InuiTV is a must for language retention

Page 17

Nassivik

Inuit in Canada must get a stand-alone Inuktitut language television network. Here are some reasons why:

Many people point out that the Inuktitut language is relatively healthy in comparison to other Aboriginal languages, and express some pride at this good fortune. I tend to spin the state of Inuktitut from the perspective of its erosion. I have lived through the transition from the day when most Inuit were unilingual to the present day when the younger generations are multi-lingual.

English and French are naturally dominant, and we have serious work to do to ensure the survival of our language.

Inuit from many regions of Arctic Canada have lost the ability to speak Inuktitut. Such heart-rending loss drives a compelling urgency to seek ways to avoid the fast track toward losing the very core of our identity-our language. The alarm is acute among Inuit still fortunate to retain the heritage of Inuktitut.

Television has to be harnessed as a means to help preserve the language, culture, and identity of Inuit. The objective has to be for Inuit to own and control all parts of a television operation, and create an environment where Inuktitut is central to productions, and not an incidental side show. Inuktitut must become the regular currency of videos, documentaries and movies, made by Inuit for Inuit in our language.

The desire to keep Inuktitut healthy has found a fitting place in film as a way to preserve and expose Inuit culture to Inuit, and to the outside world. The accurate portrayal of Inuit ways becomes inevitable when Inuit produce such presentations themselves.

After the phenomenal success of Igloolik Isuma's film, Atanarjuat, the Fast Runner, Hollywood would now have extreme difficulty stereotyping Inuit. What is there to prevent us from eventually producing other classic Inuit legends on film?

The little that presently exists now in Inuktitut children's programs, entertainment, current affairs, and news coverage also has to be delivered out of the Token Time Filler track, and be placed into prime time. The task is to put a lot of meat on the skeletal bones of present programs, and greatly enhance their prominence in northern broadcasting.

Currently, the bits and pieces of Inuktitut programs are tucked into somebody else's schedule, and we have to search hard for them. Inuktitut programs have to get on the Well Established, Adequately Resourced track.

Getting there from here is the challenge that has to be tackled squarely by leaders of Inuit broadcast organizations. The first step in this direction is recognizing that where we are now is woefully inadequate.

In the Where's Waldo? books, the object is to search for that thin, unassuming, insignificant-looking guy in striped shirt, glasses, and toque who blends in with the picture he's in. He may not actually be hiding, but he can be infuriatingly hard to find.

Such is the condition of Inuktitut language programming on television. Like Waldo, Inuktitut programs may not actually be hiding, but they are incredibly hard to find in the place and spaces in which they are embedded. Given our original hope that television will be used as a medium to enhance the use and visibility of our language, such Waldo-like blending into a schedule that is not at all Inuit-friendly is not a desirable place for Inuktitut to be.

Inuit aspire to see Inuktitut versions of some really useful television shows. Don Newman's Politics, and Mansbridge One on One, to mention a couple. I can think of more than a handful of Inuit who would not fear to be politically incorrect if the occasion called for it in conversing with Inuit of influence in Inuktitut.

Inuktitut television has to be plentiful, varied, and unavoidably significant. Inuit must become known for what they say in Inuktitut in any, good, widely watched program. There should come a day when ministers of government have to pay attention to what Inuit have to say in Inuktitut.

Attaining such enhancemnts will surely require serious increases in funding to Inuit broadcast organizations, most of which presently subsist on bare bones budgets. It can't be emphasized enough that government funding for Inuktitut programs is absolutely vital to the life, health, and preservation of Inuktitut. This has to be reflected in the financial commitments to Inuit communications needs of the four different jurisdictions under which Inuit in Canada find themselves.

The federal government holds a fiduciary and national responsibility for Inuit in Canada. Inuit leaders should never have to beg for their support as they seek to find the Eskimo Waldo in television, fatten him up, and make him very prominent and relevant in Arctic broadcasting.

Nasivvik is an Inuktitut word that means vantage point. It can be a height of land, a hummock of ice, or any place of elevation that affords an observer a clear view of their surroundings to make good observations.