Hurdles can be overcome
Hall Beach student says education program made her 'more proud to be Inuk'
Derek Neary
Northern News Services
Thursday, July 27, 2017
SANIRAJAK/HALL BEACH
Miranda Qanatsiaq is spending the summer with family in Hall Beach, but Indigenous Studies is on her mind.
Miranda Qanatsiaq, right, of Hall Beach earned a youth recognition award from Nellie Kusugak, Nunavut's commissioner, in February 2016. Qanatsiaq graduated from the two-year Nunavut Sivuniksavut program in Ottawa a couple of months ago. She is now considering a degree in Indigenous Studies. - photo courtesy of the Commissioner of Nunavut
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A recent graduate of the two-year Nunavut Sivuniksavut (NS) college-preparatory program in Ottawa, Qanatsiaq says the four-year Indigenous Studies degree program offered at Carleton University in Ottawa may be where she lands next.
"I like current issues," she says. "I like working with Inuit specifically."
Qanatsiaq, 21, has high praise for NS and all that it offers.
"I found it very useful. It taught me our Inuit history. It's not really taught in school, so we had the opportunity to learn about artists and our land claim," she says. "It made me more proud to be Inuk."
Beyond the curriculum, Qanatsiaq says NS offers many forms of help for students, such as tutoring and a social worker who will assist with life's challenges, such as arranging for daycare. The latter was essential for Qanatsiaq, who has a son who is now four years old.
Living in Ottawa was "busy"compared to living in Nunavut, she says.
"It was good. It opened up my eyes to travel more," says Qanatsiaq, who admits she was sometimes homesick. She and her cousin applied to NS at the same time, but she didn't know anyone else in the program.
"It was difficult at first," she recalls. "There were hardly any other students with kids. But after a while we started getting more involved in school and making more friends."
She encourages others to enrol in NS, no matter how intimidating it may seem.
"If they're scared, there's so much support with the instructors," she says. "I always hear people don't want to go to school because they're scared of living down south, but they should know that the instructors help a lot."
Qanatsiaq, former vice-president of the youth committee in Hall Beach, received a youth recognition award from Nunavut Commissioner Nellie Kusugak in February 2016. The distinction came unexpectedly.
"I didn't know until the day. They were like, 'You have to go to the gym.' So I went to the gym and they said I was getting an award," she recalls, adding that she was a bit nervous being recognized in front of the assembled crowd. "It was a surprise."
