Piruvik offers more than teaching Inuktut. Students learn Inuit knowledge to share as elders
'It feels like where we always needed to be,' says Inuktut student and mother of four
Thirty years ago, Leena Evic woke up from a vivid dream about a generation of Inuit hungry for language.
"I saw a facility that was so inviting that it also told me somewhere, maybe telepathically: Leena, your house is ready for you. But then I saw all these hands up in the air. Those were needs," Evic said.
That dream inspired Evic to start sketching a solution. It became the Pirurvik Centre in Iqaluit — an institute of Inuktut higher learning where students study their language at the most advanced level. She wanted to create a place where Inuit could find their way back to Inuktut.
"Even I have a great deal of hunger to learn more about the rich traditional terminology of Inuit. And periodically I use some as metaphors when I speak because they're excellent for expanding my expression. But they would have been like a daily language in the years before," Evic told IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed in an interview at the Pirurvik Centre.
Connection through Inuktut
Students attending Purivik come from all over Canada, and have different motivations to strengthen their Inuktut.
Jennifer Lindahl is a hairdresser and mother of four who enrolled in the Aurniarvik program for Inuit adults who want to learn Inuktut as a second language.
"My children's great grandparents were unilingual [Inuktut speakers] and then her grandparents have less, and then us as their parents have even less. And they have none. So we're trying to reclaim that and bring that back," she said.
Learning Inuktut together has brought Lindahl and her family closer. She says in a short amount of time, there's a significant difference in her kids' confidence speaking Inuktut.
"It feels like where we always needed to be," Lindhal said.
And nothing feels better than seeing her mother come to visit, full of pride.
"She speaks Inuktitut the whole time now from when she comes in to when she leaves. She might translate if she sees us struggling, but it's a big change."
Lindhal has another reason to learn Inukittut as a second language: her unilingual clients at the hair salon.
"[They] deserve to have someone speak to them in their language and to understand them properly."
Unlocking limitations
Evic says not knowing how to speak Inuktut leaves many Inuit with a feeling of hunger or void.
"It's not just a feeling of insecurity because you can't express [yourself] in your own language, but also that feeling of void that something's missing in you. If I'm in my 40s, late 40s, and I'm going to be a grandparent fairly soon, then you feel inadequate," Evic explained.
She says that feeling is partly because language is so connected to culture and identity.
Whether someone is in their 60s or mid-20s, there's a natural inclination to reevaluate oneself and dig into the roots of how you got here, Evic said.
"Like, I want to know more about me, where I come from, who I am."
When Evic began creating Pirurvik she knew language immersion had to go hand in hand with cultural immersion.
"I believed that a language learning centre really needs to be connected to our culture. And our culture is out there in the natural classroom," Evic said.
Students in the Aurniarvik program begin the semester with a week on the land, where they study the language and learn the stages of the seal-skinning process. They also learn how to live in the natural cycles of nature.
"Being on the land, the weather is boss … We had really high winds. It kind of blew the roof off the tent, and we had items blowing around. We were cleaning sealskin and they were smacking us in the face. And it just made us realize that this was part of life before," Lindahl said.
The experience of immersion in language and culture benefits students greatly. Alexia Cousins described the on the land experience as unlocking her dormant Inuktitut.
"We spent five days at camp with unilingual speaking instructors. And on my second day at camp, I found myself speaking fluently to the point where even my colleagues and friends I've had since high school looked at me and went, 'Holy crap, you're fluent.' And I just kind of went, 'Oh, I am.'"
Cousins attended the on-the-land program through a work opportunity. When she got back, she immediately told her boss she planned to apply to study at Pirurvik full-time.
"I'm a mature student and I also have a daughter who's in college. So me and my daughter are both going to school at the same time. Inuktitut is actually my first language, and Aurniarvik is designed for Inuit where Inuktitut isn't their first language. But as it's a good foundational course, this is where I want to apply."
Bringing language into the future
Sandi Vincent, a graduate of the Aurniarvik program, began writing a play in Inuktitut as she was studying at Pirurvik — weaving the two learning experiences together. The play is about Sedna, the Inuit goddess of the sea.
Vincent says she wanted the play to be in Inuktitut because the language has rich history and emotion — and because its vocabulary is so specific.
"It would take a few sentences to say in English what you want to say and want to do," Vincent told Ayed.
During her time studying at Pirurvik and writing her play, Vincent fell in love with the feeling of finding the exact right word.
"We were talking about maybe a star constellation and what it was in Inuktitut. And I was really stuck on that. And then I'd ask my friend, 'Hey, do you know about this?'" said Vincent.
Her friend suggested calling her grandma on FaceTime to share the story.
"I'd hear her grandma say it in Inuktitut. And then she would kind of help translate it for me... that was a really cool experience where something was mentioned in passing in class and I just got really interested and ran with it."
Vincent says it's important and noteworthy to have Inuktitut in film, plays, and books.
"We're all consumers of art in one way or another, or producers, or we all participate in it," Vincent said. She cites the TV and radio programming in Inuktitut as one of the structural supports that keeps Inukitut strong within communities.
"I remember hearing about when [television] was coming to what is now Nunavut communities. It was going to Igloolik, which is where I am originally from. And it was kind of described as like this tool of cultural genocide because there was no Inuit-specific or Inuktitut programming.
"Originally Igloolik voted against television until there was more Inuit content, which is where I think the film and performance industry is very strong there … that knowledge that if we're going to have this, then we need to include Inuktitut."
Ashley Qilavaq-Savard, a student in the Aurniarvik program, said one of the biggest challenges with learning Inuktitut if you grew up with a disrupted relationship to the language is "unlearning lateral violence."
"As a community, language was taken away from us with residential schools and Federal Day schools. And when the children came back and they didn't speak Inuit, that was such a heartache and heartbreak," she said.
"What is an Inuk without language? And that's something that people have kind of changed their minds on. Instead of grieving, they're now encouraging Inuit to learn Inuktitut."
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*This episode was produced by Pauline Holdsworth, with help from Katilin King.
