MY J OU RN E Y
Nain in the spring
is who I am, that’s what I think about
first. And I understand that Southerners,
people who do not belong to an indigenous culture, don’t think about it that
way. But why celebrate a British man
before your own people? Why continue
to ignore that perspective?”
Looking Forward
Despite her recent fame, Baikie plans to
return to school to finish her degree. She
only has a few courses left, two of which
are on a second language that she hopes
will be Inuktitut (Inuit language). “I don’t
speak Inuktitut, unfortunately,” says Baikie.
“With colonization and the introduction of
religion, people were ashamed to speak it.
So my grandmother didn’t speak it to my
dad, who in turn didn’t teach it to me.” Her
father did learn aspects of the language
eventually, but it was not his first language.
“It was only in his generation that English
came first.”
Baikie has been trying to learn Inuktitut, but states that it’s “very difficult
to find resources, especially outside the
community. We have it on Rosetta Stone;
I just got it two months ago. But it doesn’t
work for Mac, so I will have to explore
another avenue.”
Weekend of boating and on the land in Cartwright, Newfoundland and Labrador
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Her plans for the future are still up in
the air.
“I’ve got a lot of research in my background, out in the field, in various Canadian Arctic locations, and my other passion
and work interest is around government. I
have worked for the Nunatsiavut Government (Labrador Inuit self-government),
for the executive council and for the Torngasok Cultural Centre, and I’ve worked for
Inuit Tapariit Kanatami, the national Inuit
government in Ottawa. There I got experience at their Inuit Knowledge Centre,
the hub for scientific and Inuit knowledge
research priorities. I have two different
passions, and I’m just sort of following
them as they go.
“I’m not ready to go back [to Nain]
yet. I want to gain more experience in the
outside world, and in higher levels, so that
when I go back, I can be in a position to
make positive change, I hope. My overall
goal is to go back home, and bring what
I’m gaining from the outside world. I don’t
really have a timeline, and I’m not restricted
by one, so whenever it feels right.”