The Hands' Measure: Essays Honouring Leah Aksaajug Otak's Contribution to Arctic Science
by John MacDonald & Nancy Wachowich
Description:
Publisher's description (Nunavut Arctic College Media, 2018):
The essays in this collection explore a wide variety of topics broadly related to cultural renewal and representation, oral history, heritage, and social change among the Inuit of Igloolik, in Nunavut’s northern Qikiqtani Region.
This is an eclectic collection of essays written and compiled in recognition of Leah Aksaajuq Otak. The essays explore a wide variety of topics broadly related to cultural renewal and representation, oral history, heritage, and social change among the Inuit of Igloolik, in Nunavut's northern Qikiqtani Region. Leah was a skilled oral historian and linguist from Igloolik, whose essential contribution to scientific research in Nunavut inspired those who knew and worked with her.
During the last two decades of her life, Leah Otak worked at the Igloolik Research Centre, where she played a crucial role facilitating the fieldwork of visiting researchers from near and far. Her collaboration with researchers, particularly in the social sciences, together with her extensive work documenting Inuit oral histories, ensured that Inuit traditional knowledge and perspectives informed and were reflected in much of the resulting research.
Contributors to the volume include:
Eva Aariak; George Qulaut; Hugh Brody; Kenn Harper; Louis-Jacques Dorais; Susan Rowley; Claudio Aporta; Jack Hicks; Sheena Kennedy Dalseg; Bernadette Driscoll Engelstad; Jonathan King; Sylvie LeBlanc; John MacDonald; Birgit Pauksztat; Willem Rasing; Noah Richler; and Nancy Wachowich.
Resource format: Novel
Age recommendation: University
Keywords: cultural renewal, representation, oral history, heritage, social change, Inuit community, Artic science, language revitalization, Inuit culture, Qikiqtani, Nunuvut, Igloolik, science, research, social sciences, traditional knowledge
Year of publication: 2018
Publisher information: Nunavut Arctic College Media
Teaching and Learning Ideas
Our team collaborated with new teachers, alumni of the Werklund School of Education’s Bachelor of Education program, to create teaching and learning plans for texts in this website. With audiences ranging from Pre-Kindergarten to Post-Secondary, lesson plans across this resource address a wide range of school subject areas, inclusive approaches, and Indigenous education topics, such as the revitalization of Indigenous languages. As this website was designed with Undergraduate Programs in Education instructors, as well as teachers in mind, connections to UPE courses have been flagged on each lesson plan. These lessons are intended as a starting place for educators, to help you envision ways in which you might bring Indigenous literatures, as well as ways of knowing, being, and doing, into your teaching contexts. Please adapt, use, and share these lessons in ways that are generative for your teaching practice. We offer our sincere thanks to the dozens of new teachers who gifted us with these creative ideas!
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