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INUVIK
"They started to realize that there were similar things that were in Alaska, moving this way, proving that (the Inuvialuit) migrated over," Anna Pingo said to a class of about a dozen students holding fresh, new text books at Samuel Hearne Secondary School.

Shiniah Kasook, left, and Tori Hendrick look through the new textbook for the Taimani 25 class, which started this week at Samuel Hearne Secondary School. - Katherine Hudson/NNSL photo

Tuesday's class, the second day of the course, focused on the origins of the Inuvialuit people and their Thule ancestors. The course is titled Taimani 25 – pronounced "die money" – and is a pilot project in the Beaufort Delta senior high grades this term. The name means 'at that time,' a saying that usually begins stories of long ago told by Inuvialuit elders.

Bob Simpson, director of intergovernmental relations for the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation (IRC), worked on the reference document now available to the teachers, which deals with the changes in Inuvialuit lifestyle and resource development as well as history and challenges.

Simpson said the journey has been about four years, from the initial idea to the first day of the course.

The course is a three-credit elective, but Simpson hopes it can become a mandatory course in the future in addition to Northern Studies, a permanent fixture in the high school program.

All five high schools in the Beaufort Delta started the course this month. Northern Studies teachers came to Inuvik in late September for an in-service with Alappaa Consulting's Myrna Pokiak, who holds an anthropology and teaching degree and has experience as an aboriginal educator.

Pokiak received the material and guided and helped the teachers navigate through the information.

"It should be a priority for all regions to have their students learn about who they are before," said Pokiak.

Pokiak said her generation did not learn about the Committee for Original Peoples Entitlement, which represented the interests of aboriginal people in the Western Arctic after oil was discovered or the Inuvialuit Final Agreement, the first comprehensive land claim agreement north of the 60th parallel.

"It's important to learn the actual process of the final agreement and why we have the IRC today and not to forget what people before us did for youth today," said Pokiak. "That was the biggest message that I wanted for students, to not forget why we have what we have today and for them to learn the process and the sacrifices people took to get the agreement that we have today."

Simpson said typically social studies courses deal with the rest of Canada or other nations.

"It's nice to put a local context and the challenges your people have met throughout history and how you face those challenges and came out stronger people," Simpson said. "It's an important part of their identity: why did we negotiate land claims? How did we negotiate? What were the pressures? The younger generation who are going to the next leadership have a good understanding of what their rights are and their history is really important to know. It's passing on that heritage to them."

The material has made its way to the classroom and the students are already relating to the material.

"The first lesson we did Monday was just for the students to look at it, to see if they had a connection to it. 'Oh, there's my grandfather' – they can relate to this book," said Pingo. "I think it's going to be a good tool for our students to learn the history."

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