Iḷisaqativut/Ilisazaqativut is every person who has ever participated, shared, contributed, and volunteered to create this space and time together.

Iḷisaqativut is a grassroots collective of second-language learners and volunteers who offer fellow language learners opportunities to learn Iñupiaq. Iḷisaqativut offers opportunities to learn Iñupiaq in a dedicated space, pooling together our language resources to enhance accessibility for aspiring speakers.

It's not easy to learn Iñupiaq, especially as a young working person. Study groups compete with busy lives. Classes cost money. There are few spaces where one can be enveloped by the language.

Members of the Iḷisaqativut collective have spent years picking up Iñupiaq here and there, working with fluent speakers when we can, paying out of our pockets for college courses, gathering resources as we find them.

We envision Iḷisaqativut as a way to make the path to learning Iñupiaq more fluid. By providing opportunities to focus on the language and a community of people to learn with from across Iñupiat Nunaat (Iñupiat Nation), our vision is that every person who participates in an Iḷisaqativut program leaves in a markedly different place than when they arrived.

Iḷisaqativut in 2020:

Evolving from being solely a two-week intensive, Iḷisaqativut is an Iñupiaq language learning community. Any person who is learning Iñupiaq, is Iḷisaqativut, meaning “those who learn together.”

In 2020 during a global pandemic brought by COVID-19, this looks like focusing on what language acquisition can be performed in a virtual space, creating virtual qargi, together. Visit us on our Facebook or Instagram pages for Iñupiaq language content and join our mailing list for future virtual opportunities for online learning.