Inuit Sign Language should be recognized as a right, expert says "I think the health system needs to step up to the plate”

SAMANTHA DAWSON

Louisa Nanooklook of Rankin Inlet, who is deaf, speaks in Inuit Sign Language to her daughter Joanne Quinangnaq, also of Rankin Inlet, who is not deaf. (PHOTO COURTESY OF J. MACDOUGALL)

When Dr. Jamie MacDougall, a deafness researcher working on the Inuit Sign Language in Nunavut, gestures towards his chest in a patting motion, deaf Inuit often ask him, “Why are you afraid all the time ?”

That’s because MacDougall was using the sign for “Are you okay ?” in American Sign Language, but, in Inuit Sign Language, he was saying he was afraid.

In each of the two sign languages, deaf people use hand gestures that stand for sounds, words and concepts.

But they don’t necessarily use the same gestures, said MacDougall, who learned ASL as a young child from his deaf parents.

See more on nunatsiaqonline