Renewed hope for Ilitturvik University Society
$5-million donation re-ignites interest in Nunavut-based facility
Miranda Scotland
Northern News Services
Published Monday, April 21 2014
NUNAVUT
Renewed interest in the creation of a bricks and mortar university in Nunavut has given hope to the Ilitturvik University Society.
The group of about five Nunavummiut came together in 2009 with the aim of building such an institution in Iqaluit, but they weren't met with enough support and their efforts petered out.
"I think we were ahead of our time," said member Kirt Ejesiak. "It takes time for an idea to sort of sink in, so I'm delighted to see people are coming around to the idea of this university."
Agnico Eagle announced plans April 10 at the Nunavut Mining Symposium to donate $5 million toward building a university in Nunavut.
The government has not yet identified a timeline, location or budget for the project.
Ejesiak said he believes the next steps are critical and hopes the society can work with the GN and other stakeholders on the effort.
"We're all excited to see this push forward," he said.
"It's easy for us to dust off and present (our information) to the GN and Agnico Eagle and any other group that may want to contribute because we spent several years planning and preparing how we could do this properly."
The society investigated how a university begins and met with various groups, elders, scholars and Inuit to discuss how, where and when the institution should take shape.
The members went as far as to draft invitations to leaders in indigenous education around the world, asking them to a conference to share their own experiences in setting up universities. However, they were unable to get funding to make it happen.
"We're grateful Agnico has taken a leadership role in terms of providing funding because at the end of the day, that's what it requires," said Ejesiak. "They've taken the first step and that's always the most important step in setting things up. We're hopeful their commitment of $5 million will spur other private and public institutions to put equal, if not more, into a project like this."
Out of eight countries, Canada is the lone circumpolar nation without a university in the North.
For the past few decades, various groups have been pushing the idea, but it's never gone very far.
In 2009, the Walter & Duncan Gordon Foundation commissioned a report on developing a Northern university. It identified seven barriers that still ring true today:
- lack of adequate, long-term funding
- challenges bridging multiple jurisdictions
- limited communications between stakeholders
- low population in a large land mass
- relatively low levels of academic achievement
- limited political momentum
- conflicts between academic and indigenous ways of knowing
However, members of the society are adamant that Nunavut get its own university.
Anne Crawford, who is a part of the group, suggested, "a pairing of Inuit jurisdictions would be more productive to generate the kind of language, linguistic and land claims and social, political kinds of institutions than simply taking the geographic North."
Nunavut needs this university so residents can take control of their own decision making, she added.
Ejesiak echoed Crawford's comments, and added he's tired of people from down south speaking on Arctic issues.
"We can speak on our own issues thank you very much. We really feel our decision making has been curtailed or hijacked by not having our own institution," he said. "We recognize that by going down this road it's not going to be all roses for us because it's going to threaten the way of life for folks in the south, professors, universities, or other institutions. But hey, we need to grow as a society."
Ejesiak said he believes a Nunavut university could help with the territory's struggle with low attendance at schools. If students see their relatives attending the institution, they will strive to go too.
"It provides an avenue for them to dream bigger and recognize they can do more," he said.
There are many ways to make this project work, added Crawford.
"There is all kinds of flexibility in a university model and the potential to have quality education here is huge," she said. "But we just have to be very careful about making sure that's what we're going to get."
