Communities are healing from scars caused by racism and colonization within which many Inuit were raised. The report of the Nunavut Integrated Health Strategy ^{Footnote 3} outlines steps communities are taking to restore community wellness. These include integrated systems approaches and the development of effective working relationships that contribute to wellness and community capacity as well as to the success of education programs. Healing is underway, but not yet complete, and likely has a continuing impact on youth, their self-esteem and what they believe is possible.

A 2004 study on Aboriginal and Inuit people in Canada’s labour market ^{Footnote 4} includes First Nations peoples, Métis and Inuit. It is based on information from 1991 and 2001 sources and provides some combined data and a breakdown by specific group of other data. The study paints a clear picture of the situation the new territory and government inherited, and does not reflect any changes in policy or practice that came after division.

The report shows that Aboriginal and Inuit people collectively are increasing in number in the labour market at a rate six times that of the population as a whole. It shows that Inuit are younger than other Aboriginal groups and have a larger, younger working-age population, and a much larger group of young people entering the labour market in coming years.

The report shows that in the NWT and Nunavut – reported together – Aboriginal and Inuit peoples have an unemployment rate more than one-and-a-half times that of the general population. Between 1991 and 2001 the gap lessened.

A recent report on the status of Aboriginal and Inuit Canadians in the labour market confirms that the barriers facing youth are not theirs alone. This report identified that about 40% of First Nations people and Inuit had more than 26 weeks of work in the year 2000, compared to nearly 60% of non-Aboriginal Canadians. ^{Footnote 5} Aboriginal and Inuit Canadians generally have a lower proportion of their workers in high-skilled jobs, especially in the private sector. Inuit are the most under-represented, with only 23% of workers in high-skilled jobs, compared to 30% for all Aboriginal peoples and more than 60% for non-Aboriginal workers. ^{Footnote 6}

Inuit Language and Traditional Learning Style

Inuit form about 85% of Nunavut’s population and the government has the goal to make Inuktitut the working language for the territory. At the same time, most Nunavummiut recognize that people need English and/or French as well as Inuktitut. Many employers need employees who can speak and read English so they can communicate with other organizations, often in the south. The ideal employee is likely to be literate in both Inuktitut or Inuinnaqtun and English.

Focus group participants and key informants reported a quandary facing governments and other employers: Preserve the culture and create a society and economy that can trap its citizens or lose the distinct culture that sustains the Inuit and create a workforce that can compete anywhere in Canada or the world. Most seek both or at least a balance between the two extremes, but many interviewees describe the tension as irresolvable.

Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun are oral traditions, with various dialects that do not have identical spelling, pronunciation or use. The syllabics and roman orthography writing systems were relatively late arrivals in Nunavut and writing Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun is fairly recent. All this contributes to the fact that although Inuit and their languages form the great majority within Nunavut, they are still overwhelmed in many ways by a dominant English language and culture.

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