INTRODUCTION

In May, 2002 I served as a group animator for a family literacy workshop, sponsored by the Nunavut Literacy Council, in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut.¹ During the workshop, staff gave a presentation on the literacy workshops they are delivering in Inuit communities. One of the issues that arose in discussion after the presentation was how to relate literacy to the traditional Inuit Culture—a culture in which there was an absence of literacy—in terms of the usual understanding of literacy meaning the ability to read and write.

The issue is important. Literacy educators recognize that it is not enough to simply try and teach the ability to read and write. All learning occurs within a"‘learning context"—a framework within which the skills have meaning. One must adopt an existing learning framework or create one. The learning context must be culturally relevant. If it is not, then by default the learning context will be the context of the dominant Qallunaat Culture.² Since this culture does not need or use the Inuktitut language, literacy development could result in the loss of the Inuit language and the consequent deterioration of the Inuit Culture.

The importance of a learning context emerged during the workshop as participants defined the meaning of literacy.

"Literacy is a skill that enables people to interpret and effectively respond to the world around them. Based upon language development from birth, it includes the ability to learn, communicate, read and write, pass on knowledge and participate actively in society."

As I listened to the discussion, two things occurred to me.

First, though Inuit in the past may not have had the ability to read and write, they did have a sophisticated language, Inuktitut, along with the ability to learn, to communicate, to pass on knowledge and to participate actively in society. They also had an ingenious ability to interpret and effectively respond to the world around them. So much so, that they are admired throughout the world for their ability to have survived and flourish for thousands of years in what is undoubtedly the harshest environment on the earth.

Second, it occurred to me that Inuit Traditional Knowledge ("Inuit Qaujimajatuqanginnuit" or "IQ" for short) was precisely the context that could facilitate the development of the modern skills of reading and writing—if literacy instructors could find a way of translating this knowledge into the modern era and have it do for today's Inuit what it did for their ancestors.