news from nwt

The latest NWT Literacy Council Newsletter - Literacy Matters - tells us about the Ulukhaktok Literacies Research Project. This is a two-phase project "to determine what constitutes indigenous literacies in Ulukhaktok and what elements of these literacies can still be seen" and then to "repatriate Inuinnait traditional knowledge (language, literacies, narratives, values and beliefs, etc.) through viewing and visiting historical photographs and Inuinnait cultural materials currently held in the British Museum in London" in partnership with the British Museum, the Kitimeot Heritage Society, the University of Lethbridge and the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre and the community of Ulukhaktok.

"The research questions that guide the study are: How do we, Inuinnait, remember our ways? What knowledge, stories and language will long lost Inuinnait pictures and things (clothes and tools) trigger?"

There is a CBC video about the RCMP in Ulukhatok here. The story is from a southerner perspective but you get some amazing winter views of this beautiful village and some of the people who live there. You can also see high school students using uluit.

In March 2008, there will be an exhibit from phase 1 at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre that will focus on the literacies that the Kangiryuarmiut used on their long distance walks. "It will include information such as:

• How they told the time (without today’s clocks)
• How they knew where to go (without today’s maps)
• The songs they sang and the games they played when they gathered together"