{"id":77211,"date":"2021-06-15T16:23:20","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T20:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=77211"},"modified":"2025-10-17T10:37:37","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T14:37:37","slug":"aliqa-illauq-changing-campus","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/aliqa-illauq-changing-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"National Indigenous History Month: Aliqa Illauq on a Changing Campus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n National Indigenous History Month: Aliqa Illauq on a Changing Campus\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

Being Indigenous on a university campus can feel foreign. A lot of instructors and fellow students don\u2019t understand you or the place you come from, or the things you\u2019ve faced in life: racism, discrimination, powerlessness, suicide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re an Inuk, like Aliqa Illauq, then you\u2019re a minority within a minority meaning it\u2019s even more seldom you hear your mother tongue, Inuktitut, or see your culture represented on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then something happens to make you feel like you belong and gives you hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Aliqa
Aliqa Illauq<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Illauq, a fourth-year Carleton student with a double major in Law and Human Rights, and a minor in Indigenous and Canadian Studies, was taking a course from Prof. Patrizia Gentile last year when sovereignty came up, with specific reference to Inuit self-determination. Illauq went to see Gentile afterward, to share Inuit knowledge that had been passed down to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe was completely open to everything I was saying,\u201d Illauq said.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI will never forget it, sitting there in her office. She didn\u2019t even ask for proof, and she\u2019s a professor. She just listened. After that, she changed her class based on our conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

As the course unfolded, three female non-Indigenous classmates began to delve into the history of Gordon Robertson, after whom Carleton\u2019s Robertson Hall is named. Robertson, a former Carleton chancellor, served as clerk of the federal Privy Council and commissioner of the Northwest Territories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Robertson
Robertson Hall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In that N.W.T. role, Robertson had overseen the relocation of Inuit families from northern Quebec and Baffin Island to the High Arctic in the 1950s, an event that led to intense hardship, starvation and death, the stress and trauma of which continue to reverberate through families and communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her three classmates started a petition to change the hall\u2019s name and Illauq joined the campaign. They made space for her and listened in an open and honest way, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t know much about Canada\u2019s history when it comes to Indigenous people but they\u2019re the ones who started it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cWhy does this have to be an Indigenous issue? These people were trying to do the right thing based on what they deemed to be true.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Illauq eventually exchanged letters, and later spoke, with the Robertson children about a name change. They didn\u2019t take offence and, in fact, said their father truly believed in Inuit self-determination and would have supported their right to change the name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Aliqa<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBased on the letters [Robertson] sent, he knew that Inuit were in danger in the hands of the Canadian state. He felt Inuit needed self-determination,\u201d Illauq said, adding that Robertson\u2019s children, \u201care amazing people. They have heart. They have a lot of love. They respect people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This spring, under the New Names for New Times initiative<\/a>, Carleton President Benoit-Antoine Bacon announced three buildings\u2014Robertson Hall, the University Centre and Residence Commons\u2014will be renamed to honour Inuit, Algonquin and Black communities, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt all institutions, there is a recognition of the urgent need to better reflect our diversity in our academic mission and campus operations,\u201d Bacon said in a February news release<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While some instructors and colleagues could still benefit from listening to, and learning from, Indigenous people on campus, Illauq is seeing change at Carleton, in students and instructors. It helps, she said, to have an ally at the top in Bacon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Aliqa<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe walks the talk. I\u2019ve had several conversations with him and they\u2019ve been amazing. I always feel heard and it\u2019s not out of pity. It\u2019s because he cares,\u201d she said. \u201cHe has integrity. He\u2019ll be the first to admit if he doesn\u2019t know something. He\u2019s been great throughout my experience at Carleton.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Illauq, who currently works at Archipel Consulting, says she\u2019s not sure what she\u2019ll do when she graduates. A mother of three young children, she\u2019s reluctant to move back to her hometown of Kangiqtugaapik (Clyde River), Nunavut, right now because of persistent disparities in health care and education. But she\u2019ll take her kids there one day, to be sure.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI miss the togetherness, the community. Inuktitut is very much entrenched in everything, every relation you\u2019re in. I miss that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cEnglish, and this society, is so disconnected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—
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Being Indigenous on a university campus can feel foreign. A lot of instructors and fellow students don\u2019t understand you or the place you come from, or the things you\u2019ve faced in life: racism, discrimination, powerlessness, suicide. If you\u2019re an Inuk, like Aliqa Illauq, then you\u2019re a minority within a minority meaning it\u2019s even more seldom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":77215,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[28],"cu_story_tag":[1921,1927],"class_list":["post-77211","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-community-partnerships","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-public-and-global-affairs","cu_story_tag-indigenous"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/77211","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\/77211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97605,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/77211\/revisions\/97605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=77211"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=77211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}