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 |  | From start to finish during this month's parka making workshop. Betty Ann poses while measuring and cutting the pieces for her lining last week (left) and with her beautifully finished parka this week (right).
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The future is vibrant.
October has been full of activity and growth. Every workshop, every program, every step we take as an organization is building towards a future in which our language and culture are thriving. We're excited to share a few updates from the past month with you... |
| | | |  | Arnaqarvik
A place of women
In 1972, a one-of-a-kind grassroots women's craft collective began in the community of Taloyoak, Nunavut. This venue became known locally as Arnaqarvik, which means "a place of women". Here, local women combined creativity, artistic production and haute couture fashion to bring their unique aesthetic to the world. Within the space of two years, products from Arnaqarvik—including packing dolls, designer coats, and embroidery dyed with local plants and lichens—were being showcased on fashion runways and high-end storefronts throughout North America.
This month, we travelled to Taloyoak alongside original Arnaqarvik founders Judy McGrath, Arnouyok Alookee and Nilaulaaq Aglukkaq and over 300 items of original Arnaqarvik production to develop a 50th anniversary celebration of the artworks, relationships and impact of the collective. Our work there included school and public viewings of the collections, community fashion portraits by Inuinnaq photographer Cora DeVos, and testing out a new digital catalogue we’re developing to help build knowledge and awareness surrounding the artworks and the artists. In the coming years, this project will culminate in an exhibition that will tour across North American museums. | | |  | Our New Inuinnaqtun Revitalization Coordinator
Meet Tammy Omilgoitok
Inuinnaqtun revival is at the very heart of our mission, and it's our leading strategic priority. We are very pleased to announce Tammy Omilgoitok as our new Inuinnaqtun Revitalization Coordinator, a position specifically created to forefront Inuinnaqtun teaching and documentation in our programming and operations, oversee our Mentor-Apprentice and Language Nesting programs, and create new resources to promote the resurgence of Inuinnaqtun. Welcome to the team Tammy!
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Fostering Immersion It is often said that the best way to learn a language is to learn it in the most natural way possible. To hear it spoken every day, to listen to speakers, and to live in the language. To be part of its foundation and culture. The term Inuinnaqtun is often used for the dialect of Inuktut spoken by Inuinnait. The larger meaning of Inuinnaqtun, however, is to speak, to create, to practice, to do, to think—to be—like an Inuinnaq (a human being). Our language is key to understanding who we are and what it means to be Inuinnait. The ways that we think about the world are directly influenced by the language that we use to talk about it and describe it.
If you've been into the Cultural Centre lately, something may have felt different. We're striving to create an Inuinnaqtun-immersive environment at the Centre, and normalizing Inuinnaqtun as the primary language for daily interactions.
While how to immerse oneself or others might seem obvious, there are tried and true strategies and approaches that increase success. This past month, our team took part in a week-long Inuinnaqtun Language Immersion training session by Tamalik & Associates to build capacity in this area. This knowledge is critically important as we foster a strong Mentor-Apprentice Program, empower Silent Speakers, build language nests, embed immersion in all programming and activities, and develop the best possible revitalization resources and tools. |
 | Mentor-Apprentice Program participants during an immersive group outing this fall. | | |
The Art of Parka Making These last two weeks, our Elders and expert seamstresses have been sharing their knowledge of parka making with local women. Timing couldn't be better, as temperatures in Cambridge Bay are below freezing and winter is on the way. The parka has always been a key piece of survival for Inuinnait. Not only do they protect us from the cold and the elements, but knowing how to make them ensures that our skills and culture continue to thrive.
Participants learned the history and traditions behind parka manufacture, the Inuinnaqtun terms for parts of a parka and the process of making it, and reconnected to skills long-held by generations of women who came before us. And just as they did, each woman brought her own style to a timeless design.
Quana to the Canadian Women's Foundation for supporting female empowerment and cultural reconnection in Cambridge Bay!
Learn more about parkas and Inuinnait clothing through our virtual exhibit Patterns of Change. |
 |  |  |  |  |  | | | Land Visioning
An update on Nunamiutuqaq
Our dream of creating a new Inuinnait cultural space for Cambridge Bay continues to move ever closer. In May 2021, we announced the design and fabrication of a pilot green building. With an estimated date for construction in Spring/Summer 2022 and a property now in mind, it is our hope that this will be the location to both integrate the pilot building, and serve as a long-term cultural campus, with activity/workshop space in the building and easy access to the landscape.
Last month, our Board of Elders and staff spent an afternoon on the property to better understand its environment, landscape and potential. As the name of our program—Nunamiutuqaq (Building from the Land) suggests, the pilot structure will be built from and for the specific piece of land it goes on. Our approach will ensure that green and renewable technologies are woven into the structure seamlessly alongside traditional Inuit architecture and design, with landscaping that works in harmony with existing natural vegetation and wetlands.
Our Executive Director Emily Angulalik shared her vision for how this project will rise from a strong foundation of traditional language and respect for the land. Learn more about the project and progress at www.nunamiutuqaq.ca. |  | | |
 | Celebrate 25 Years With Us!
On March 6, 2022 we celebrated our 25th Anniversary and reconfirmed our commitment to reawakening our language and culture. We are all in for Inuinnaqtun with a goal to reach $250,000 by March 5, 2022.
Every dollar directed to the Akhuuqhimajara Inuinnaqtun campaign supports critical initiatives and programs like the ones you have read about above, that are empowering Inuinnait to find our voices and reconnect to our ancestors and their worldview.
So far, we have raised 75% of our goal to support healing and cultural resurgence. Celebrate our milestone and help us reach $250,000! | |
| |  | The year 2021 marks the 100th Anniversary of Knud Rasmussen’s Fifth Thule Expedition, one of Arctic history’s most ambitious programs to document Inuit culture and history, from Greenland to Siberia. The centennial has sparked many researchers to look at the impact of its research on their understanding of Inuit society during an era characterized by significant lifestyle transition and cultural change. For many Inuit, however, the expedition’s importance lies in its direct communication with Inuit knowledge—in the form of stories, songs, material collections, and photos—which can be used to guide contemporary efforts of cultural revival. Our team just published an article in the Alaska Journal of Anthropology that outlines our own long-running research program to access, restore, and mobilize the valuable Inuit knowledge documented during the expedition. | |  | Kakiniit, an ancient Inuit tattooing practice that was nearly lost when the Catholic Church banned it a century ago, is seeing a resurgence among Inuit women who want a deeper connection with our culture.
Inuit are famous for surviving extreme conditions, having inhabited the Arctic for millennia. But as the ice recedes, this knowledge is being lost.
A new online encyclopedia called Indigipedia is working to become a hub of Indigenous teachings.
| |  | The Indigenous Languages Component is a source of federal funding that supports the efforts of Indigenous communities and Indigenous organizations to reclaim, revitalize, maintain and strengthen Indigenous languages. Applications are due by November 29, 2021. | |
 | | |  | Was this e-newsletter shared with you? Would you like to join our mailing list?
Subscribe. | |  | We're a leader for culture and heritage in Nunavut, guided by an Inuinnait Board. We address projects of critical importance to the revival of Inuit culture, language and history. We focus on the critical needs of Inuinnait—a distinct regional group of Inuit living in the Central Canadian Arctic.
Our mission is to preserve and renew Inuinnait knowledge, language and culture for the benefit of all Inuit.
Our vision is to concentrate and connect the resources, expertise and technology critical to Inuinnait cultural and linguistic survival. | |
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