In Nunavik, students learn in a context different from that which prevails further south. While there are big challenges in schools — and in communities — there are also small miracles every day. Le Devoir offers you a series of reports on this unique education system. Today: Inuktitut, an endangered language.
In Nunavik schools, more and more young people entering kindergarten do not speak Inuktitut, their mother tongue, which they are abandoning in favor of English. In the dock: social networks, videos on YouTube, online games and streaming platforms, such as Netflix and Disney, to which young people have recently become completely addicted.
“The children are losing their language,” said Elizabeth Kudluk, kindergarten teacher at Sautjuit School in Kangirsuk with a sigh. “They arrive at school and they have a hard time making complete sentences. Some don’t even understand what I say in class. »
Maggie Kudluk, culture and Inuktitut teacher, also sees it in the 3e4e and 5e years. Due to the pandemic, they were deprived of school during the crucial period of school learning of Inuktitut. “Since COVID, children are no longer able to read Inuktitut, they no longer use their language as much as before. We’ve seen a decline in the language for a while, but before it wasn’t so striking,” she says in Inuktitut.
Isolated, many young people have found refuge in English television programs and on social networks, consolidating their second language.
Officially, Inuktitut is the mother tongue of 98% of Nunavik Inuit. But the reality is more complex. Several residents of Kangirsuk talk to each other in a mixture of Inuktitut and English. French, although taught at school, is practically never used in everyday life in Kangirsuk, although it is spoken in certain communities, such as Salluit. But in the region, the common language remains English.
If the school gives itself the mandate to preserve the language and the culture, the parents also have their share of the responsibility, underlines Elizabeth. “Parents are told that they should speak more Inuktitut at home, but many only speak English with their children: they repeat that they are really smart, because they already speak English, but they don’t realize not that their children are not functioning in school. »
Minnie Annahatak speaks Inuktitut at home, but her 6-year-old daughter watches English movies and is fluent in English with her school friends. “She got a C in Inuktitut on her report card, I felt really bad,” says this mother, who works as a school support coordinator for the Kativik School Board.
Addicted to screens
Until recently, the Internet network was so poor in Nunavik communities that distance learning was impossible. To play online or watch a video on YouTube, you had to be patient. But since the fall, tired of waiting for the optical fiber that they have been promised for a long time, several communities have turned to Starlink, Elon Musk’s company, which provides them with the network by satellite, as in Ukraine.
Since then, the use of screens has reached an unprecedented level. The children are even more addicted, and many teachers find that they arrive more tired in the morning, because they play all night. Anne-Grace, 12, who dreams of becoming a lawyer, does not hide it: she does well in school, but sometimes finds it difficult to get up in the morning and concentrate, because she goes to bed too late, having fun on TikTok and YouTube until the early hours. A classmate is upping the ante, boasting that she recently went to bed at 5 a.m. on a school day.
Staff and parents are concerned about the phenomenon. They wonder how to better control the use of screens.
The education committee, made up of parents in particular, sends out messages on the radio and looks for solutions. “As parents, we talk a lot about the fact that young people are addicted to screens and that they are in the process of losing their language,” confirms Minnie.
While most of the parents around her like her impose restrictions on screen time, watching videos on YouTube and a curfew on weeknights, she notes, with many nuances, that this is not the case of all families. But for her, we must avoid judging the parenting skills of each other because of the various traumas of the past which deprived them of models to learn to be a parent.
“Some parents think it’s no big deal if they’re on the internet all the time, because at least they’re safe at home, and not hanging out late at night,” she says gently.
“It would probably be easier to just say that we completely remove the devices, but it would be more productive to create Inuktitut content on YouTube or Netflix for example concludes Minnie. A few years ago, the school board created an Inuktitut keyboard for iPhones, which allows Inuit to communicate with each other in their own language.
Between tradition and modernity
“I was losing my language, but I didn’t even realize it because I was too absorbed in social media,” says Annie-Ann Gaspard Kudluk, 20. She preferred to speak English and barely used Inuktitut anymore, except with her grandparents. It wasn’t until she started working at Sautjuit School, as a special education teacher, that she realized she had difficulty speaking her mother tongue. “Working at school forced me to practice more,” she explains. I have improved a lot since then and it made me realize how unique Inuktitut is, which must be preserved at all costs. »
She tries to transmit this newfound love to the children she accompanies on a daily basis, speaking to them as often as possible in Inuktitut, because she notices that, like her not so long ago, many prefer to speak English.
Annie-Ann notices that an intergenerational gap is widening. “Children today are more interested in modern things, they are more interested in their iPhone than in what the elders have to tell them. And they don’t communicate so easily with elders anymore because of language barriers. »
At 20, Annie-Ann still feels young, but old enough to understand the importance of safeguarding her language and her culture. “Among the young people of my generation, half of them are trying to learn and preserve the language and our traditional way of life. The other half is more consumed by the modern world. »
But all is not white or black, and everyone tries to find their way by navigating between tradition and modernity. In her spare time, Annie-Ann enjoys many traditional activities. In the spring, she goes ice fishing. In summer, it’s picnics and outdoor activities. In the fall, she picks wild berries. “In winter, when it’s really cold, I usually stay at home sewing… If I don’t get caught up in social media! »
This report was produced in part with the financial support of the Kativik School Board.