This paper reports on a participatory research project in which the investigator, collaborators, and participants intentionally sought to draw from Nunangat in negotiating pedagogies for Inuit early childhood education (ECE). Nunangat is an Inuktitut term incorporating land, ice and water. The aim of the research was to determine if photos, videos, and stories depicting the experiences of young children on the land and by the water could be used to contribute to place-based early childhood educational curricula informed by Inuit worldviews. This research also addressed the role that curricula play in perpetuating colonial injustices. This included the curriculum used with the two early childhood centers in Inukjuak, Quebec where this research was conducted. Most of the children attending the Inukjuak centers speak Inuktitut as their mother tongue; and more than 20 members of the staff are local Inuit and live in the community.
This action research project involved 100 preschool children and 23 educators and staff. It also included 20 excursions with nunangat and a series of culturally informed center-based activities. Other components of this project included meetings with parents during which they were invited to share their cultural, linguistic and educational aspirations for their children and consultations with Elders. The researcher made daily journal entries to record conversations, activities and events throughout the project. She also compiled one-page reports on each excursion, kept field notes, took photos, and engaged in a series of narrative conversations with key players (the Elder educator, the pedagogical counselor, a parent board member and educators).
One of the key activities described in some detail in this paper centered around fox trapping. The related discussion shows how engaging with nunangat pedagogies can provide a strategy for negotiating places for Inuit knowledges in Inuit ECE. The discussion includes insights into how going into the cold and trapping the fox, proceeding with the fox pelt preparation while the children napped, and eating the fox at the child care center relate to the adoption of a decolonizing ethic in ECE.
By using and validating Inuit approaches to care and education, this project gave Inuit children rich opportunities to experience events with nunangat. This project also confronted some of the inequities inherent in the normalization of settler colonial practices and highlighted the vitality and viability of local Indigenous ways of knowing and relating to the natural world.
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