EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
When they hear us speaking in Inuktitut, we should speak proper Inuktitut so that we can be good role models for our children.
If there are no general comments, we can go onto the questions.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): When we first became a government, we worked very hard to make sure that the department of CLEY was in its right place.
I am sure that they have been working on some of the issues that we have brought forth in the past.
I am sure that there will be a Director for Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Katimajiit.
I am sure that we will see those Katimajiit in our term here.
As Inuit will always be working very hard to make sure that it is there.
Even though we are not too vocal, we want to see it implemented in the future.
Questions. Mr. Anawak.
Mr. Anawak (interpretation): I apologize.
I was not in the House for a little while.
I am sure that they will be establishing the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Katimajiit.
How effective will they be to the government in regards to Inuit knowledge, if there is an Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit holder in the Katimajiit, what kind of impact will they have on the Government as a whole, or will they just be under the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth, or can the Government as a whole give direction to the Katimajiit?
Chairman (interpretation): Minister Kilabuk.
Yes, the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Katimajiit Council will be giving support to all the Government departments.
Well they are trying to obtain Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit so that the services could be more Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit relevant.
The Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Katimajiit is set up as such right now so they could meet four times a year in their initial stage.
Also it is evident that they will be quite busy.
I am sorry Mr. Chairman; I added English in that.
The Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Katimajiit will provide support on the daily operation of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit so that they could incorporate Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit to all the government departments, and they will be servicing the government departments.
Mr. Anawak (interpretation): To hear that is very good.
However, will they know that they have to go through the Katimajiit? When we talk about Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, the government departments?
I’ll speak in English (interpretation ends) I think sometimes the bureaucracy likes to think that IQ is a nice sounding word, but really what word is it.
I think sometimes that’s how the bureaucracy thinks IQ. I guess my comments and advice are that there has to be an understanding right from the start that the recommendations or whatever the committee is going to be doing has to be listened to by the bureaucracy seriously, not as something that is nice to see but not necessarily to hear.
Chairman (interpretation): Mr. Kilabuk.
The Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Katimajiit in order for them to have appropriate power and recognition the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Katimajiit was established by the Cabinet.
My colleague has asked whether the government is going to be sensitive to this Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Katimajiit. The departments of the government have stated to me there is a need for the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Katimajiit.
We’ll be making recommendations and all the departments are in support of those so that Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Katimajiit was struck through the Cabinet.
Chairman (interpretation): Anyone else?
Mr. Anawak (interpretation): Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Yes I know that.
I know that they will be sensitive to the Katimajiit, I know that the government is growing but the bureaucracy of the government should have the respect and belief of the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Katimajiit.
I know you have respect for the person to the left of you but other department’s bureaucracy will have to respect the Inuit knowledge.
It’s evident that the public thinks that we are slow in getting this going but I’m sure there’ll be more support setting up and we’ll hear some will not respect Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.
But you as the Minister for Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth should influence the Cabinet members, that’s what the Inuit people want and not just here in Iqaluit, Iqaluit had many non-Inuit people living in the community.
It’s quite hard to tell what kind of support there is in Iqaluit, but outside of Iqaluit there is wide support of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.
This is not a question this is a comment, that you are going to have to work very hard to make sure that the Cabinet respect and listen to whatever has to be done in Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.
I know that they are in support and if we can give you any form of support we would be willing to give you more support.
As we are all elected to Nunavut government I know that we are a public government for Nunavut but it’s not just the Inuit people that have to work hard.
Non-native people know that it’s important and they have been elected by the Inuit people to the legislature.
At times, some people might think, oh, I am a Qallunaaq, I do not need to touch this, they should be working on behalf and representing their Constituencies and I urge all of the Members to work harder on this.
As a Minister, you should make sure that all Members respect and believe this, not just by some of the Members; I just wanted to emphasis that again, that I am in support, I am available or we are available to give you all forms of support when required.
Chairman (interpretation): I do not hear a question.
I have five questions and they are all short questions.
The first question that I have, Mr. Chairman is does Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Task Force have terms of reference?
They already have the terms of reference for that Katimajiit.
The Tuttarviit Committee, what is their term as a Committee? Would they have indefinite terms?
My other question is, is the committee just an advisory body or do they have other powers?
The Tuttarviit Committee Katimajiit that deals with Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit in all of the Departments come from the different Departments and because they work for the Government of Nunavut and they will have an indefinite term.
Perhaps, maybe in a few years, if they have to be replaced by the Members, they will probably be replaced, but at this time that they do not have an indefinite term of office.
Ms. Williams: What kind of authority does Tuttarvik have?
Is there staff in the Department?
Are they assistant deputy ministers or Directors or Clerks? Who are these people?
What kind of authority do they have to tell the Government, this is what term you are going to be using now since they are doing terminology workshops?
Who approves that top terminology that this group comes up with?
The Tuttarviit Committee have not been given power or authority, but they could go to the Departments, individual Departments to urge them to do things that they, according to their Mandates of the Tuttarviit, recommend to the Departments what kinds of things that the Departments should do.
They do not really have certain powers, even though they are staff from each Department.
What they are trying to do is to encourage or to recommend to the Government Departments what kinds of things that they have to in regards to Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.
It states that they are going to be dealing with terminology, Government terminology.
Even though I am an Inuk, if they are going to be dealing with terminology, when will they bring out the terminology? When do we have to use the terminology?
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): The new terminology that comes up will be compiled together such as the complied living dictionary that will be doing the same kind of a thing as that.
What we are going to be doing is getting the interpreters together and the staff and then they will be bringing about the terminology to be used, or word development from English to Inuktitut because there are a lot of words in English that have no translated versions in Inuktitut.
Different people tend to use different terminology so they are going to be doing this to try to get people to use the same terminology or the departments want to use the same terminology in Inuktitut.
The Katimajiit, Tuttakviit will be helping with the workshops such as interpreters compiling terminology.
I asked a while ago that they will be dealing with terminology and they will do similar work as the living dictionary.
I just want to use that as an example; how would I say living dictionary in Inuktitut.
What I am trying to find out Mr. Chairman is where will we be getting the terminology from and when will be using that terminology that they produce?
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): There are a lot of words in English that we have to interpret.
I talked about the living dictionary; we have an Inuktitut name called Asuilak, and that’s also available through the internet, you can open up the page and you can look it up in the dictionary that I was talking about.
Last one Mr. Chairman.
The Ministers just said that the Tuttakvik Committee is already funded; are they coming from each department of the government?
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): Just to make it clear to the Members that Tuttakviit and Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Task Force are two separate entities and there are also some staff in the department that will be involved with Tuttakvik.
What we want to inform the Members about is names picked out to be Members of the Tuttakvik.
Chairman (interpretation): Mr. Puqiqnak.
Mr. Puqiqnak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the goals of the Nunavut Government, there is a picture of those two little girls, which has to do with the Bathurst Mandate.
I think it had something to do with, like we already set our goals as the Nunavut Government and the people of Nunavut have their goals that they want to do.
As the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth, you represent the people, and as a Minister and as a Deputy Minister, you serve the 27,000 – 28,000 people of Nunavut.
As one Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth, you represent all of the people, all of the communities of Nunavut and you represent the voters.
Like we said before, whether they are Inuk, whatever colour they are, your Department represent all of the people of Nunavut.
There were a lot of good questions from the other Members of this House.
The Committee that is going to be formed, the Tuqtarvik Committee or Katimajiit, we would like to hear through CBC Radio and other media about the Katimajiit that are going to be dealing with Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.
I realize that they know that they have the, they will have the experience and they will feel, they have to have a feel for their culture and their values.
As the Minister of your Department, we congratulate you and if we are going to appreciate that Katimajiit, the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Task Force and the Tuqtarvik will probably be informing the public about what kinds of or will your Department be informing us about what their task will be or do the public know already or does the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth inform the public out there?
What kind of Mandate and what kinds terms of reference does this Committee have?
Well, we would like to encourage you to inform the public on that because the public out there, our electors are out there wanting to get information as to what the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth is going to do.
Chairman: Mr. Kilabuk.
The Katimajiit that will be formed will be reporting on an annual basis with what they have produced and that will be information for the Members and the public.
And just to let the Members know that in Katimajiit, there are eleven of them from Kitikmeot, Kivalliq and Qikiqtaaluk and we would like for them to be accessible to the communities.
I would also like to tell them that they have to inform the people as to what their mandates are because I believe that information is very important and they will be providing an annual report on their achievements and accomplishments.
In the end they will be informing the public as to what they are going to be doing in the coming years.
Mr. Puqiqnak (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman and thank you Mr. Minister for your response.
When you visited the communities, you went Taloyoak and Gjoa Haven, as an example the local education authority are hiring more Inuit into their system.
They have hired my sister who doesn’t speak English, she is very good with the Inuktitut writing system and that’s basically what my two communities are trying to do at this point.
Usually you have to have very good qualifications and credentials to become an instructor in the school system but today we are seeing more unilingual Inuit who are hired to teach our children in our Inuktitut language so that our children will learn about their history and language.
In the Department of Culture, Language, Elders and Youth are you starting to incorporate Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit into the system throughout Nunavut?
Our department does not have a human resources division in there but we used to have extra monies that would be used for cultural inclusion in the schools.
We don’t have those monies anymore as the funding has lapsed; regardless of that our department tries to get any kind of support that they can into the schools but we don’t have an employee that is solely working in that direction.
Chairman (interpretation): Mr. Havioyak.
As I stated earlier on, in the schools the writing system is a bit different than those of the elders.
As you mentioned the terminology workshop, in terms of that workshop, which ones are you utilizing more?
The new terminology, as new terminology comes out which writing system do you use?
Are you using the one that the school systems use or the writing system of the elders?
In regards to compiling of the terminology, and whether we are using the old or the new writing system, we use the new one.
In the Kitikmeot there are more people who are using the new writing system and they are being taught in the schools, when they are compiling the terminologies.
Mr. Havioyak (interpretation): If the new terminology is utilized today, I know in the future it will be utilized even more, the one writing system.
At times it becomes difficult for the elders to use the new writing system because they are not aware of the finals.
As you mentioned, how do you appoint Members that will be sitting on the committees and the taskforce?
There are four recognized languages; Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun, English, and French.
Once you are looking for appointments to the boards, as you mentioned, if you had people from the Kitikmeot, the Kivalliq, and the Baffin on that Board.
The writing system in Cambridge Bay and Kugluktuk are different; it is Roman Orthography.
What if we do not have seats available for those people from that region on that Board?
Will this be how it will come about in the future in terms of appointments?
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): I do not want to start guessing at this point, but when we are having our terminology workshops we use the dialects of the people who are participating.
We also hold meetings in the Kitikmeot area and they compile Kitikmeot terminology and the people who participate in such meetings are elders, interpreters, and the stakeholders.
They are the ones who compile the terminology in the Inuinnaqtun language.
When we are talking about appointments, we all get recommendations from the particular regions who should sit on this taskforce.
Mr. Havioyak (interpretation): I would just like to mention to you that there should be seats available on those board, even if there is one, because our writing system is different, I emphasize this.
For instance in Gjoa Haven, Taloyoak, and Kugaaruk, their writing system is different within the Kitikmeot.
There are two in the Kitikmeot, which is why I emphasized it because our writing system is different.
That is what I was trying to mention.
Last, but not least, of my questions. You mentioned there were six communities here, which will have responsibilities within Nunavut; which ones are they?
We are originally starting with three communities and we have identified three further communities.
The original ones were Cape Dorset, Whale Cove, and Gjoa Haven, and then we have Clyde River, Chesterfield Inlet, and Pelly Bay.
We cannot start with all of them, but it is in the long-term plan and we will be identifying further communities in the future.
Chairman (interpretation): Mr. Patterk.
Mr. Netser (interpretation): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The first is in regards to the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Katimajiit.
When are they going to start and if we do not agree on the Bills, will they be given the authority to make rulings or decisions should we come to this type of a situation?
If you understood me?
To your question as to when they are going to start, I am very pleased to say that they will have their first meeting tomorrow.
The Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Katimajiit could be directed or be involved in coming to a decision and decide on which term would be used, but this Board could also work with the Standing Committees and the Government Departments.
They have a lot more work coming their way and with the increase in their work, then this will increase the number of meetings that they will have.
Chairman (interpretation): Mr. Nutarak.
The Minister stated that this Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Katimajiit will be producing annual reports.
Are we talking about the reports or recommendations that will come with this Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Katimajiit?
Chairman: Kilabuk.
They will be making their first report on their activities in January.
They will be producing reports on their activities throughout the year.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): Will they be making recommendations? Are they going to be making recommendations also to this Government?
Hon. Peter Kilabuk (interpretation): They will produce a report on their activities and recommendations to the government.
They will all be included in their annual report.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): In regards to their recommendations, we’re in 2003 and in January it will be 2004, the Minister stated that they will be making the first report in January 2004 and if they make recommendations, would that give us a year to implement the recommendations they have drafted?
Would that mean that we would be viewing the recommendations in the 2004 and finally implement them in 2005?
I think that process would be too long if that is going to be the case.
I would like further clarification on that.
As I said earlier they will be producing annual reports based on their activities and recommendations.
To use an example, I’m sure that they will make their recommendations but that doesn’t mean that we have to wait a whole year before we implement the recommendations.
As I stated earlier I would give them my full support and we will implement their recommendations.
Their reports will contain the activities that they have undertaken as well as their recommendations.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Katimajiit, are their terms of reference written already or will the Katimajiit make their own terms of reference?
First of all in their initial meeting they’ll be given what kind of mandate they will have and what kind of issues, responsibilities they will have.
The government departments have their priorities every time they give their priorities by the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Katimajiit then the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Katimajiit will deal with the departmental priorities and that way they can find out what kind of priorities they have and those are some of the responsibilities they have but at the initial meeting that’s what they will set up.
Mr. Nutarak (interpretation): The way I understand this is it seems the terms of reference have already been set out.
I hope that’s not concrete; I hope it’s not written in stone.
Yes we’re not going to give them exactly what they are going to be but we will be orientating them on what kind of roles and responsibilities they have and what kind of authorities they have.
We want them to be able to have some room to work.
One thing that I don’t understand and need further clarification on is will the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Katimajiit have the power and authority that they need?
I need clarification on that whether they will have some form of authority or power.
The word ‘having authority’, that’s being asked quite a few times.
I can just explain the meaning of it, Mr. Chairman.
The IQ Committee will be making the recommendations and they will do their work for the Department of the Government and also work with the departments.
And according to the way it is set, way how it is should be working out.
If you have stated that they will be utilizing the interpreters, there are quite of few interpreters/translators in Kitikmeot and Qikiqtaaluk, and the writing systems differ from each other.
For that reason, also Kitikmeot and Kivallirmiut, although their dialects are similar to each other, the Kitikmeot dialect and writing system are totally different from ours.
Will they be able to use their own writing systems?
Chairman: Thank you Mr. Kilabuk
According to what the languages used prominently in what community, that’s what we would be going by today.
For instance, the way the writing system is used and in what region and that’s what they would be working on.
And you think that dialect and or that language or their writing system.
And we know at times, we face challenges when there’s difference in dialect even though you both speak Inuktitut.
Because there are terminologies that we have to work on, they can work on the terminologies in Inuktitut and come up with the new word, in Inuktitut, especially when they are trying to get terminology for interpreting and translating.
But we all know that this has been a challenging issue for us especially when we have to do away with the differences of dialects.
But when they meet, when the IQ Committee meet, they will meet to resolve the issue.
Mr. Alakannuark (interpretation): Thank you Mr. Chairman, the reason why I asked this question, in Kitikmeot when you hear them in their own dialects, because we have heard that someone say that in Qikiqtaaluk they use more syllabics than the Kitikmeot, that is one of the reasons why I am asking this question, whether this is the case or not.
I just wanted to explain to you that through our department, our department will not be telling what language, what dialect is to be used.
Whereever Inuit come from, they should have the right to use what dialect they wish and we will not be imposing any rules on that.
I do want to thank you for all this clarification.
For those individuals from those regions who use their own writing system and this will go on as status quo, even though we have different dialects.
Chairman: Mr. Kilabuk
Yes, the communities themselves will be using their own dialect and writing system and we will be in support of them to make sure they use their own dialect and writing system on a local level.
They will still have to use their own dialect because that is their foundation of their culture because the language is the foundation; yes, we will be in support for them to use their dialect and writing system.
Chairman: Are you finished?
I was envisioning that Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit is respected and yet it doesn’t seem to be respected.
I have heard from the elders when I passed through Rankin Inlet, an elder talked to me, Veronica’s mother came to talk to me, the traditional way of reviving a drowned person, bubbles appear around their mouth and the elders say that the traditional way of reviving the drowned person is to never wipe the bubble from the mouth and if you do wipe it, they are not going to be able to be revived, but if you leave the bubble on their mouth they will stay alive.
Modern medical people today wipe those away and according to the traditional way of reviving a drown people we were never allowed to wipe the foam that’s coming out of their mouths.
I'm sure that as a Minister you have heard about this; I thought we were dealing with that, perhaps were just paying service as a government to come up with Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit when they were not being focusing on things sensitive to Inuit.
My mother is a traditional healer; she works with people with impetigo and she uses blubber to mend them and to heal them.