Indigenous Peoples Day: Google Doodle features Inuk author

Visitors to Google’s homepage on National Day of Indigenous Peoples will have the chance to learn more about the late Inuk author Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk.

Nappaaluk is featured in Wednesday’s Google Doodle, a temporary interactive feature on the site that celebrates people, holidays, events and anniversaries. Google says she is celebrated for her work to preserve Inuit culture and language.

“I am so happy Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk is being honored in this Google Doodle and that I was able to help spread awareness of her contribution to our history,” said Ottawa Inuk artist Gayle Uyagaqi Kabloona, who illustrated the Doodle.

“I know millions of Canadians will see the Doodle, and I’d like to think ‘Canada’ could be rebranded as an Indigenous nation.

“But I don’t create for people who need to learn; I create for my own community. I am very happy that the younger generations of Inuit can see themselves represented in their own country.”

Google also collaborated on the project with Inuk author and researcher Norma Dunning, who has studied and written about Nappaaluk.

“I love it,” says Dunning, an instructor at the University of Alberta. “Any kind of Indigenous exposure and information disseminated in our country in any form of media is very welcome. And especially this one, because it’s positive and a glimpse into a beautiful life.”

Born in 1931 near Kangiqsujujuaq in the Nunavik region of northern Quebec, Nappaaluk grew up following traditional Inuit teachings.

She learned to write in Inuktitut syllables from Catholic missionaries in the 1950s, and she taught them the language and helped translate scriptures. She went on to author more than 20 books on Inuit traditions, knowledge, stories and language, many of which are used in schools across Nunavik.

Nappaaluk is best known for writing ‘Saanaq’, one of the first Inuktitut novels, which tells the story of an Inuit family dealing with changes due to colonization.

Although Nappaaluk never went to school, she was committed to education and had a strong sense of obligation to younger generations of Inuit, Dunning said.

In addition to preserving Inuit traditions and language in her works, Nappaaluk served as a consultant to the Kativik School Commission between 1965 and 1996.

She was also a mother, grandmother and soapstone cutter. She died in her home community in 2007.

“She was very committed to the children in her communities, so I think of her as someone who was everyone’s mother,” said Dunning.

Nappaluk received many awards for her work. In 1999, she received a National Aboriginal Achievement Award, now known as the Indspire Award, in the culture, heritage and spirituality category.

She also received an honorary doctorate from McGill University in 2000 and was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 2004. She also won the Mary Scorer Award for best book from a Manitoba publishing house.

The Sanaaq Cultural and Community Center in downtown Montreal, named after her novel, is expected to open in 2024.

Dunning said she hopes the Google Doodle inspires people to learn about and reflect on Nappaluk life, especially the younger generation.

“I really hope the rest of Canada recognizes how Inuit people are educated and that Indigenous knowledge counts and is on par with Western knowledge,” she said.

“We are modern people. We are professional people. We are writers and artists and doctors and nurses.”

This report from The Canadian Press was first published on June 21, 2023.

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This story was produced with the financial support of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.