Root & Stem Issue 1 – Spring 2020
INUIT PRINCIPLES OF CONSERVATION
AVATTIMIK KAMATSIARNIQ / RESPECTFUL STEWARDSHIP
These modules provide you and your students with opportunities to explore Inuit values and cultural beliefs. We hope they will also allow you to explore the diverse value and belief systems your students bring into the classroom. Inuit say that the purpose in life is to live a good life. The information in these modules will help you begin to make meaning of Inuit expectations for living a good life, especially in a changing environment where we face new challenges on many fronts.
Inuit Elders say that although the context we live in is always dynamic, our beliefs never need to change, and this is why it is so important to clarify values for youth. Inuit also say their teachings are helpful to anyone, and are not just for Inuit. With this in mind, we hope you will explore these Inuit understandings of how to live well in a dynamic world and that, in doing so, they will help you and your students set personal goals as agents of change in effectively meeting life's challenges in order to live a good life.
Shirley Tagalik is a former educator for the Nunavut Department of Education and the author of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit: What Inuit Have Always Known to Be True. In her time as an educator she was tasked to assist in the redesign of the education system within the framework of Inuit Knowledge. Shirley now volunteers her time in her community of Arviat, Nunavut, promoting research, youth engagement and mental health programs.