Before a group of Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute students take off for Nunavut later this month, the school will host a group of students from Netsilik School in Taloyoak, Nunavut beginning Friday.
The Inuit students will be in the city - with day-trips to Toronto and elsewhere - until April 16.
The visit is part of the Canada Youth Exchange Program, which has seen GCVI students engage in 10 different trips over the past decade, including in the Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia and Newfoundland. As part of the program, the school welcomes students from those places to stay and immerse themselves in Guelph and area.
“We’ve gone all over the country,” said GCVI teacher and trip coordinator Brian Cluff. “We’ve been fortunate enough to go to Nunavut, and this will be our fourth trip to the Arctic.”
He described Taloyoak as a small, fly-in Inuit community in the far north of the Canadian Arctic. The students that arrive in Guelph this week will have never been this far south in their lives, he said. And when the Guelph students head to Nunavut on April 28, they will have never been that far north before.
Like the northern students coming here, the Guelph students will be in for a cultural immersion unlike anything they have experienced.
The exchange is an extraordinary opportunity to experience the culture, geography and history of a community, he said. The program is funded through Heritage Canada. Air fare is covered for the participants.
“The Canada Youth Exchange Program is an opportunity for our students to connect with students for somewhere else in this country,” Cluff said. “It’s a chance for them to learn about Inuit culture, the traditional lifestyle, and discover what it is like to be in a different world in so many respects – a different landscape, a different climate, and a different language.”
On Monday, Netsilik students will be at GCVI for a school tour, and will walk from there to Guelph City Hall to meet Mayor Cam Guthrie. A walking tour of downtown Guelph will follow. The students will be accompanied on their journey by an Inuit elder. A full itinerary is planned for next week.
“The majority of these students from Taloyoak have never been to southern Canada,” Cluff said.
