Decolonizing Iñupiaq Curricula
Annauk Olin
November 9, 2021
Annauk will share examples of curricula for revitalizing and teaching Iñupiaq at home and in the classroom. Annauk is a language consultant for the Northwest Arctic Borough School District and the King Island Native Community. In this capacity, she writes children’s book for a King Island Iñupiaq immersion kindergarten and first-grade classroom. She also writes curricula based on Iñupiaq life cycles and seasons for Iñupiaq language teachers in the Northwest Arctic Borough.
In her presentation for this seminar on “Linguistics and social justice,” Annauk will primarily draw from her Master’s thesis Iñupiatun Iñuguġlavut Miqłiqtuvut, which is a language learning guide dedicated to reclaiming the Iñupiaq language. Linguists usually create records primarily for scientific purposes and secondarily for language learning needs. Exceedingly often, linguists write descriptions that are inaccessible to those who need them most. A decolonial approach to language pedagogy that intertwines peoplehood, language, and cultural context is critical for effective language revitalization. This curriculum will focus on encouraging and teaching parents how to speak Iñupiaq to their children by coupling Iñupiaq child raising practices and “Minimal Course” methodology.
Minimal Course is a methodology specifically designed to help learners face the added challenges of becoming a proficient speaker of a language that is threatened by colonial systems. Minimal Course features a non-technical (yet linguistically informed) presentation of the language’s everyday usage and conversation-building patterns in a series of short lessons. The lessons are also taught relationally, where each part reinforces at least one other related part. In the same way, the Minimal Course methodology intends to rebuild whole speech communities versus lone individuals.
Diverging from Minimal Course, there is an optional Iñupiatun Uqautchim Irrusia (Iñupiaq Grammar) section for those who wish to understand better how parts of each unit in a word or sentence combine. Given that the curriculum is built around the development of infants and toddlers, songs and hands-on activities are central for families to learn the Iñupiaq language.
The Iñupiaq language is our birthright.
Uqautchiq Inupiatun kiŋuvaanaktaaksrautikput.