Brother and sister Nicholas and Vanessa Flowers graduate together from Aurniarivik in Iqaluit. Courtesy of Nicholas and Vanessa Flowers
Affix of the Day
Sibling Duo teach Inuttitut Online
THERE ARE TWO NEW INUTTITUT INSTRUCTORS running online courses through the Nunatsiavut Government Department of Language, Culture and Tourism—and they’re brother and sister. Nicholas and Vanessa Flowers of Hopedale instruct across computer screens, using colour‐coded slides Their students, myself included, are primarily adult second‐language learners who either attended or whose relatives attended residential boarding schools, and subsequently lost their language. From Nunatsiavut, the the Flowers siblings are focusing their course on Inuttitut. So far I’ve taken two online Inuttitut courses run by them.
Vanessa Flowers in Iqaluit, fall 2022. Courtesy of Vanessa Flowers
“Learning Inuttitut is a lifelong process,” said Nicholas, adding it’s not quite like taking a math class where you complete an equation by the end.
The siblings took on learning Inuttitut as adults too, graduating together from the Aurniarivik program, an eight‐month Inuktut second language program for Inuit operated by the Pirurvik Centre in Iqaluit. There, the students use the South Qikiqtaaluk dialect. They learn by working on the land, playing games, and celebrating their Inuk lives with Inuit from across Inuit Nunangat. “It was a fun time and we studied, worked hard, played games and spoke Inuktut all day,” said Vanessa.
They finished with a big graduation and returned home with a Certificate in Indigenous Language Proficiency from the University of Victoria. Now the Flowers siblings are revitalizing their language back at home in Hopedale.
Confident and prepared, Vanessa and Nicholas successfully taught their first online class from spring to early summer 2023, and another one in the fall. Some of the spring students returned to the fall class to keep learning and support their classmates and teachers. Other students are new and enjoy the process.
I look forward to class. Vanessa and Nicholas are very friendly and work really hard for us to learn and understand our language.
I’m grateful to attend when my schedule allows. This is the better school; grades don’t count, and we laugh a lot.
Vanessa and Nicholas’ teamwork shines while they take turns teaching on‐screen for the hour‐and‐a‐half class, four evenings a week. Their gentleness gives space for the students to ask questions and the teachers explain the reasoning behind the sentence structure of the Nunatsiavut dialect, Inuttitut. During class, the students type their questions and answers into the chat and receive feedback. One student writes, “Learning more now than ever! Best teachers I had yet, and classmates are good too.”
Nicholas Flowers in Hopedale, spring 2023. Courtesy of Nicholas Flowers
A handout showing an “affix of the day”
The predictability and easy flow of the class makes it comfortable to learn even for shy learners. Vanessa prepares and shares all the learning slides, including an “affix of the day,” a vocabulary list, dialogue, questions to answer and sometimes a pop quiz. Nicholas types out the correct answers. It’s an ocean wave of work to watch. After class, Vanessa emails out the class material and Nicholas emails a recording of the class. Students can also access reference material the the Flowers siblings are using to create their course. To keep the dialect right, they work with the Nunatsiavut Government Department of Language, Culture and Tourism and rely on the knowledge of Elders.
“It’s good to see people enjoy the language, having fun together, and telling stories,” Vanessa said of teaching. Nicholas added, “technology is so good to reach students across Canada.”
