WALTON, Fiona and O’LEARY, Darlene (ed.), 2015. Sivumut—Towards the Future Together: Inuit Women Educational Leaders in Nunavut and Nunavik. Toronto, Canadian Scholars’ Press

As a platform for Inuit scholars who are concerned with lives lived in Inuit Nunangat, Sivumut positions the reader to engage with Inuit voices on the topic of education. The concept of Sivumut “means forward or towards the future” (Arnaquq 2015: 19). Sivumut provides insider insights into Inuit education. In Naullaq Arnaquq’s words, which are quoted in the collection’s opening page, “It is time for me to write as the ‘insider’ claiming and reclaiming that space” (quoted in Walton and O’Leary 2015: 1). In Sivimut, nine Inuit authors, each of whom holds a master of education degree from the University of Prince Edward Island, share personal stories as acts of reclamation. In the process, they provide rich examples from lived experiences to enumerate Inuit strengths, contemplate future possibilities, and make accessible deeper understandings of troubled colonial relationships and systemic problems. The authors effectively use auto-ethnography to reveal the tensions embedded in inequitable Inuit–Qallunaat relations, as well as to theorize a collective vision of education for Inuit Nunangat, one that is grounded in Inuit worldview and driven by the work of Inuit scholars. The book’s title is also its central concept; Sivumut provides the substance needed to build a future where Inuit ways of knowing and being become the basis of Inuit education. This book review highlights poignant ideas that emerged for me in carefully reading each chapter. I examine the chapters one by one before proposing a review of key themes and my recommendation at the end. Naullaq Arnaquq, in the first chapter, draws on her master’s thesis (2008) to establish the foundations of inequity in Inuit–Qallunaat relations and to provide strategies for moving forward with Inuit leadership in education. She begins by lamenting the imposition of Canadian government-run education, writing that the schools “ignored the rich and unique history, culture and legacy of my parents and grandparents” (12). She explores some underlying reasons why Inuit seemed to be so easily influenced by Qallunaat officials. She explains, “Our cultural values and customs were based on survival and life in a context that depended on harmonious kinship and interdependency” (15). Government workplaces have not respected many of these Inuit values (Ibid.: 24) and, by association, Inuit systems. Finally, Arnaquq celebrates the Sivumut education conference held in 1990: “Sivumut was a turning point for Inuit teachers, after which they took ownership and participated in the development of education based on Inuit history, culture and language” (21). Sivumut, as Arnaquq makes clear, provides enormous hope through disrupting inequitable colonial patterns through Inuit leadership and Inuit knowledge. In chapter 2, Monica Ittusardjuat examines several points: power relations, including imbalances caused by Inuit fear of Qallunaat; government impositions, including residential schools; and dissonances embedded in the processes of colonization, including alcohol abuse, marital conflict, and suicide. She gives deep insights into her lived experiences, explaining how Inuit worldviews and ways of knowing and being, in combination with Qallunaat systems, worked to structure her life. As she explains, “Even though in my young life I was pulled in two different directions—the expectations of traditional life through my arranged marriage and the custom adoption of my son and daughter, and the colonizing effects of residential schools—I have managed to finally make my way toward healing and balance” (42). Saa Pitsiulak, the author of chapter 3, underlines the merits of writing her history, from her view. In a section titled “Learning How to Act Like an Inuk” (49), she provides practical content about strategies for living a good life, based on Inuit values. Next, Pitsiulak clearly underlines issues with Qallunaat authorities and dissonances between Inuit collective …