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Premier Eva Aariak, left, Jeela Palluq-Cloutier and Millie Qitupana Kuliktana speak at a round-table discussion at the Piliriqatigiinniq Nunavut teachers' conference Feb. 15 in Iqaluit. - Casey Lessard/NNSL photo

IQALUIT
A member of one of the first families to settle in Arctic Bay, Premier Eva Aariak recounted to Nunavut's educators Feb. 15 why she is committed to bilingual education. Aariak's family had arrived in the spring, so she had to wait until the fall to start school.

"I was so envious of the kids who went to school," she said.

Her teacher, Margery Hinds, was the only person in Arctic Bay who didn't speak Inuktitut, so it wasn't until she pursued higher education in Churchill, Man., that she had her first chance to study in her mother tongue, under Jose Kusugak.

"I've been pushing for the need to learn in Inuktitut ever since," she said. "I'm very proud the kids who graduate in 2019 will have to be bilingual. I'm sure many of them will also know French."

Joining Aariak as a member of a round-table discussion called Stories of Education in Nunavut, Inuit Uqausinginnik Taiguusiliuqtiit (Inuit Language Authority) linguist Jeela Palluq-Cloutier recalled the days teaching Grade 1 after she graduated from the Nunavut Teacher Education Program.

"I am a terrible singer, but I sang every day in class," Palluq-Cloutier said, encouraging the method to help teach Inuktitut. "They learned very quickly that way. By Christmas break, they were able to write in the syllabic alphabet.

"As they learned, you could see the change in them," she said. "Parents were shocked to see how fast the children were learning."

Palluq-Cloutier pushed the audience of educators, at the Piliriqatigiinniq to remember that children need a strong foundation.

"Let's give our children the will to learn when they're starting out so they will have that through their school years," she said.

Millie Qitupana Kuliktana encouraged parents to be engaged in their children's education like her father was. Of his eight daughters, five became teachers.

"I thank my father for being engaged in our education because as a dropout I had to work very hard to surpass my limitations to become a graduate of the Masters of Education program," Qitupana Kuliktana said.

Now a full-time mom and grandmother, Qitupana Kuliktana retired after 26 years as a teacher and administrator, including time as Kitikmeot School operations executive director. She now spends her time celebrating the cultural traditions of her mother after a career immersed in "the teachings of my dad's modern world."

In December, that blend of past and present showed itself to the premier, who recalled learning in a one-room schoolhouse.

"I went down to Sanikiluaq to open the new school there and celebrate their Grade 12 graduates," Aariak said of the school that has both Nunavut's newest public library and a dedicated space for preparing animal skins. "It was so amazing to see three or four elders holding iPads taking pictures of the graduates. We truly are adaptive as Northerners."

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