{"id":74192,"date":"2021-03-01T15:02:58","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T20:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=74192"},"modified":"2025-10-18T16:50:28","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T20:50:28","slug":"inuit-lessons-kinamagawin-symposium","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/inuit-lessons-kinamagawin-symposium\/","title":{"rendered":"Inuit Lessons on Surviving Difficult Times at Carleton Kinamagawin Symposium"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Inuit Lessons on Surviving Difficult Times at Carleton Kinamagawin Symposium\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

If it\u2019s true what Ernest Hemingway said, that the world breaks us and makes us strong in the broken places, then Inuit in Canada are primed to lead us into an uncertain future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is if those in power, who have controlled or silenced Inuit voices for decades, stop talking and listen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was a recurring theme at this year\u2019s Kinam\u00e0g\u00e0win Symposium, a sold-out, virtual summit on  Feb. 25, 2021 of Inuit scholars, advocates and performers hosted by Carleton University\u2019s Centre for Indigenous Initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Martha
Martha Flaherty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

True to its title\u2014The Inuit Relocations: Intergenerational Impacts and Inuit Resilience<\/em>\u2014the event highlighted the High Arctic government relocation of Inuit families in the 1950s with painful recollections from keynote speaker and survivor Martha Flaherty<\/a>. It\u2019s a chapter of history that is perhaps not well known by many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEarlier in my years, I thought that the worst enemy of truth was lies,\u201d said Carleton President Benoit-Antoine Bacon.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve come to understand that silence is perhaps an even greater enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

After Flaherty described the impacts of the Crown\u2019s egregious human experiment on Inuit, the focus of the event shifted toward identifying and overcoming barriers that today prevent Inuit from realizing self-determination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Megan Dicker Nochasak, a 22-year-old Inuk from Nain, Labrador, captured the essence of that pivot with a favourite quote during a student panel discussion. \u201cTeach Indigenous experience and success as much as, or more than, you teach Indigenous suffering and trauma,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Inuit<\/figure>\n\n\n

Inuit Identity, Culture and Education<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Despite the technological challenges of hosting an online event during a pandemic\u2014aggravated by notoriously poor northern phone and Internet service\u2014the symposium was relatively seamless and included an array of pre-recorded Inuit cultural performances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Benny
Benny Michaud<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The day began with Elder Aigah Attagutsiak lighting the qulliq, a traditional bowl-shaped oil lamp, and concluded with youth discussing Inuit identity, culture and education. This trajectory, from past to future, was not lost on Benny Michaud, director of the Centre for Indigenous Initiatives, and the symposium\u2019s host.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we want to move forward, we have to turn around and look back at where we come from, who we are and where we\u2019ve been, and I think that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing when we bring people together, like we have today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Katherine
Katherine Minich<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The morning\u2019s agenda included a panel of three Inuit women who are overcoming systemic obstacles to incorporate Inuit traditions and world views into mainstream life, work and government policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pangnirtung-born Katherine Minich, a lecturer and Bruce Fellow Scholar from Carleton\u2019s School of Public Policy and Administration, for example, talked about her research efforts to reframe public policy-making in northern communities by centring the discussion around Inuit social values and by striving to reduce community harm and bolster community health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dean
Dean Peesee Pitsiulak<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Peesee Pitsiulak, dean of Education, Inuit and University Studies at Nunavut Arctic College in Iqaluit, talked about the ongoing struggle to incorporate Inuit language and culture in northern school curricula and course materials\u2014a nagging vestige of colonialism and Inuit disempowerment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The afternoon\u2019s agenda offered hundreds of virtual attendees a hopeful future, starting with a rousing call to action from Inuit rights advocate and climate change educator, Sheila Watt-Cloutier, who spoke on the interconnectedness of the environment, the economy, global foreign policy, sustainability and human rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sheila
Sheila Watt-Cloutier<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But perhaps the most uplifting moments came toward the end of the day, during the youth panel hosted by moderator Aliqa Illauq, a student in Carleton\u2019s Law and Human Rights program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All four panellists, currently enrolled in virtual studies in Ottawa and Montreal, offered insights into the role traditional culture plays in their lives and what it means to be an Inuk in Canada today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Throat-singing
Throat-singing duo Tarniriik\u2014Cailyn Degrandpr\u00e9 and Samantha Kigutak-Metcalfe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s strange, connecting to my culture has definitely helped slow down the stress of this modern world,\u201d said Siku Rojas, 18 and living in Iqaluit.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s really helped in getting comfortable with what Nunavut is becoming. We\u2019re such a young territory. We need to learn how to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Lexie Padluq, originally from Kimmirut, Nunavut, said her culture makes her \u201ca better version of herself.\u201d Knowing how her ancestors used resiliency and ingenuity to thrive outdoors in such a harsh climate makes her proud of her roots and passionate about helping the next generation succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the future, I want to see more unapologetic Inuit, standing up for their rights and not accepting anything less than anyone else,\u201d Padluq said, \u201cdoing what they want, mixing modern and Inuit culture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s Kinam\u00e0g\u00e0win Symposium was conceived of and organized by a student committee consisting of <\/em>Carissa Metcalfe-Coe, Donovan Gordon-Tootoo, Aliqa Illauq, Alejandra Metallic-Janvier and Ann Seymour from Carleton..<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Inuit
Kinamagawin Symposium Youth Panel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

—
\nMore Stories<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If it\u2019s true what Ernest Hemingway said, that the world breaks us and makes us strong in the broken places, then Inuit in Canada are primed to lead us into an uncertain future. That is if those in power, who have controlled or silenced Inuit voices for decades, stop talking and listen. That was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":74213,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[28],"cu_story_tag":[1927],"class_list":["post-74192","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-community-partnerships","cu_story_tag-indigenous"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/74192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/74192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97611,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/74192\/revisions\/97611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=74192"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=74192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}