About Inuit

Inns North, the hotel where we are staying at the moment and preparing for the expedition, is in an Inuit village. The Inuit are like us Japanese Mongoloid. We look alike in physical appearance: babies have Mongolian spot; we have black eyes and black hair. Villagers come in and out of the hotel casually, and they gather around the dining room and enjoy talking. Mothers often come here also with their babies on their back. The clothes they wear look very interesting. They are called Amautik, which has a big bag on the back where babies are carried. This Amautik is quite long, its edge touching the calves.

The Hotel Manager Lucas has a 27 years old wife and 3 children. The oldest daughter Angeline, younger sister Christina, and they both speak English. Lucas himself can speak and read Inuit language. 4 years ago territory name was changed from an English name Northwest Territory to Nunavut, meaning "our land" in Inuit. I can see, by just looking at them, how they are making greater effort now to bring back their traditional culture and lifestyle both in name and reality. On TV there are 2 channels showing Inuit programs. People are wearing traditional costumes, dancing, and beating drums. And the audience are watching with amusement.

Today I went to an elementary school in Resolute. This school compound contains a kindergarten, an elementary, and a high school. As I heard, children in kindergarten were learning Inuit language rather than English. Strange characters were stick all over the wall, and in another room there were young female graduates aged somewhere between 10’s and 20’s who were learning Inuit songs from local mothers. They were facing each other with their bellies almost touching and taking each other's arm and yelling "Wu Ue, Wu Ue, Wu Ue" sounding like squeezing breath out of the throat. The rhythm was very quick and the song was sung in unison, so it requires a lot of practices. We were quite shocked to see that. In fact we were watching it with open mouth. It was an intriguing experience for us.

When I asked them if they are interested in participating in our project "Global EdVenture" as a pilot school, they said they were happy to be involved. So now we have an Inuit school, besides schools in Norway, Russia, Canada, and Japan, for which I am very grateful. I am looking forward to conveying the Inuit's lifestyle, culture, language, and many others in a variety of ways to people around the world.