Navarana Beveridge

Bio

Navarana Beveridge is currently the Director of Social Policy at the Qikiqtani Inuit Association. Prior to that, Navarana was the Education and Language Policy Analyst with Nunavut Tunngavik Inc, where she played a key role in the development of the Inuit Language Protection Act, the Official Languages Act, and the Nunavut Education Act. She has also worked with the Government of Nunavut. In Repulse Bay, Navarana worked with the municipal government, coordinating a five-year land use plan and managing funding for community initiatives.

Navarana is an Inuit language advocate and is one of the founders of the first Inuktitut daycare in Iqaluit. Her work at the territorial level has included making formal submissions before the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut on the Inuit Language Protection Act, the Official Languages Act and the Nunavut Education Act. At the national level, Navarana has presented before the Senate Standing Committee on aboriginal and constitutional affairs regarding the Nunavut Official Languages Act. At the international level, she has made an intervention on behalf of indigenous youth from ten different countries at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous issues regarding indigenous youth needs on education and indigenous languages.

Community
Navarana is originally from Qaqortoq, Greenland and has made Nunavut her home for the past fourteen years with her husband and child. She has lived in Qaqortoq, Nuuk, Denmark, Repulse Bay and Ottawa and now Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, since 2001.

Issue of Investigation

Navarana will be focusing on the Inuit language in early childhood education in light of the recent passing of the Inuit Language Protection Act and the Nunavut Official Languages Act. The current strong state of Inuktitut in Nunavut is thanks to the use of the language in the home and amongst families. However, a language that is not used in the public domain of society is perceived as illegitimate. In order for a language to be socially viable, the language must be the foundation of the society at all levels in all areas, especially during early childhood when languages are absorbed most efficiently. Navarana intends to conduct comparative research amongst aboriginal jurisdictions to examine the initiatives that had the most impact in terms of strengthening indigenous language revitalization and sustainability. Navarana has particular interest in Inuit language use in daycares, pre-school systems and the early stages of the education system. She intends to partner with interested authorities to encourage making systemic changes to the early childhood education system in a way that will give children a strong foundation in the Inuit language taught in their own culture and improve academic achievements.