The small community of Arviat, Nvt., has reportedly been selected to host the main campus of Inuit Nunangat University, the first Inuit-led university in Canada. The institution is expected to open in 2030.
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), which represents Canada’s 70,000 Inuit, passed a resolution to develop the university in 2017, “marking a significant step toward self-determination in higher education.”
The vision and plans for the university reflect a common saying among the Indigenous Peoples of the Prairies: “Education is the new buffalo.” It alludes to the importance of buffalo to Indigenous Peoples prior to the animal’s near-extinction in the late 19th century, and the importance placed on education today.
This emphasis on education is partly a response to colonial policies that systematically denied Indigenous Peoples access to quality education for generations.
The consequences of that history are still seen today. While there is a gap in employment rates between Indigenous and non-Indigenous adults overall, the gap essentially disappears for those with a bachelor’s degree or higher.
In this context, the establishment of a university is more than the creation of educational institution. It’s a way to combat the injustices of the past and develop the Indigenous economy, which also helps fund Indigenous self-determination.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Dustin Patar
Not the first Indigenous university
Inuit Nunangat University will not be the first Indigenous-led university in Canada. That distinction is most often attributed to the First Nations University of Canada in Saskatchewan, which started as the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College in 1976.
The university itself does not appear to claim the distinction on its website, perhaps because of the long history of Indigenous-led post-secondary institutions that predate or parallel it across Canada, from the Wilp Wilxo’oskwhl Nisga’a Institute in Gitwinksihlkw, B.C., which is federated with the University of Northern British Columbia, to Kiuna College in Odanak, Que.
The existence of these institutions reinforces the value Indigenous Peoples see in education — a statement that may surprise those who associate Indigenous education primarily with the residential school system.
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Yet, as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report mdae clear, the schools were incredibly poor at actually educating Indigenous children; those who succeeded academically did so despite the system rather than because of it. The schools were designed primarily around assimilation and labour, not academic learning.
That failure, and the determination to correct it, is one of the reasons why members of Saddle Lake Cree Nation occupied the Blue Quills Indian Residential School in Alberta in 1970 and demanded the right to run it themselves
After a 17-day sit-in, then-minister of Indian Affairs Jean Chrétien transferred operations to the Blue Quills Native Education Council. The council eventually transformed it into the Indigenous-run and operated University nuhelot’įne thaiyot’į nistameyimâkanah Blue Quills.
Education as a form of investment
Many First Nations, Métis nations and Inuit communities fund post-secondary education for their members, often through partnerships with Indigenous Services Canada. There is a broad recognition that investing in education benefits the nation and community, and the number of Indigenous Peoples obtaining a bachelor’s degree or higher has been increasing.
That is one reason for the numerous Indigenous led post-secondary institutions across Canada. Another is that, while Indigenous Peoples are theoretically free to attend any post-secondary institution in the world, many institutions are not located near their communities.
This matters more than it might initially appear. According to the 2021 Census, there is a clear correlation between remoteness and lower levels of post-secondary education. The share of Indigenous adults with a post-secondary qualification was significantly higher in areas closer to economic centres.
Building schools to be closer to home, rather than expecting Indigenous students to travel or move away from home, is the logic behind Inuit Nunangat University.
Designing from the inside out
There are also benefits to having institutions under Indigenous control. Indigenous-led post-secondary institutions can develop curriculum and programs that are directly tailored to the needs and desires of their communities.
They also treat Indigenous knowledge systems as foundational rather than supplementary. For generations, Indigenous ways of knowing were delegitimized. Western disciplines defined what counted as knowledge, and Indigenous Peoples who entered those institutions were expected to set aside their own epistemologies.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Most Canadian universities are attempting to address this through changes grouped under the term “Indigenization,” but questions remain about whether such changes actually address underlying colonial structures or simply work around them.
Indigenous post-secondary institutions are, in principle, better positioned to make more fundamental changes. Nowhere is this better seen than in the six proposed faculties of Inuit Nunangat University, which reflects an Inuit take on programs and courses that differs from the standard structure of Canadian universities. This includes Inuktut language immersion.
Other Indigenous institutions have already led the way on language-based degrees. The Nicola Valley Institute of Technology and the aforementioned Wilp Wilxo’oskwhl Nisga’a Institute have created language-based degrees for Nłe?kepmx and Nisga’a in partnership with the University of British Columbia and University of Northern British Columbia respectively.
A barrier dismantled
Between 1876, when the Indian Act was first passed into law, until its 1920 amendment, status Indians lost their Indian status if they earned a degree and/or worked in certain professions.
For decades after, the most significant barrier to education was the failure of the Indian Residential School system to actually educate Indigenous children. Both forms of exclusion have now been formally dismantled, though their effects persist in the gaps that remain.
More and more Indigenous Peoples are pursuing post-secondary education, and institutions designed specifically to support that pursuit are a central part of how those gaps close. The Inuit Nunangat University, opening in Arviat in 2030, will be part of that process.
