Nunavut youth turn the tables on southern researchers at ArcticNet conference

A group of Nunavut youth are using a conference of Arctic scholars to make a point about how researchers often come up short in consultations with their communities using their own language to do so.

The Ikaarvik Project is an initiative that aims to encourage conversation between Arctic researchers and youth in Canada's Far North. Shelly Elverum, the program's northern co-ordinator, was at the ArcticNetconference in Ottawa this week, along with a delegation of youth from across the territory.

• Ikaarvik Project aims to connect Arctic researchers and Inuit youth

During their presentation to researchers, the youth made their point in a unique way: for the first five minutes, they spoke entirely in Inuktitut.

"People in the audience, at first, they look interested, and then they sort of look scared, and then they look confused," said Elverum. "And I wait for a few minutes and say,'Oh, by the way, didn't I tell you the workshop is going to be all in Inuktitut?'"

"And then they start squirming and get uncomfortable. And then I say,'Well, I'm just joking. But I want you to remember this moment. What it feels like to not understand what somebody is talking about.'"

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The presentations are an opportunity for Elverum and her group to show the inverse of what often happens when southern researchers come to northern communities. Often, their presentations are entirely in English, causing issues for the community's unililngual Inuktitut speakers.

Elverum saysthe experience was eye-opening for many attendees, especially younger researchers.

"Their eyes just get really wide, and it finally hits them ... what it's like when somebody doesn't understand," she said.

"People come up afterwards and say, 'Thank you. I never really understood what it felt like to not be understood.'"

Elverum said the trip was not only valuable for young southern researchers she estimated about 80 took part in workshops with her delegation over the week, learning local northern customs and context but for her group of northern youth as well.

"We're not necessarily looking to create researchers in the community ... but we're looking to be able to have a generation of young people who are aware of how to make research a tool for Inuit, rather than just a tool for someone else," she said.

"So learning about how research works, learning how to be able to make it fit what the community's needs are, is a really important part."