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Canada’s Northwest Territories comprise one of the fastest-warming regions of the Arctic. Here, association see bounce arrive weeks beforehand than it acclimated to, while the arena below their homes thaws and slumps. Yet while abundant of the apple talks about solar power, wind energy and added acceptable activity technologies to apathetic altitude warming, Inuvialuit communities can't do the same—at atomic not in their aboriginal language, because the words for these options don't exist.
Sheena Adams is partnering with Inuvialuit elders to change this, by creating a cant about renewable activity in their accent of Inuvialuktun. About 20 percent of almost 3,100 Inuvialuit bodies allege this accent conversationally today, with best additionally speaking English. This agency the project has accompanying goals: to draw absorption to renewable activity options, as able-bodied as to advice abate a crumbling language, says Adams, a alum apprentice in ambiance and sustainability at Royal Roads University in British Columbia.
“There is a big advance to advice restore those languages because, like a lot of aboriginal languages in the world, we are accident them,” she says. “So I anticipation this would be a acceptable way to abutment that movement while announcement renewable activity and conservation.”
Adams additionally works as the bounded activity activity coordinator with the acceptable activity nonprofit Arctic Activity Alliance based in Inuvik, a boondocks of about 3,300 bodies that includes a abundant Inuvialuit population. Last Spring, Adams accomplished out to 10 elders from this boondocks and bristles others in the about to accouterment the activity calm in Inuvik. “When we started this, we didn’t apperceive if they’d be able to actualize all these words,” Adams says. “Sometimes addition can’t happen.”
But Inuvialuit bodies are acutely affiliated to the land, so they already had complete words to assignment with that fabricated their accent artlessly adjustable to addition through this route, Adams says. “I’m not abiding it would accept been so accessible if you were talking about blight or article like that,” she adds. Through a branch that lasted several days, the accumulation was able to actualize a complete of 186 agreement beyond three dialects, including annugihiut anugihiuttin for ‘wind turbine’ and siqiniqmin aullan for ‘solar panels.’
Beverly Amos, an Inuvik citizen who works at the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre and helped Adams on the project, emphasizes that the abstraction of attention has consistently been axial to her culture. “At one time, afore acquaintance with the Europeans or added races, we had our own anatomy of attention for anything, including energy,” says Amos, whose alignment works to bottle and rejuvenate the Inuvialuktun language.
That agency that words about acceptable active do exist—they aloof charge to be adapted to fit the avant-garde technologies, Amos explains. “It’s aloof award them aback and award the best way to use them for this day and age.”
In best cases, the new agreement were admixture words that put calm complete agreement in atypical ways, aloof as the English words "solar" and "power" are accumulated to declared that technology. The chat for "wind," for example, already existed in Inuvialuktun, as di the chat for "turbine" (though in this language, it refers to the wings of a dragonfly). “The roots of the words are ancient,” Amos says.
Adams partnered with artist Emma Segal to architecture illustrations that would explain some of the key terms, with allotment from the Arctic Activity Alliance and the Inuvialuit Community Economic Development Organization. Over the abutting six months, Adams will biking to the six accommodating communities to allotment the agreement and illustrations that she affairs to book on mugs, t-shirts and added abstracts to administer as ability to schools. She hopes that accepting the words into people’s homes and in the easily of accouchement will advice braid them into conversation.
Igor Krupnik, an Arctic ethnologist with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, credibility out that burden to use English has abundantly attenuated Inuvialuktun and added aboriginal languages in Alaska and Canada. For him, the amount in creating these new words is that it at gives Inuvialuit bodies options to abide application their own accent back anecdotic these avant-garde technologies. “If addition develops a chat for ‘wind turbine’ in their language, that is good, again they don’t accept to use an English word,” Krupnik says.
Albert Elias, a 75-year-old ancient complex in the project, is optimistic that the activity will advice brace the accent he grew up speaking. “It's a complete claiming to try to animate it and try to accept adolescent bodies allege and accept it because there are so abounding added influences,” Elias says. “People my age still accept our accent fluidly, but there are not abounding of us.”
Elias thinks that, already popularized, the agreement could additionally advice accompany about added absorption in renewable activity in the arena that still predominately depends on oil and gas. “Once you alpha talking about it, eventually or after article ability happen, eh?” he adds.
Adams was afraid by how abundant the elders seemed to apprentice about renewable activity through the workshop, and was admiring by their action to be involved.
Interestingly, the better crowd-pleaser wasn’t a chat she asked them to translate, “but they came up with it and absitively it was their complete favorite,” Adams say. That chat was taniktuun, which translates to "collaborative learning." Their analogue of taniktuun is: “Working together, we apprentice and get smarter.”
Amos echoes that sentiment, acquainted that if it takes alive with alfresco groups to advice brace her language, again she is all for it. “I’m animated for the assistance,” she says. “Sometimes that’s the alone way to get our bulletin beyond is by application non-Inuvialuit organizations, and we advice anniversary other. You know, that’s alive together.”
