Interpretation and Translation in the Territories: Outside the Traditional Polarity of Canada’s Official Languages
Over the past few years, translation and interpretation activity have been on the increase across Canada; the Great North is no exception to this rule. One might ask, however, why translate and interpret into and from aboriginal languages ? The issue of the relevance of aboriginal languages is nowhere more acute than in Nunavut, where the Territorial Government is working towards making Inuktitut the official language of the Government. The road to this ultimate goal is, however, fraught with many challenges. At the other end of the Canadian Arctic, the Yukon First Nations are working on the revitalization of the eight local languages, some on the brink of extinction, in order to bring them up to an equal footing with the two Canadian official languages. In both cases, interpretation and translation are useful firstly, in maintaining the linguistic and cultural diversity of the Territories and, secondly, in enabling the development of those languages with a minority status either from a demographic perspective, or from a social status perspective. This paper describes the current situation in Nunavut and Yukon, two Territories at opposite ends of the Canadian Arctic, taking opposite approaches toward the revitalization of the local languages, and calling for a perspective in opposition with the traditional Canadian official language dichotomy.