A publisher, in partnership with the organization that represents Inuit in Canada’s eastern Arctic territory of Nunavut, are making Inuit-language children’s books available online, to help families amidst the three-week school and daycare closures ordered in the region in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We want to support learning from home, and to encourage people to use this time to come together and strengthen our language,” said Louise Flaherty, a cofounder of Inhabit Media, in a news release on Wednesday.

Nine books are currently available and more will be added in the weeks ahead as long as the school closures last. A spokesperson for Inhabit Media told Eye on the Arctic they’re working to choose books from their catalogue to respond to different grade levels.

Inhabit and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc say they’re also working with Inuit educators on other tools to support Inuit language learning at home. Those education resource packages will also be released on the website in the coming days for the duration of the school closures.

“NTI is proud to contribute to Inuktut learning, connecting families and enabling all of us to stay at home as much as possible,” NTI President Aluki Kotierk said.

Inhabit Media is an Inuit-owned publisher founded in 2005 to promote and preserve Inuit stories, language and culture.

All books and resources are available here.

As of Wednesday at 6pm ET, Nunavut was the only one of Canada’s 10 provinces and three territories to still have no confirmed or probable COVID-19 cases in its jurisdiction.

Write to Eilís Quinn at eilis.quinn(at)cbc.ca

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