said they speak it at home. Compare that to Inuktitut, where 35,690 people in Canada speak the language, 25,290 of whom speak it at home.

That may explain why when the position of Inuinnaqtun language specialist at the high school was advertised earlier this year, no one applied for the job. So Bolt, who was working as a student support assistant at the school, stepped up. She was hired for a one-year term.

"I just came back recently from the east and I was amazed at how much Inuktitut is being spoken there," said Bolt. "I can't speak to my friends in Inuinnaqtun because they don't know it, but they can speak to each other in Inuktitut because they all know it.

In addition to the lack of Inuinnaqtun spoken at home, she said a lack of Inuinnaqtun-speaking teachers means that after Grade 2 or 3 the main language of instruction switches to English, and the kids' Inuinnaqtun language skills begin to slip.

"It's a challenge to teach a kid Inuinnaqtun," said Bolt. "They learn it throughout school, but they never try to hold on to what they know and want to learn more."

She said lots of kids understand the language when it's spoken to them, but are shy to speak it themselves.

"They have a hard time trying to speak it," agreed Ida Kapaktoak, who helps Bolt teach the language classes.

She added that a student had been able to read Inuinnaqtun that morning due to his listening skills.

"He said he could hear these words from his granny and he figured out what the book was about," she said.

Bolt has created Inuinnaqtun word searches and Inuinnaqtun crosswords for her students. They also learn to sing songs.

"There's lots of ways to teach Inuinnaqtun," she said.

Bolt said since the beginning of the school year, her students have become more confident in their use of Inuinnaqtun, including the morning greeting.

"I like how when you ask them if they're OK when they come in in the morning, they all say they're good," said Kapaktoak. "But they always forget to ask how I am too," Bolt laughed.

She said she asks the students every day if they realize why she has them do things such as sing songs in Inuinnaqtun.

"I'm not doing this for nothing," she said she tells them. "The singing of the songs is so you recognize the words, and you hear it and you learn to feel it, your brain learns to react to it faster.

"They're getting more and more into it and it's good to see them not just sitting there."

But both Bolt and Kapaktoak are on one-year terms, and neither knows what they will do after their contract ends.

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