Mary Kilabuk

• She translates the proceedings of the legislative assembly so that Nunavummiut can stay up to date on  what their government is doing for them.
• She transcribes old recordings of elders so that their knowledge isn't lost.
• She is a fantastic resource for other Inuktitut-speaking colleagues within the department due to her knowledge of technical and little-known Inuktitut terms.
• She is also valuable resource for colleagues who don't speak Inuktitut and shares her own handmade resources she makes for her child (such as Inuktitut word searches, puzzles, jokes and syllabic worksheets).
• Overall, Mary doesn't just care deeply about Inuit culture and language, she works every day and in everything she does to make sure that Inuit perspectives and voices can be heard in Inuktitut, even in bureaucratic government documents!

Mona Tiktalik

• Many years of volunteer work - translation and interpretation.
• Language promotion and protection in the workplace (KIA).
• Involvement with Elders Committee - traditional life skills and language promotion.
• Assists w/ community events (e.g. saying prayers in the Inuit language).
• Participation in programs that encourage cultural activities (drumming, etc.) and traditional living.

Emily Angulalik

Emily Angulalikkaaq Angulalik is one of the last descendants and the youngest of eleven siblings, of the first Inuit Fur Trader, the late Stephen Angulalik who traded in the Canadian Arctic around the Queen Maud Gulf area, back in the early 1920’s.

Emily was born in Yellowknife, NWT and raised in the community of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut as well as in the Perry River area, in Nunavut, where her late parents lived at their outpost camp.   I have three grown children and 13 grandchildren.  Emily is an Inuinnaqtun Instructor with the Nunavut Arctic College  in Cambridge Bay and has been involved in teaching Inuinnaqtun Language Revitalization, as well as other language courses for Nunavut Arctic Collegeshe has been involved with the Heritage Society in Cambridge Bay since the birth of the organization in 1995. What inspires Emily to work within the field of language revitalization is the preservation, the practice and the use of the Inuinnaqtun language, through immersion and interactions with  knowledge keepers, the elders from her community.

Nancy Kudluk

Robert Joanasie

Bobby advocates for the proliferation of the lnuktitut language in everything he does. Iwitness, almost every day, Bobby's patience with us "Southerners", when he answers all our questions about his language. No matter how trivial the inquiry, Bobby will break down the response into manageable chunks for us and teach us about lnuktitut in a quiet but proud manner. His pride in his language and culture is evident and his advocacy on behalf of both is admirable, but also very important for the people of Nunavut.

I understand that, on a professional level, Bobby has achieved some significant benchmarks. He has taught as a Language Specialist for more than 20 years. He has an enviable collection of lnuktitut language resources in the form of interviews, videos and transcripts that are available for borrowing when required. Bobby also collaborates regularly with other teaching staff in developing appropriate language resources for our students. In addition to all this, Bobby provides language and cultural education to our high school students on a daily basis - on countless occasions, I have watched students run to be the first to enter his classroom!

Nancy Makpa

Within the classroom Nancy provides lessons that engage her students in the various aspects of language learning. She has students practice speaking to one another and giving presentations. Students work on writing responses to questions. Nancy has the students read a variety of texts. All of this is done utilizing Roman Orthography and syllabics. She covers many different areas of Inuit cul ture, all while keeping language at the forefront of her teaching. Nancy has an amazing ability to engage students, regard less of their level oflnuktitut, and  help them develop their skills even further.

Beyond her classroom, Nancy has been worki ng really hard this year to benchmark the students to help assess what level of Jnuktitut the students are at.  She then has worked to ensure programmi ng is developed to meet the students' needs. Nancy has a lso been mentoring a new Inuktitut teacher on staff.  Aside from helping with lesson planning, Nancy has also gone into his classroom and modelled lessons for this teacher.  This has helped to increase the caliber of lnuktitut language instruction at the school.