Teacher, researcher, and educational consultant born near Kangirsuk (Nunavik) in the 1950s.
Betsy Annahatak, also known as Betsy Annanack, was born in the early 1950s in a traditional Inuit settlement near Kangirsuk, on the east coast of the Ungava Peninsula (Nunavik). Her parents were Sam Willie (or Samwillie) Annahatak and Velesie Grey Annahatak, and her sister is Jeannie Nungak. In the early 1960s, the family moved to the village of Payne Bay (now Kangirsuk) in Nunavik, then a trading post.
In 1960, as her tenth birthday drew near, Betsy Annahatak, along with her sister Jeannie, was forced to leave her parents and the traditional Inuit way of life to attend residential school. For two years, she lived away from her family, who eventually sedentarized. During the following five years, she attended school in her village, before being sent to Churchill, Manitoba, along with other young Inuit, to attend a technical school in a vocational training facility reserved for Inuit by the Canadian federal government.
On August 19, 1978, after a summer-school intensive, Betsy Annahatak graduated from McGill University (Montréal) with a degree in teaching. The ceremony was held in Inukjuak. This marked the start of a career in education in which she combined work in the field with scientific research. Over the course of the following decades, Betsy Annahatak became involved in various educational projects in Nunavik. During this period, she worked on the development of a curriculum and the elaboration of teaching materials, both in Inuktitut. To this end, she set up a pilot teaching program in Inuktitut for Inuit teenagers. In 2007, she was appointed Director of Educational Services for the Kativik School Board.
Betsy Annahatak is also active as a researcher in education; her research is informed by her professional experience. In 1985, in collaboration with Martha B. Crago, she conducted a study on the teaching of Inuktitut. The same year, the two women published their findings in a report entitled Evaluating of minority-language children by native speakers, teacher, researcher and educational consultant, born near the village of Kangirsuk (Nunavik) in the 1950s. In 1993, along with Martha B. Cargo and Lizzie Ningiuruvik, she published the paper “Changing patterns of language socialization in Inuit homes” and, in 1994, she was the sole author of the paper “Quality education for Inuit today? Cultural strengths, new things, and working out the unknowns: A story by an Inuk.” In her articles, Betsy Annahatak addresses the cultural changes she herself witnessed, not only as an Inuk who lived through sedentarization and residential schools, but also as a student who experienced the first school programs in Nunavik and as an education professional involved in providing Nunavik’s Inuit communities with access to schooling. In June 1999, she completed her Master’s degree in Education at McGill University; her thesis was entitled “Exploring the cultural canon through reflective self study = Tokisisarnirk ilorrosirkarniop pirkoyarkarosiwwchinnik (inillawwatsiarosiwwchinnik) isomatsasiorotirkatsianikkot namminiriyakmik ilinniarotirkarloni.” Her most recent scientific publication, “Silatuniq: Respectful state of being in the world,” appeared in the journal Études/Inuit/Studies in 2014.
Betsy Annahatak currently sits on the Kativik School Board Council of Commissioners for the community of Kangirsuk, where she continues her work as an educator. Wife of Eugène and mother of two children (three, according to some sources), she has also set down in writing the story of her father, Samwillie, in a short text, “Samwillie Annahatak 1924-1982,” published in Tumivut magazine in 1997.