V.

Culture and Education

A.

Culture

The Inuit and Canadian cultures coexist in Nunavut. Canadian culture has its roots in Western civilization, while the Inuit culture stems from an ancient, nomadic hunting society in which survival depended on collective rather than individual actions. In the ancient past, nature took on a spiritual form, and even today the land and its wildlife hold a special place in Inuit culture and day-to-day life. The very survival of the Inuit depended on collective actions and behavior such as the share ethic. This ethic required the successful hunter to share his kill with other members of his extended family group.

This sense of collectivity and deep appreciation of the arctic environment remains in contemporary Inuit society, giving the Inuit a distinctive cultural perspective. Sharing, for example, remains a key element in modern Inuit culture, although it is restricted to traditional activities, especially the sharing of game and fish among members of an extended family. It is less likely to occur with modern activities or with income gained from employment or business ventures.

Contact with Europeans induced a number of changes in the Inuit culture, including conversion to Christianity and involvement in the commercial whaling and fur economy. However, the Inuit culture underwent dramatic cultural adjustment, some would even say cultural shock, during the 1950s after the Inuit were moved into permanent settlements. The government encouraged the Inuit to settle around fur-trading posts, where food supplies could be readily available in case of need.

This relocation policy marked the beginning of fundamental changes for the Inuit. They became settlement dwellers, and their children, by attending school and being exposed to the outside world through the mass media, became part of the modern industrial world. Unfortunately, these former fur-trading posts have virtually no economic base and few job opportunities. The consequence has been high rates of unemployment and, for some people, a general disillusionment with their lot in life. The social cost of such rapid cultural change has included extremely high rates of alcoholism, family violence, and suicide.

Despite these negative effects, the Inuit have produced leaders, created the Territory of Nunavut, and established Inuit businesses. Settling their land claims and devising a political structure for the Nunavut government have given the Inuit a sense of accomplishment, purpose, and pride.

B.

Arts

Contemporary Inuit art and literature are often based on traditional art forms, such as carvings, drum dancing, and throat singing. Printmaking and soapstone carving are modern forms of Inuit art. While employed as an administrator in the Arctic, artist, author, and filmmaker James Houston was instrumental in stimulating Eskimo printmaking at Cape Dorset in the 1960s. He also wrote children’s books and adult novels about the Inuit and the Arctic. Susan Aglukark, a well-known Inuit singer and songwriter, has written and sung songs in both English and Inuktitut. In 1999 author Mitiarjuk Attasie Nappaaluk became the first Inuit to win an Aboriginal Achievement Award. Southern Canadian artists and writers have also produced work about the Canadian Arctic.

C.

Museums

The main museum in Nunavut, the Nunatta Sunaqutangit Museum in Iqaluit, features Inuit prints and sculptures. Other museums are located in Arctic Bay and Pangnirtung. The Kekerten Historic Park south of Pangnirtung features a reconstructed 19th-century whaling station. Other towns have local museums, visitor centers with historic and artistic displays, and community libraries.

D.

Education

The Nunavut government is responsible for delivering primary, secondary, and postsecondary education. In the 1997-1998 academic year, 665 teachers provided instruction to about 8,000 students in 42 schools. Approximately half of the communities in Nunavut have a high school, including Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet, and Cambridge Bay. Relatively few students graduate from high school—only 67 graduated in 1997—partly because most native settlements are too small to have a high school.

Nunavut Arctic College, which is based in Iqaluit but which provides classes in many communities, provides postsecondary education. The low level of education in Nunavut is negatively affecting the recruitment of Inuit to work in the new government. Because of this problem, the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act committed the Canadian government to contributing C$13 million toward an Implementation Training Trust. The aim of the trust was to train the Inuit as civil servants for the government of Nunavut and for the Inuit organizations administering Inuit rights and benefits under the agreement. This program has had limited success, and many of the senior and middle management administrative positions and almost all of the professional positions are held by non-Inuit workers, indicating that creating a well-educated population in Nunavut through schooling is still a long way off.