Ungava Tulattavik Health Centr

By Dan Laxer
The Suburban

The English Montreal School Board is joining forces with an alternative school in NDG that provides support for Indigenous students at risk.

Ulluriaq has been in the neighbourhood for about six years. Its students are boys from Nunavik and communities in and around the Ungava Peninsula, and operates under the Ungava Tulattavik Health Centre. The unit has two components. One is a detention facility. The other is a high school that provides education to at-risk and neurodivergent teens in a setting that prioritizes cultural connection and hands-on learning.

The EMSB will be providing the school’s educational component.

Life in the north is hard. Suicide rates are high. And life expectancy, at least at one time, was no longer than 21 years. The thinking behind setting up Ulluriaq was that, rather than send people to northern communities, it would be better to bring at-risk kids to the city where they might experience a bigger world. The mission has changed somewhat, says head teacher Ophir Benjacob. Now Ulluriaq – which means “star” – takes in kids who might either be in youth protection, or in the justice system. Their home communities don’t have the tools to give them the help they need. So they send them to Ulluriaq.

The partnership between the school and the EMSB means that the board will provide educational support – teachers who will be going into Ulluriaq. That comes with challenges. Many of the boys at Ulluriaq have never been to school, Benjacob tells The Suburban. Those who have, he says, might have come out traumatized. There are cultural and linguistic differences to overcome. Many of the boys at Ulluriaq speak only Inuktitut. They are disconnected from their homes and communities. The teachers will have to learn about where these boys come from, about their culture. And they will need to have the teaching and communication skills necessary to help the boys overcome their challenges.

Last fall the EMSB hired two new teachers as project development officers for Indigenous support. Raymond Johnson-Brown and Kurt Kerschl work to ensure a safe environment for Indigenous students at schools in the board. The two will work as liaisons with Ulluriaq. Johnson-Brown knows what it means to grow up in the care system. “I felt an immediate pull when I learned that we provide education services to children in a facility that is locked down,” Johnson-Brown says. “It’s such a surreal and disorienting experience to be taken from your home, your culture, and your language, and then placed in an environment where you can’t even begin to process what’s happening to you.”

Benjacob explains that the partnership will give Ulluriaq “the capacity to expand on the program beyond the basic academics that are conventional for a high school” to encompass elements of the Inuit culture.

At Ulluriaq, “we are not just teaching, we are building a foundation for resilience, self-sufficiency, and cultural pride,” says Benjacob. “By meeting our students where they are, both academically and culturally, we are proving that education can be a tool for empowerment, not a barrier to success.” n