Eye on the Arctic brings you stories and newsmakers from around the North

The United Nations has designated 2019 as the Year of Indigenous Languages.

The goal is to to make people more aware of the languages and their role in cultural preservation.

Throughout the year, Eye on the Arctic will be checking in with First Nations and Inuit communities across the North to talk policy, education and strategies for language preservation and promotion in their regions.

In this instalment, we turn the spotlight on Canada's eastern Arctic territory of Nunavut in a conversation with Stephane Cloutier, the director of official languages at the Government of Nunavut's Department of Culture and Heritage. 

With Cloutier, we talk about the state of Inuktut, the term used in Nunavut to refer to the Inuit language dialects of the region, and why 2019 is an important milestone for language legislation in the territory.

Feature Interview

Stephane Cloutier, Nunavut’s director of official languages, in an undated photo. (Nunavut Legislative Assembly)

Eye on the Arctic: 2019 has been designated by the United Nations as the year of Indigenous Languages, is there anything planned in Nunavut to mark the occasion? 

Stéphane Cloutier: Nunavut is planning a big event that coincides with the International Year of Indigenous Languages. The Government of Nunavut, with its partners, will be hosting a big conference to mark 10 years since adopting the Nunavut language legislation, and to look at where we’re at in terms of language vitality of Inuktut in the territory. That conference will be called Inuugatta Inuktuuqta “Because we are Inuit, we must speak the language.”

What are some of the successes of the last 10 years in terms of the promotion and preservation of Inuktut?

There’s been important steps taken by government in order to improve the delivery of government services in Inuktut. There’s support provided to businesses and to municipalities as well. In terms of promoting the use of the language, especially revitalisation, we’ve been collaborating with Kitikmeot Region, where the language is more in decline. We’ve been implementing different projects, even using drum dancing as a safe environment to practice the culture but also the language.

We’ve also been promoting the language through music. Many people will know (Inuktut rock band) The Jerry Cans. But in the last three, four years, we’ve seen about 20 new albums recorded where artists from Nunavut are signing in Inuktut. This is something great that we did not see before. We’re also seeing more film productions or TV series using Inuktut.

Education is also a key to really support the language. In the last few years we’ve seen increased support for guided reading books in Inuktut for early grades up to grade five, and there are also plans for the following  grades as well. This is a major initiative, we’re talking about close to 700 books that have been developed in the last few years just to support the learning of the language by youngsters.

What challenges remain?

We still see decline in language use either as a mother tongue, as a home language or knowledge of the language. We’re trying to do more research to better understand the reasons, the motivations and the barriers to language use or revitalization. There’s also a need for additional resources for the schools, especially more Inuit teachers and Inuit educators that can teach in the language. There are teacher training programs in place but we need to increase enrolment in some of those programs, so in Nunavut, we can one day teach all the way from kindergarten to grade 12 in the language.

There’s been discussions over the last decades about standardizing the Inuit language across Canada, or even one day,