Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

NUNAVUT
After two years of weekly teleconferences and occasional face-to-face retreats, young leaders from across the North met one last time in Iqaluit June 26, this time to share their work with the public.

Navarana Beveridge of Iqaluit discusses her research project into the benefits of Iqaluit's Inuktitut daycare June 26 at the final meeting of the Jane Glassco Arctic Fellowship recipients. - Casey Lessard/NNSL photo

"I'm totally inspired by the work they have done," said Nancy Karetak-Lindell, director of the Jane Glassco Arctic Fellowship program, noting the program's fellows are "people who want to change their communities, who want to improve the lives of their fellow Northerners.

"When we were designing this program, we wanted it to be pan-Northern, from Yukon to NWT to Nunavut to northern Quebec, to Newfoundland and Labrador. We do a lot of north-south interactions, but we don't do a lot of north-to-north-to-north."

Seventy-six people applied for the first cohort of the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation program, which comes with a $25,000 fellowship over two years, during which time each fellow is expected to continue their regular employment.

Eleven of the 14 fellows, including Navarana Beveridge of Iqaluit and Dustin Fredlund of Kugluktuk, presented their findings related to policy research into such issues as oil and gas, water, education, health care, governance, economic development, and culture. The fellows, almost all Inuit or First Nations, worked independently and in small groups researching their area of interest while incorporating traditional knowledge.

Fredlund praised the chance, as a young Northerner, to investigate his area of interest: the effects of economic progress on the environment.

"It's so easy to forget the hopes and dreams we have when we're young to change things," he said. "Too often we're told that our dreams are not necessary to succeed. To ignore the youth that are here and their ideas for change will be very detrimental for our territories as we move forward."

In his work, he – as the others would do – spoke with Northern leaders in his subject area.

"If you've never been outside of Iqaluit, you might not truly understand the significance of unemployment, the significance unemployment has on our small communities, the quality of life is increasingly diminishing due to lack of jobs, lack of work," he said. "However, there is a sensitive culture that relies heavily on the environment which development takes advantage of. It's fine and dandy to have jobs; it usually means an increase in food capacity and quality of life in response to building houses and infrastructure. However, there's much more to worry about than that. Throughout my research I discussed with leaders what type of indicators we need to identify so that as we progress, we don't lose our culture."

Beveridge studied Tumikuluit, Iqaluit's first Inuktitut daycare, and how the children's use of Inuktitut affects their learning. Her study found students from the daycare had an increased level of readiness when they entered elementary school.

"The Inuit Language Protection Act needs to be strengthened to ensure Inuit language is served in the early childhood institutions," she said, "That in the long-run will pay for itself by creating stronger, healthier communities in the North."

For her, drafting public policy is not an easy vocation.

"You hardly achieve what you hoped to achieve," she said. "Over time it's easy to become jaded. Being a part of the solution as opposed to being part of the problem is my measure of success."

The program's success is measured by the fact that it has created a community of future leaders, with one of the night's speakers calling them the future premiers and ministers of the Northern territories. By showing them they are not alone, the fellowship opened the participants eyes to their potential as individuals and as a collective.

"There have been calculated efforts to destroy our lands, to destroy our people, to destroy our languages, to destroy our cultures and our resources," said Nadia Joe of Haines Junction, Yukon. "We're still here and we have so much reason to hope and so much to look forward to still."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.