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9oxJ5 • NUNATSIAQ NEWS mw • MAY 27, 2011 13

Members of the Arviat history project Nanisiniq visit Indian and Northern
Affairs (now Aboriginal and Northern Affairs) during a recent fieldtrip to
Ottawa. The group was in the nation’s capital to do research and also share their Nanisiniq youth researchers Curtis Konek and Patrick Pingashat film scenes around Arviat last winter as part
project with Inuit organizations there. (PHOTOBY FRANK TESTER) of a project to document the community’s Inuit history. (PHOTO BY APRIL DUTHEIL)

findings with Inuit organizations there.
The group looked through archival material at Ottawa’s
Library and Archives Canada and did tours at the National
Gallery of Canada and the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
Another youth researcher, Jordon Konek, 22, said Inuit
today are “caught up” with modern technology. It’s important
for Inuit to know their history so they can put their modern
lives into context, he said.
“If you don’t notice history, you don’t see how caught up
we are,” Konek said.
He didn’t at first; Konek said the education he received
focused on “a lot of historic white people.”
But even one conversation with an elder can help to
understand and pass on something from the past that would
otherwise be lost, he said.
Fellow researcher Amy Owingayak, 19, said the only Inuit
history she learned in school was about traditional Inuit cloth-
ing.
“We went through a traumatic change,” said Owingayak of
Inuit losing their nomadic lifestyle. “I hope that our youth will
learn quickly about that change, and we hope not only Inuit
people will learn about this, but also people in the South.”
Dr. Frank Tester, a professor of social work at UBC and a
member of the Nanisiniq team, also hopes the project’s findings
have a broader reach.
“We want to influence young people and get them think-
ing about exploring their culture by talking with elders in their
community,” he said. “And we do want to influence the edu-
cation system.”
So far, Tester has had some influence; he sits as an advisor
to Government of Nunavut education committee who is look-
ing to create a more “Inuit-centred” curriculum in the territo-
ry’s high schools.
The Arviat history project is a good illustration of ideas that
are relevant to the redesign of the territory’s curriculum, he
said.
Tester said his background in social work has also led him
to believe that the high rate of suicide among Inuit youth is
linked to their lack of knowledge about where they come from.
“If you don’t know your roots, you’re vulnerable to every-
thing that comes along,” he said. “This lack of grounding in
Inuit history is one of the contributing factors to depressions
and mental health problems associated with Inuit youth.”
Visit the Nanisiniq Project’s blog here:
http://nanisiniq.tumblr.com

Nanisiniq members present their project to staff at Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami’s Ottawa office May 16. (PHOTO BY FRANK TESTER)