Christina Tikivik-Sherman, the new Inuk elder at Lethbridge College, finds herself thinking of home when she sees the blue of the prairie sky and the coulees rolling like waves on Frobisher Bay.
Aside from this, she says that southern Alberta, with its landscape of tans, browns and greens and its hunters seeking deer or elk and not polar bear or seal, feels starkly different from the place she still thinks of as home. She is looking forward to working in her new role at the college to help the Lethbridge community better understand Nunavut, the land she loves, as well as the customs and traditions of the Inuit people.
“We are so very fortunate to have Christina with us this year,” says Robin Little Bear, former manager of FNMI services at Lethbridge College. “We’re one of a handful of post-secondary institutions in Canada to offer students the support and guidance of an Inuk elder as well as First Nations and Métis elders. The elder visits and cultural activities are just two ways that the college supports students of all backgrounds.”
Tikivik-Sherman is originally from Iqaluit on Baffin Island in the territory of Nunavut, about 3,000 kilometres away as the crow flies. She will join First Nations elder Beverly Hungry-Wolf (Honorary Bachelor of Applied Arts, ‘11) and Métis elder Rod McLeod (Child & Youth Care ‘03) as elders who support the college’s Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students in achieving their career and personal goals. While the college has worked with students and teachers in the FNMI community for decades, it was former President Tracy L. Edwards who cultivated FNMI relationships carefully and allowed them to develop into the thriving partnerships that exist today.
For her part, Tikivik-Sherman is happy to be in Lethbridge. “I love it here,” says Tikivik-Sherman, who has lived in Lethbridge for about a dozen years. “But my top place to be would be Iqaluit.”
One of the first lessons Tikivik-Sherman, who wears a sealskin barrette in her hair and kamiks – moccasins – on her feet, shares with the community is the correct usage of Inuk and Inuit, the singular and plural forms of the word for the culturally similar indigenous people living in the Arctic regions of Canada, Greenland, the United States and eastern Siberia.
And there are countless other lessons she would like to pass on to the students and staff at Lethbridge College, many of which she learned from her father.
“My dad was a very good man,” she recalls. “He helped so many people – he helped raise many people, people who were homeless or needed support. He showed us how to be strong for him and for our elders, how to learn how to love people, to be loving, to be caring, to be praying.”
Life in Nunavut was hard, she recalls, especially for young people who faced challenges finding work close to home. There, Christina Tikivik-Sherman saw education as a way to achieve success. In her work here in southern Alberta, far away from Nunavut, she says she is looking forward to sharing that same message.
Aside from this, she says that southern Alberta, with its landscape of tans, browns and greens and its hunters seeking deer or elk and not polar bear or seal, feels starkly different from the place she still thinks of as home. She is looking forward to working in her new role at the college to help the Lethbridge community better understand Nunavut, the land she loves, as well as the customs and traditions of the Inuit people.
“We are so very fortunate to have Christina with us this year,” says Robin Little Bear, former manager of FNMI services at Lethbridge College. “We’re one of a handful of post-secondary institutions in Canada to offer students the support and guidance of an Inuk elder as well as First Nations and Métis elders. The elder visits and cultural activities are just two ways that the college supports students of all backgrounds.”
Tikivik-Sherman is originally from Iqaluit on Baffin Island in the territory of Nunavut, about 3,000 kilometres away as the crow flies. She will join First Nations elder Beverly Hungry-Wolf (Honorary Bachelor of Applied Arts, ‘11) and Métis elder Rod McLeod (Child & Youth Care ‘03) as elders who support the college’s Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students in achieving their career and personal goals. While the college has worked with students and teachers in the FNMI community for decades, it was former President Tracy L. Edwards who cultivated FNMI relationships carefully and allowed them to develop into the thriving partnerships that exist today.
For her part, Tikivik-Sherman is happy to be in Lethbridge. “I love it here,” says Tikivik-Sherman, who has lived in Lethbridge for about a dozen years. “But my top place to be would be Iqaluit.”
One of the first lessons Tikivik-Sherman, who wears a sealskin barrette in her hair and kamiks – moccasins – on her feet, shares with the community is the correct usage of Inuk and Inuit, the singular and plural forms of the word for the culturally similar indigenous people living in the Arctic regions of Canada, Greenland, the United States and eastern Siberia.
And there are countless other lessons she would like to pass on to the students and staff at Lethbridge College, many of which she learned from her father.
“My dad was a very good man,” she recalls. “He helped so many people – he helped raise many people, people who were homeless or needed support. He showed us how to be strong for him and for our elders, how to learn how to love people, to be loving, to be caring, to be praying.”
Life in Nunavut was hard, she recalls, especially for young people who faced challenges finding work close to home. There, Christina Tikivik-Sherman saw education as a way to achieve success. In her work here in southern Alberta, far away from Nunavut, she says she is looking forward to sharing that same message.
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