Educating for Cultural Survival in Nunavut: Why Haven’t We Learned from the Past?

This is a paper about the culture of the Inuit in the Nunavut Territory of the Canadian Arctic, and the role that education should take in preventing its slow dilution, demise, and loss. The measures to be taken are evident. Inuit philosophy (Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit) must be the framework, and Inuit must be in control, not only of policy and curricula, but also of the school system, the schools, and the classrooms. It can take decades for outsiders embedded in a different culture to communicate and see through an unfamiliar worldview. Inuit do not have the luxury of time to wait for this to happen. Non-Inuit need to understand what Inuit are saying, to appreciate what they aim to achieve, and then get out of the way. If this is not done, the Inuit culture will go the way of so many other Indigenous cultures that once flourished. It’s inconceivable that we non-Inuit Canadians are willing not only to watch this happen but continue to be the cause.

Entrepreneurship in Coral Harbour, Nunavut

A remote community in Canada's Nunavut Territory, Coral Harbour is home mainly to indigenous Inuit. Entrepreneurship here is limited by the environment and location, and takes the form largely of self-employed subsistence fishing, hunting and trapping and related activities. A commercial caribou harvest was introduced, but numbers have since dwindled.

Geology of the Izok Massive Sulfide Deposit, Nunavut Territory, Canada

The Izok Zn-Cu-Pb-Ag volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit is located 265 km south of Kugluktuk (Coppermine), Nunavut Territory, Canada, in the west-central Slave structural province. The Izok deposit is owned 100% by Inmet Mining Corporation and represents one of the largest undeveloped zinc-copper resources in North America. The Izok deposit is hosted within and near the top of a thick sequence of predominantly felsic pyroclastic rocks of late Archean age. The hanging-wall stratigraphy includes additional felsic volcaniclastic rocks, andesitic and basaltic flows, thin sulfide-rich iron formations, and turbiditic sedimentary rocks. The felsic volcanic rocks are intruded by intermediate dikes and sills, followed by gabbroic dikes and sills. Both intrusive suites are interpreted to be volcanic feeders to the overlying flows. All lithologies are subsequently cut by younger, irregular, granitic pegmatite and diabase dikes. The volcanic and sedimentary rocks are regionally metamorphosed to pyroxene hornfels grade. The massive sulfides occur within a large (kilometer-scale) Na-depleted sericitic alteration zone. The immediate footwall and hanging-wall rocks to the deposit are characterized by zones of muscovite-biotite-sillimanite, lesser chlorite-biotite-cordierite, and locally intense silicification and sodium metasomatism. All lithologies have been affected by younger Ca-metasomatism. As currently defined, the Izok deposit comprises a cluster of five complexly zoned composite lenses: the Northwest, North, Central West, Central East, and Inukshuk lenses. The first four lenses are amenable to open-pit mining, whereas the Inukshuk lens will require underground development. The total indicated mineral resource presently stands at 16.5 million tonnes with a grade of 2.2% Cu, 11.4% Zn, 1.1% Pb, and 60 g/t Ag. Inmet Mining Corporation is presently reviewing the economic feasibility of developing the property.