Canada History Week 2021

LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION Video Scriptwriter & Co-Director: Dr. Norma Dunning is an Edmonton-based Inuk writer. Her published works are Annie Muktuk and Other Stories , Eskimo Pie: A Poetics of Inuit Identity , and Tainna: The Unseen Ones . Forthcoming is a work of non-fiction releasing in 2022 and a poetry collection titled Akia: The Other Side, releasing in 2023. Video Illustrator: Erin Hill is an artist based in Oakville, Ontario. They are a recent graduate from the illustration program at Sheridan college. They are inspired by the notion of making art that’s fun, and they have a passion for storytelling. They enjoy making motion graphics, animations, and illustrations. INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES As a means of assimilating Indigenous peoples, policies like the Indian Act and Indian Residential Schools forbade the speaking of Indigenous languages (see Genocide and Indigenous Peoples in Canada) . These restrictions have led to the ongoing endangerment of Indigenous languages in Canada. In 2016, Statistics Canada reported that for about 40 Indigenous languages in Canada, there are 500 speakers or less. Read more about Indigenous Language Revitalization in Canada. 6 THE INUIT LITERATURES PROJECT , developed by the International Laboratory for Research on Images of the North, Winter and the Arctic, at the Université du Québec à Montréal, aims to promote knowledge of the Inuit who have written on their culture, their territory, and their vision of the world, to discover their works, and to grasp their perception of history. The trilingual inuit.uqam.ca/en website contains biographies of writers, a presentation of their works, and a cultural chronology taken from these works. MITIARJUK NAPPAALUK was an Inuit author, teacher, and historian. Nappaaluk was best known for writing the first novel in Inuktitut, Sanaaq . She wrote twenty-two books on Inuit tradition, hunting and fishing practices, the Inuktitut language, and northern landscapes. This canon of writing is considered to be an Inuit-specific set of encyclopedias and is still in schools across Nunavik. Her greatest legacy, her highest achievement, lies in her love for all Inuit.