Nunavik Sivunitsavut: Trusting Yourself as an Inuk

John Abbott College has a long history of cooperation with First Peoples, including Inuit.¹ The college has worked in partnership with the Kativik School Board for over 20 years to support Inuit students from Nunavik.²

In 2015, four Nunavik regional organizations—the Kativik Regional Government, Makivik Corporation, the Kativik School Board, and the Avataq Cultural Institute—asked John Abbott College to help with the design and delivery of culturally relevant and safe education for Nunavik youth.

Nunavik Sivunitsavut means “Nunavik, our future” in Inuktitut. This postsecondary education program is designed to prepare Nunavik youth to become political and cultural leaders in the region.

It takes one year to complete and is the first postsecondary Inuit program in Quebec. The credit courses were developed to prepare Inuit youth to pursue postsecondary education and develop workplace skills relevant to positions in Nunavik institutions.

Since the fall of 2017, young people have been studying their history, language, culture, and land claims. This approach is known as “inuguiniq,” an Inuit education process that targets human development in its entirety and is based on a commitment to the environment and the community (Kativik, 2018).

Vision and founding principles

The program is based on a similar project for Nunavut youth that took place in Ottawa more than 30 years ago. More than 500 Inuit students have had a Nunavut Sivuniksavut education, and many of them now hold key positions in their communities, where they help reinforce cultural consolidation.

Building on the strengths of the program, Nunavik Sivunitsavut aims to reflect the reality of Inuit and help them better understand where they come from and who they are. This gives young people an opportunity to understand the current cultural, socio-economic, and political context of Nunavik. It is the regional organizations themselves that have developed the vision of what they consider to be culturally relevant education.

Nunavik Sivunitsavut’s vision is ultimately to promote isummaniq, namely autonomy for young people. This vision is based on four main principles:

• Community engagement. Students at Nunavik Sivunitsavut research the political and economic organizations of Nunavik in an effort to understand how the region functions in Quebec, Canada, and the world. Students also design and carry out social innovation projects that will directly contribute to the development of their home communities.
  
• Cultural confidence. Nunavik Sivunitsavut focuses largely on the development of cultural awareness and practice. For example, living in Montreal provides the students with the distance necessary to reflect on what it means to be an Inuk from Nunavik. Students have the opportunity to engage with and practice their culture in new, profound ways. They gain self-confidence as an Inuk.
  
• Academic development. Students at Nunavik Sivunitsavut have the opportunity to hone their academic skills and improve their understanding of postsecondary education. In addition, many of these skills are in high demand in Nunavik.
  
• Imminik Illinianiq (Learning about oneself). Students at Nunavik Sivunitsavut learn about themselves and their potential. John Abbott and the regional organizations work toward creating a college experience that acts as a rite of passage for students to help them become fully contributing adults.

Countering isolation

Inuit youth who wish to pursue college studies face many barriers and challenges, including isolation and culture shock.

Nunavik Sivunitsavut aims to create an atmosphere where young people can work together to achieve their academic goals and gain self-confidence in a culturally safe environment.

While graduation may be one of the objectives of Nunavik Sivuniksavut students, the program mainly seeks to develop a sense of pride among Nunavimmiut youth. For physical education classes, for example, students spend two weeks in Nunavik immersed in the great outdoors. This course encourages the use of traditional tools to build shelters, enhancing ancestral knowledge.

To sum up, Nunavik Sivunitsavut helps students:

• explore their Inuit identity, their connections to Nunavik communities, and their collective history
• earn credits towards a college-level diploma in the future
• enjoy a positive, culturally safe urban experience in Montreal
• develop the skills Nunavik employers are looking for
• strengthen their sense of identity and pride and their leadership skills

¹ The invariable term Inuit is used throughout this report, except in references where the original title has been retained. To learn more:  Inuit, Inuk (Linguistic recommendation from the Translation Bureau)

² Nunavik is the territory where the some 12,090 Inuit in Quebec live. It covers the land north of the 55th parallel in Quebec, which is about one-third of the province. Nunavimmiut live in 14 villages along the coastlines of Ungava Bay, Hudson Strait, and Hudson Bay.