NTI, GN go to work on Inuit cultural school (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

February 11, 2005

NTI, GN go to work on Inuit cultural school
Greenlandic folk school a model of heritage and language preservation

JANE GEORGE
http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/50211_02.html

Natasha St. John of Arviat is just one of several Nunavummiut who have
attended the folk high school in Sisimiut on exchange. (FILE PHOTO)

Nunavut is looking to Greenland for inspiration as it moves closer to
setting up an Inuit cultural school, which would be similar to the Knud
Rasmussen Folk High School in Sisimiut.

Nunavut’s department of education recently requested proposals for a
feasibility study on an Inuit cultural school to be completed by the
end of March.

Then, the Inuit cultural school working group, with members from the
Government of Nunavut and Inuit organizations, will consider options
for several possible structures and concepts as well as the “next
steps” they’ll have to take to create an Inuit cultural school for
Nunavut.

“Our bottom line is that we need it to fit the culture and Inuit
Qaujimajatuqangit,” said Paul Kaludjak, the president of Nunavut
Tunngavik Inc.

The benefits of forging a long-term relationship with the Knud Rasmussen
Folk High School will also be explored.

And if it’s a model for a future Inuit cultural school, Nunavut’s school
will likely offer a similar mix of traditional, academic and
specialized courses — all in Inuktitut.

The Knud Rasmussen Folk High School, which opened in 1962, is
Greenland’s oldest folk high school. From the very start, Greenlandic
language and culture was emphasized at the Knud Rasmussen High School.

To be admitted to the school, students don’t have to have a formal
education, but, according to information on Sisimiut’s web site, their
ability to speak Greenlandic or kalaallisut is “taken for granted.”

The Knud Rasmussen High School’s winter term begins in January and ends
in May for its 52 students, who study Greenlandic, history, social
sciences, literature, mathematics, Danish and English. They can also
take courses in tanning, handicraft, beadwork, stone polishing,
science, geography, music, singing, sports, first aid and computer
science.

In the spring, students head out on the land. During the summer and
fall, short-term courses on current social or cultural issues are
offered.

The folk high school system came to Greenland from Scandinavia, where
the movement started in the 1850s in Denmark, and then spread to
Norway, Sweden and Finland.

The majority of the schools are residential, and according to the Nordic
Council, social life at the schools is generally considered to be
important part of the program, promoting “a sense of personal awareness
and social responsibility.”

Folk high schools don’t have a standardized curriculum, and each folk
high school determines its own activities “in view of the ideological
and educational profile of the school.”

The GN and NTI have been looking at the folk high school model for more
than five years. In the spring of 2000, the department of education
started a scholarship program so a Nunavut resident can study in
Sisimiut at the folk high school.

Four years ago, representatives from the GN, NTI and the government of
Greenland met at the school and agreed there was much that Nunavut
could learn from the school’s emphasis on the preservation and
strengthening of Greenlandic language and culture. They also decided to
look closely at the idea of a similar school in Nunavut.

“We’ve been long committed to have our government create something like
this down the road and this was an ongoing demand from our
beneficiaries,” Kaludjak said.

Kaludjak said Inuit development corporations, working with the GN, could
possibly invest in the kind of multi-purpose school facility that the
folk high school occupies in Sisimiut, a community of about 5,000.