With recent announcements from the Department of Education and the Government of Nunavut (GN) reinforcing Inuktut language instruction and services in time for Inuit Language Month, there are positive developments on the horizon for growing the language in the territory鈥檚 future.

The GN and the federal government signed off an agreement earlier this month that will provide the GN with federal funding for language services totalling $34.3 million from 2024-25 to 2027-28. Both Inuktut and French were part of the announcement.

Under the new deal, $20.4 million of the total amount is to support Inuktut language initiatives and will be added to the current $11.3 million budgeted in the Inuit Language Implementation Fund, set to begin in 2025-2026.

鈥淭he Government of Nunavut is committed to working with our partners to prioritize the protection and promotion of Inuktut, and to support our three official languages,鈥� stated Premier P.J. Akeeagok. 鈥淭his new funding coupled with the investments made by the Government of Nunavut will go a long way to advance the use of Inuktut and revitalize our mother-tongue.鈥�

The funding is designed to support essential Inuktut initiatives, such as the development of resources in Inuktut for kindergarten to Grade 12, the delivery of language training, and the support of various community initiatives through the Official Languages Grants and Contributions program.

"Multi-year funding under the new agreement will play a vital role in ensuring the stability, support and delivery of services for Nunavut in all official languages," stated a press release from the GN.

That is welcome news for many Nunavummiut like Ben Manik in Arviat, who wants to see more people use Inuktut. 

He said it helps as an educator because using Inuktut as the language of instruction produces better results with his students learning on-the-job construction skills at Fossil Creek Training.

鈥淲hat we do is we train Inuit on heavy equipment," he said. "With us being the junior instructors, there鈥檚 a positive impact, because people learn more. We can use our language and explain things to people in our language. They seem to understand better when we explain it in Inuktitut."

Manik grew up learning Inuktut in school as well as speaking it everyday, like most people in Arviat. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 our language, so everybody speaks it back home,鈥� he said.

Language issues are also encountered with the older generation of Inuit, he added, who rely on the bilingual younger generations to translate for them.

Manik believes the GN鈥檚 recent announcement about the new bilingual Nunavut curriculum, which will will be put in place for kindergarten and Grade 1 in every community across the territory in the upcoming 2025-26 school year, is a great move.

"I think they should implement more Inuktut in the schools at an early age [and] keep it going, even after high school, in college,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 our mother tongue and we have to keep it going.鈥�