In Whale Cove, Inuktitut Speak Off sparks love of mother tongue

A tiny school in Whale Cove, Nunavut, held a unique event this weekend to help encourage students to use and love the Inuktitut language.

On Saturday, half a dozen students braved an audience of about 100 people in the Inuglak School gym to deliver a prepared speech — entirely in Inuktitut — for the community's first-ever Inuktitut Speak Off.

(Full disclosure: I was one of the judges.)

"I was actually pretty scared because there was a lot of people," says 15-year-old Micah Sammurtok, who was one of several students who spoke in front of a room full of their parents, elders and friends.

None of the participants spoke the language fluently, accurately representing most of the children and youth in the community of about 450.

But Sammurtok started out strong in her speech, and in the end, took second place in the high school category with a speech about learning about her Inuit culture.

"I am proud to be Inuk and even though I am not fluent with my Inuktitut yet, I still try and speak it," she says.

Sammurtok says she does speak some Inuktitut to her mother and grandfather, but to everyone else, she is most comfortable in English.

She's not alone. Nerves got the better of almost half the students who planned to take part in the Speak Off and backed out at the last minute.

But the experience was a breakthrough for Sammurtok.

"I actually want to learn more Inuktitut," she says. "That's the first thing I'd want to learn out of everything now."

Many children prefer English

Of about 150 students at Inuglak School, most prefer to communicate in English, and that's a big concern for elders, leaders, parents and teachers in Whale Cove.

The idea for the Speak Off came from Leslie Chandler, a teacher who arrived in the community last August and happened to pick up Nipiit, a magazine published by the National Inuit Youth Council.

"I saw an article and photographs of students from Nunatsiavut who are doing [an Inuktitut] Speak Off" says Chandler, "and I thought to myself, 'Gee! What an amazing thing and I wonder if we can do it here.'"

The school had the full support of elder Mary Niriungniq Nangmalik. At 74, she's afraid that if the children do not learn to speak her language, "it will disappear in our community."

"We are falling behind in Whale Cove," she said in Inuktitut. "It's come to a point where we may have to get help now."

Sammurtok echoes Niriungniq's concerns. "We need more youth speaking in Inuktitut. Once their grandparents or parents are speaking Inuktitut to them, sometimes they don't understand."

Kids will learn best at home, elder says

While the school is doing what it can to help teach and motivate their students to speak more Inuktitut, Niriungniq says "it's our responsibility as parents to teach our kids because they will learn Inuktitut best at home.

"And once they learn it while they are growing up, then they will be able to speak it for the rest of their lives."

Niriungniq speaks Inuktitut with her grandchildren, who live with her, every day, but says even that is challenging as "they still want to speak in English amongst each other."

Lucy Taipanak has taught Niriungniq's grandchildren in school. She helped to organize the Inuktitut Speak Off because "we need to help our children more."

"It's very difficult to compete with television and electronic devices that mostly use English."

'It grew and grew to this big community event'

Taipanak says they first started planning for a small event that would only include students reading their speeches to their peers.

"But it grew and grew to this big community event."

In the end, women made traditional parkas for students who drum danced, and Florentine Voisey and Pamela Arualuak performed as throat-singers.

Other students demonstrated their abilities in Arctic Sports, including the one-foot high kick and the Alaskan high kick.

The Bowhead Whale Hunt Committee offered caribou meat for the community feast and community members, including Mayor Stanley Adjuk, played music during the square dance that capped off the event. 

"It's good that we made this happen," Sammurtok says.

"We need the kids to learn more about our language, because we should keep our culture alive."