Since the mid-twentieth century, sustained contact between Inuit and newcomers has led to profound changes in education in the Eastern Arctic, including the experience of colonization and progress toward the re-establishment of traditional education in schools. Heather McGregor assesses developments in the history of education in four periods � the traditional, the colonial (1945-70), the territorial (1971-81), and the local (1982-99). She concludes that education is most successful when Inuit involvement and local control support a system reflecting Inuit culture and visions.

Profound changes in education accompanied sustained contact between Inuit and Qallunaat, or non-Inuit, in the 20th century. A definition of "Inuit Education" is established here, and through four periods--the Traditional, Colonial, Territorial and Local--this history will investigate: aspects of Inuit Education employed in formal schools, their purpose and success; the relationship between Inuit Education and the Qallunaat system of schooling; and exploration of who initiated and controlled educational change. During the Local Period, 1985--1999, most educational decision-making occurred at the level of district education authorities and regional school boards, focusing on the re-establishment of Inuit Education within the formal school system. These mechanisms of local control brought about a form of education widely contributed to, and supported by, Inuit. As this thesis will demonstrate, it was this approach to education that had the best capacity to reflect Inuit culture, their relationship with the environment, and their vision of the future.

In 1987 Joanne Tompkins travelled to the Baffin Island community of Anurapaqtuq to take on the job of principal at the local school. This is the story of the four years she spent there and the many challenges she faced.

Between 1867 and 2000, the Canadian government sent over 150,000 Aboriginal children to residential schools across the country. Government officials and missionaries agreed that in order to “civilize and Christianize” Aboriginal children, it was necessary to separate them from their parents and their home communities. For children, life in these schools was lonely and alien. Discipline was harsh, and daily life was highly regimented. Aboriginal languages and cultures were denigrated and suppressed. Education and technical training too often gave way to the drudgery of doing the chores necessary to make the schools self-sustaining. Child neglect was institutionalized, and the lack of supervision created situations where students were prey to sexual and physical abusers. Legal action by the schools’ former students led to the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada in 2008. The product of over six years of research, the Commission’s final report outlines the history and legacy of the schools, and charts a pathway towards reconciliation. Canada’s Residential Schools: The Inuit and Northern Experience demonstrates that residential schooling followed a unique trajectory in the North. As late as 1950 there were only six residential schools and one hostel north of the sixtieth parallel. Prior to the 1950s, the federal government left northern residential schools in the hands of the missionary societies that operated largely in the Mackenzie Valley and the Yukon. It was only in the 1950s that Inuit children began attending residential schools in large numbers. The tremendous distances that Inuit children had to travel to school meant that, in some cases, they were separated from their parents for years. The establishment of day schools and what were termed small hostels in over a dozen communities in the eastern Arctic led many Inuit parents to settle in those communities on a year-round basis so as not to be separated from their children, contributing to a dramatic transformation of the Inuit economy and way of life. Not all the northern institutions are remembered similarly. The staff at Grandin College in Fort Smith and the Churchill Vocational Centre in northern Manitoba were often cited for the positive roles that they played in developing and encouraging a new generation of Aboriginal leadership. The legacy of other schools, particularly Grollier Hall in Inuvik and Turquetil Hall in Igluligaarjuk (Chesterfield Inlet), is far darker. These schools were marked by prolonged regimes of sexual abuse and harsh discipline that scarred more than one generation of children for life. Since Aboriginal people make up a large proportion of the population in Canada’s northern territories, the impact of the schools has been felt intensely through the region. And because the history of these schools is so recent, the intergenerational impacts and the legacy of the schools are strongly felt in the North.

For decades, many Inuit have expressed the need for schooling to reflect Inuit culture, language, values, and worldview. Significant strides have been made to create a school system responsive to Inuit culture and community needs, to increase opportunities for Inuit teachers, and promote Inuit knowledge and language. Despite considerable changes since the establishment of federal day schools across the Eastern Arctic, the imposed school system retains qualities of the southern Canadian model with Qallunaat (non-Inuit) comprising the majority of teaching staff. This critical ethnography focuses on the shared experiences of schooling in Arctic Bay, Nunavut. Interviews with 24 Inuit, all of whom attended or still attend Inuujaq School, form the basis of this work. Prior teaching experience in the community, and elsewhere in Nunavut, contextualizes the research. My goal has been to come to better understandings of Inuit experiences of schooling, and the meanings Inuit attach to their experiences in the hopes that the insights offered may inform teaching practices and pedagogies and contribute to better support for Inuit students. Drawing on Indigenous thought, more specifically Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, a holistic, diverse, and flexible theory of knowledge, grounded in Inuit culture and worldview, I explore some of the tensions and contradictions between Qallunaat teaching approaches and Inuit cultural values and educational practices through analysis of the narratives of Inuit students. I offer a historical overview of Inuit encounters with Qallunaat on Inuit lands, as well as an examination of the history of Inuit education and schooling in order to understand its influence on current schooling issues. Significantly, the interrelated themes of land, language, and learning emerged from Inuit narratives as critical pieces, central to Inuit experiences of schooling. Qallunaat teachers who choose to work in Nunavut have a responsibility to respond to the needs and desires of Inuit students. This research asks how Qallunaat teachers might come to understand and engage with the knowledge embedded in Inuit experiences and perspectives of schooling to work in respectful ways and contribute positively to schooling in Inuit communities.

This unique collection features auto-ethnographical essays by nine Inuit women educators who were part of the inaugural cohort of the University of Prince Edward Island’s Nunavut Master of Education program, which offered Nunavut’s first graduate-level degree for Inuit educators. These essays provide important first-hand perspectives on Inuit education, reflecting upon the dramatic changes that have taken place in the Eastern Arctic over the past fifty years. The chapters offer insight into both the effects of colonialism and the efforts to build a new educational system grounded in Inuit culture, values, and traditions. Inuit voices have yet to be heard within education scholarship in Canada, making this volume a significant contribution to the literature. This anthology will also be of interest to students of Indigenous and Arctic studies, sociology, and anthropology.

We travel to India to see the Taj Mahal, Egypt to see Pyramids, Turkey to see Blue Mosque, Italy to see Colosseum, South America in quest of Inca civilization, and so on. But very few travel to Nunavut – A Land of Inuit. Md Abdus Salam – the author, had a chance to travel, live, and work in Arctic Bay – a small Nunavut community, for 12 years. Not many people in the world know about life in Nunavut. Many people in the southern part of Canada have no idea where and what Nunavut is, no question to speak about Arctic Bay, where Salam landed to teach in 2007. As he learned to survive the harsh winters and other challenges unique to the North, the Arctic also provided him amazing experiences, from polar bears to the aurora borealis, snowmobiles, and potable water problems. Used to living in a large community with many amenities, Salam faced some unique predicaments while living and teaching in the land of Inuit. In the North, he learned of Inuit culture, heritage, and hunting practices while learning to live in a land of extremes—including -60C cold, three months of complete darkness in the winter, and 24/7 daylight for three months in the summer. The memoir Highlights Md Abdus Salam’s experiences first as an immigrant teacher and then as a principal in the community of Arctic Bay. Ikpiarjuk: My Challenges Teaching in a Land of Inuit speaks to the experiences of a talented educator’s time spent living and teaching in a place that was utterly unknown to him.