The Cultural Life of Tiny Tots

Aklavik’s future drummers and dances, jiggers and language experts

The children of Aklavik Child Development Center can say “Uvlaami!” (good day) and “Uvlakunlu!”(see you tomorrow) with perfect pronunciation. When asked to drum dance, the boys banged excitedly on their drums, while the girls swayed and moved their hands rhythmically. There is lots of jumping up and down and excited squeals at this daycare, but the children are also very well behaved, lining up quickly to form the queues for jigging. It is a marvel to see the colorful posters they made with real fur on the life of a muskrat. Creativity and cultural awareness is encouraged at a very young age here.

“We do a lot of cultural activities,” said Verna Arey, language instructor and teacher at this pre-school. “The children love drum dancing. We put up concerts for them at Christmas, and sing songs such as “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” in Inuvialuktun. I explain what the songs mean when we are singing them.”

The teachers speak common phrases and words everyday, and the children pick them up quickly. “We also have a lot of hands on learning. We bring in the real thing, such as rabbits, caribou and muskrat and as we work with

By Zoe Ho

This day program began in 1996 with funding by Brighter Futures, and since 1998 has been taken over by Inuit Childcare (IRC funding). Both teachers and kids seem to be having a lot of fun. Karla Smith, a teacher at the daycare, said the best part of her job is “learning something different all the time while being with kids,” smiling as if she had hit the employment jackpot. Language lessons at the daycare used to be half an hour per day, one in Inuvialuktun and another in Gwich'in, but now, all the children are learning both languages together. “We are a great team, the Gwich’in coordinator and I,” Verna said. “ And we learn each other’s languages!”