The Google search engine pays tribute on its presentation page on Wednesday to Inuit author and historian Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk, who was named a member of the Order of Canada in 2004, three years before her death in Kangiqsujuaq, Nunavik.
Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk is known for writing one of the first novels in Inuktitut, titled saanaq. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, she has written 22 books on Inuit hunting and fishing traditions and practices, the Inuktitut language, and northern landscapes.
It seems that missionaries who arrived in her community when she was 20 years old taught her the alphabet in Inuktitut. In return, she taught them how to speak Inuktitut.
From 1965 to 1996, Ms. Nappaaluk worked for a school board where she developed Inuktitut language programs and provided cultural sensitivity training to teachers.
Photo: Jonathan Hayward
Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk, pictured in May 2004 when she was made a Member of the Order of Canada by then-Governor General Adrienne Clarkson.
In 1999, she inherited the National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Culture, Heritage and Spirituality. This honor, now called the Indspire Award, is the highest honor that Indigenous communities bestow on their members.
In 2000, Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk received an honorary doctorate of laws from McGill University, although she never went to school and never sat in a classroom as a student, according to the ‘Canadian Encyclopedia.
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