Inunnguiniq Training: Nunavut's Approach to Foster Parent Preparation

In most of Canada, prospective foster parents complete PRIDE training — a structured program covering child development, trauma, attachment, and the foster care system. It was developed in the United States and adopted broadly across North American child welfare systems. It's standardized, evidence-based, and almost entirely designed for a southern, Western context.

Nunavut does something different. And the difference matters.

What Inunnguiniq Means

Inunnguiniq is an Inuktitut word that translates roughly as "the making of a human being." It captures the Inuit understanding of what it means to raise a child — not just keeping them safe and fed, but helping them develop ihuma (reason and thought) and isuma (intellect and judgment), so that they grow into a person capable of contributing to the community and living well in the Arctic.

The goal isn't behavioral compliance or developmental milestones in a checklist sense. The goal is the formation of a whole person, grounded in their culture, able to face the challenges of their environment with resourcefulness and dignity.

The Inunnguiniq Program

The Inunnguiniq foster care training program was developed by the Qaujigiartiit Health Research Centre in Iqaluit, in collaboration with Elders and traditional knowledge holders. It replaced the PRIDE model in Nunavut as the primary pre-service training for foster caregivers.

The program runs approximately 35 to 55 hours across 19 sessions. That's a real commitment of time — but the depth of what it covers justifies the investment.

Key topics include:

Naming practices (Tuqurausiq). In Inuit culture, a child's name carries the spirit of the person they're named after and shapes their role in the kinship network. Understanding why a child responds to a name — and the relational significance it carries for the family — is genuinely practical knowledge for a foster parent. An Elder in the community may have a particular relationship with a child because of who the child is named after. This isn't cultural theory; it's how relationships in the community actually work.

Communication styles — isummaksaiyuq. This is the art of causing a child to think and develop their own reason through ethical questioning rather than direct instruction. Inuit parenting traditionally avoids direct commands and instead uses stories, questions, and situations to allow children to develop judgment. For foster parents accustomed to direct behavioral management, this represents a genuine shift in approach that the training helps you understand and practice.

Trauma and healing. The program covers the effects of residential schools, forced relocation, and colonial child welfare practices on Inuit families — not as abstract history, but as lived reality that shapes how children in care present and how biological families relate to the DFS. For non-Inuit caregivers especially, this context is essential for understanding behavior that might otherwise be misread.

Land-based learning. The training emphasizes the importance of taking children "on the land" — hunting, fishing, gathering — as essential for spiritual and cognitive development. This isn't about weekend recreation. It's about connection to place, to the source of food, and to the skills that have sustained Inuit survival in the Arctic for thousands of years. Foster parents are expected to facilitate this, not just permit it.

IQ principles in practice. The eight principles of Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit are woven throughout the training. These aren't presented as rules to follow but as frameworks for thinking about daily caregiving decisions — how you welcome the biological family, how you manage conflict, how you involve the child in decisions about their own life.

How Training Is Delivered in Nunavut

Nunavut doesn't have large training centers. The territory has 25 communities connected to each other only by air. So training is necessarily decentralized.

Facilitators are typically community members who have completed the full Inunnguiniq facilitator training, usually in Iqaluit, and who return to their home communities to lead group sessions. In communities where there's a group of prospective foster parents, this works well — sessions happen locally, in Inuktitut or Inuinnaqtun where participants prefer it, with a facilitator who knows the community context.

In the most remote communities, or where there aren't enough local participants to run group sessions, training is supplemented by video conferencing and digital resources. The DFS's Training and Development Division coordinates this, and your CSSW can tell you what's currently scheduled in your region.

For Elder caregivers who may have limited technology access, in-person facilitation is prioritized. The DFS acknowledges that the kinship caregivers who are most needed — grandparents, aunts and uncles who are already raising children informally — are also the people least likely to access training through a laptop.

What to Expect Going In

The Inunnguiniq training is designed to be supportive and reflective, not evaluative in a pass/fail sense. Sessions involve discussion, storytelling, and personal reflection as much as information delivery. You're not being tested on your knowledge of IQ principles — you're being invited into a conversation about what caring for a child means in this place, with this culture, in this time.

That said, the training does examine things that are genuinely challenging. For Inuit caregivers, it may bring up painful history about how traditional parenting practices were suppressed during the colonial era. For non-Inuit caregivers, it requires genuine openness to approaches that are different from what you grew up with.

Come ready to listen more than you talk, especially in early sessions. Come without the assumption that your own childhood experiences or parenting background gives you a head start. And come recognizing that Elders in the room may have knowledge that took generations to develop.

After Training: Ongoing Learning

Pre-service training is the beginning, not the end. DFS expects licensed foster parents to continue their professional development — this is reviewed at annual license renewal. Additional training opportunities include first aid and CPR certification (required), and cultural workshops or land-based camps offered through Regional Inuit Associations.

Kinship caregivers who are licensed through the department have the same training requirements as other foster parents, though the pacing may be adapted to their circumstances.

The Inunnguiniq program is unlike any foster parent training offered elsewhere in Canada. It's one of the things that makes fostering in Nunavut genuinely distinct. The Nunavut Foster Care Guide covers what to expect from training, how to prepare, and what the ongoing cultural obligations look like in practice.

Get the Nunavut Foster Care Guide

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