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Groups work to preserve Inuit place names Emily Ridlington Northern News Services Published Monday, July 11, 2011
"Having Inuktitut names are our priority," said Pauline Arnatsiaq, a territorial toponymist for the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth. She, along with the Inuit Heritage Trust and the Nunavut Geographic Names Committee consisting of elders, have drafted about 140 Inuktitut names for locations that either already exist and have another name or the official name has not been recognized. "It is about making them the official names and using the traditional names that have been there for thousands of years," said Sheila Oolayou, traditional place names co-ordinator with the Inuit Heritage Trust. There is a waterfall about 95 km southwest of the community she said they are hoping will be named Qurlurnialuk, meaning a big crack on a glacier. Cape Lord Lutherford is about 214 km west-northwest from Clyde. Proposed for its new name is Akulaanga, meaning its crotch. Nunavummiut are being asked for their feedback and to provide comments until June 21. As of early June, Arnatsiaq said she had not gotten any responses. In order for the names to become official, each name will have to be approved by the Nunavut Geographic Names Committee before going to the minister of CLEY, James Arreak. Once this is done, Arnatsiaq said formal notification of the name changes will be sent to the community. In order to come up with the list of potential new names, Oolayou said they worked with the locals. "We interviewed the elders who have lived off the land," she said. "They are the older generation who are hunters and know the land well." Under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, she said the Government of Nunavut was supposed to be doing the work but the trust offered to do the research. In Clyde River, the community liaison officer started some work on the project but with the high turnover in the position and a lengthy list of tasks, the project got left to the wayside. Oolayou said pre-1999 when Nunavut was part of the Northwest Territories, there were few staff to travel to the communities and collect traditional place names. "There have only been very few names that have gone through the government process," she said. "It's very important we continue to push for this so it just didn't sit there for the community to do it."
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