An arctic law school tailored to native needs

Afew years ago, Aaju Peter, an Inuit mother of five who lives in Canada's Arctic, would never have dreamed of entering the legal profession. Now, thanks to an innovative new program in the country's newest territory of Nunavut, she and 14 other future Inuit lawyers have completed their first semester at law school.

Many native people who go to the southern part of Canada to study end up dropping out because of culture shock and language difficulties. So the organizers of the new Akitsiraq Law School in Iqaluit, Nunavut, tried a different approach: They brought the school to the students, instead of the other way around.

Now, students have the option of staying close to home and learning about not only mainstream law, but also traditional Inuit law and the Inuit language, Inuktitut.

"We recognized that for most aboriginal applicants, it's not possible to go to law school; poverty, the demands of family, and living in the South mean there are too many distractions," says Don Galloway, a law professor at the University of Victoria and one of the Akitsiraq's directors. The unique program, which likely will be offered only once, has attracted inquiries from as far away as Australia.

Nunavut - meaning "our land" in Inuktitut - covers an area the size of Western Europe, but is home to only 27,000 people. After decades of negotiations between the Inuit and the federal government, the territory was created in April 1999, the largest native land-claim settlement in Canadian history. Since Inuit people represent about 85 percent of Nunavut's population, they control their own legislative assembly. Non-Inuit residents also participate in elections for the assembly and the territory's 26 municipal governments.

About 42 percent of the Nunavut population over the age of 15 have no schooling past Grade 9, and just 6 percent have a university degree. Yet public-service jobs are eventually required to be filled by Inuit in proportion to their population in Nunavut.

Currently, Nunavut is home to only one lawyer from the Inuit population - the territory's premier, Paul Okalik.

The law school has the financial backing of the federal and Nunavut governments and is a partnership between the University of Victoria law school in British Columbia (more than 2,200 miles away), the Nunavut Arctic College, and the Akitsiraq Law School Society.

Of the 15 students in the program, 13 are parents. To ensure they're able to support their families while they study, most receive government funding. In return, they will work for their sponsors during school breaks and for at least two years after they graduate. They must also agree to remain in the North for four years after graduation. The classes are taught by professors from various Canadian universities. Most of them fly into the community every week, while at least one professor stays in Iqaluit for the term.

Catherine Bell was the first faculty member in residence. A law professor from the University of Alberta, she describes the program as a "phenomenal success'' because it offers small classes and the students are highly motivated. Their performance was the best she's seen in 12 years of teaching.

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