Family literacy work in Canada's North is fueled by collaborations between the NWT and Nunavut Literacy Councils, family resource programs, as well as health and social services organizations, community colleges, libraries and cultural groups. At the centre of this literacy work is a concern for community development and for the preservation of Aboriginal cultures and languages.

This paper describes the work of the Nunavut Literacy Council, with a focus on Cambridge Bay, a village of 1 500 people located on the tip of Victoria Island, sixty kilometers north of the Arctic Circle in the Kitikmeot region of Nunavut. Kim Crockatt, formerly the Community Literacy Development Facilitator for Nunavut, is now the Executive Director of the Nunavut Literacy Council. She is a non-aboriginal and a longtime resident of the north with strong ties to her community. Suzanne Smythe is a literacy instructor based in Vancouver, British Columbia. She and Kim met in November 1999 when Suzanne visited Cambridge Bay to research family literacy partnerships as part of a project on literacy in family resource programs.

CONTEXT

Nunavut is a newly formed Canadian territory that stretches from Kugluktuk in the west to Iqaluit in the east, and from the 60 parallel to the North Pole. Formerly part of the Northwest Territories (NWT), Nunavut was created in April 1999 after a long process of negotiation for the rights of Inuit people to govern themselves. The population of Nunavut is 25,153 of which 83 percent is Inuit and 17 per cent non-aboriginal. The economy is based on government, tourism and traditional activities such as hunting, trapping and guiding. Unemployment rates among Inuit people are nearly 40%; and 12 % for non-Inuit.

The majority of Inuit live in poverty. The cost of living is very high in the North and therefore even people who do have jobs continue to live well below the poverty line. Traditionally, the Inuit people lived a nomadic life supported by hunting, fishing, trapping and extended family networks. By the late 1960's, most Inuit families had settled in communities to be near their children, who were taken to residential schools by government officials, or to trade and obtain goods in the market economy upon which they had become dependent (Waluchuk: 1999). Today, most people live in social housing provided by the Nunavut Government There is a critical lack of such housing and it is not uncommon for multiple families to live together in very small homes. These crowded conditions contribute to a variety of social problems.

Literacy issues in Nunavut communities reflect the interface between Inuit traditional ways of life, and the demands of modern culture and education. Literacy levels in Nunavut are some of the lowest in Canada. Residents struggle to maintain their own language while trying to master the English that is necessary to get an advanced education and wage-paying jobs. The related themes of schooling and language speak to this.