Unipkausivut is intended to help communities to incorporate the important field of ‘Oral History’ into their language and literacy programs. Why?

• Nunavummiut agree that Elders’ knowledge is valuable and must not be lost. Through oral history projects language and literacy learners can participate in preserving the important history which is their birthright.
• Learning about one’s culture through oral history builds self-esteem and a sense of personal and cultural identity. These qualities are essential if people are to meet their personal goals.
• Participation in oral history projects can help build literacy and language skills. For many adults, one of their personal goals is raising their literacy levels in order to support their children’s learning, to participate more fully in society or to get a good job.
• Nunavummiut are concerned about the strength of the Inuktitut language. Working on oral history projects means communicating with Elders in Inuktitut in meaningful ways.
• Many Nunavummiut feel that parents, grandparents and Elders should play a stronger role in education. The study of oral history recognizes the expertise of Elders.

Building language and literacy skills through the study of oral histories is a way to address all these concerns. Working on oral history projects can bring communities together and get people engaged and excited about their learning.

Unipkausivut is a collection of resources that you can use in your programming in any way you find useful. It is intended for community groups and adult literacy and language programs. However others may be able to adapt it to their needs. You are welcome to photocopy any section of this manual.

Unipkausivut is divided into nine sections:

1. Storytelling and Culture offers a number of written texts by different authors about the importance of storytelling in defining culture and passing along history.
2. Language and Literacy in Nunavut includes writing by different authors about language and literacy issues.
3. Building Language and Literacy Skills discusses various principles and approaches to teaching and learning.
4. Planning Your Project takes you through the steps in planning your oral history project and offers guidelines on recording equipment and writing funding proposals.
5. Sample Documents includes sample proposals, consent forms and reports which you can adapt for your project.
6. The Process of Collecting Oral Histories offers guidelines for the different steps in carrying out a project.
7. Project Ideas gives suggestions of creative ways you could present the knowledge you collect to the community.
8. Stories includes written versions of 15 oral stories from Nunavut.
9. Useful Resources includes the names of organizations, books, web sites and other resources you might need to help you understand oral history, language or literacy issues.