Inuit Nunangat University one step closer to becoming a reality
CBC
Students living in the four Inuit regions of Canada are a step closer to being able to attend university at home.
On Wednesday, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), the national organization representing Inuit in Canada, unveiled its plans to build a university on traditional Inuit lands.
The institution — called Inuit Nunangat University — has been in the works for years.
Wednesday's announcement also includes a $50 million donation by the Mastercard Foundation toward the university.
Natan Obed, president of ITK, said Inuit Nunangat University would be the first Inuit-governed and Inuit-owned university in Canada's Arctic.
"It's to create an opportunity for a particular type of student who wants to live and study in Inuit Nunangat, and also an Inuit institution where all of the values and the governance and the way in which a person interacts with the institution as a part of Inuit society," he said.
No decision has been made yet on where the university will be located. Smaller campuses will be built in each of the four Inuit regions.
"We're going to do an exhaustive search, I suppose, for a campus," Obed said. "So hopefully by this time next year, we'll be talking about the location and imagining how to build the infrastructure on that campus."
For Tracy Denniston, a university student from Nain, in Labrador, completing her master's in social work at Memorial University in St. John's, it's welcome news.
Denniston, who has three adult children, said she wished she could have attended an Inuit university at the time she did her undergraduate degree, and now, as a master's student.
"It was difficult leaving our home community," she said.
"One of the biggest challenges was moving. Adjusting to living in a city compared to our remote communities."
Denniston plans to go back to Nain after she finishes her studies, to continue working as a social worker.
Obed says ITK will need a total of $160 million to make the university a reality.
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This story is a collaboration between the Investigative Journalism Foundation and CBC Saskatchewan.