The Current - Rassi Nashalik is still a rock star in the north

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

Rassi Nashalik was the first person to ever host the Inuktituk news program Igalaaq.  As she receives the Order of Canada, she still works to educate both Inuk and non-Inuk about the importance of her language and her culture.

All right, picture this as your childhood. You live in New York. Your dad is a famous jazz musician and you have your own TV show. That was the life of Nat and Alex Wolfe. They grew up starring in a show called The Naked Brothers Band. On cue with Tom Power, Nat and Alex Wolf will tell you how the fame they experienced wasn't always pretty and how they're reflecting on this unusual life for their new record. I'm Tali O'SLanger, guest hosting while Tom is away.

You can hear that conversation with Nat and Alex Wolf on cue with Tom Power, wherever you get your podcast. This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. That was the sign on that Inuit across the north, tuned into every night for nearly 20 years, Rasi Nashalik, hosting the CBC TV Soparau News program, Igalak. She is like a rock star. You know, when you travel in Nunavut with Rasi, there's. There's just people all around and children running after her going,

Igalak, Igalak. Igalak is the only Inuktuot-Language news program. It's marking its 30th anniversary this year, still a vital lifeline for news in Canada's north. Rasi was its very first host. She retired in 2014, but that rock star status has not faded. She continues to promote her language and her culture, and for that has been appointed to the Order of Canada. Rassi Nashelik joins us now from her studio in Yellowknife. Rossi, good morning.

Good morning. Congratulations. Thank you so much. What does it mean to you to be named to the Order of Canada? Well, it took me a while to get it settled down in me. I keep saying to myself, why me? Why was it difficult for you to accept that? Because I just did my job, really.

Those years when I was hosting, I always, think about the unilingual speakers and also the little ones, children and teenagers. That's how I kept my language alive. The more and more think about it now, it was for real. Like I did my job to keep it alive. What did it mean to you to receive this honor from Mary Simon? I mean, she is also a long time, lifelong. advocate for Inuit.

It means I thought about her right away because I got to know her as a host for Egelach. I interview her a lot and follow her. And I just thought to myself, you know, would it be nice if Governor General Mary Simon give me this order of Canada? That was the first thing it came on my mind. That means something special to have that kind of. Mm-hmm. Very. For people down south who might not know this program, can you explain what makes Igalach such a special newscast and such a special program?

What is the role that it plays in the North? It play a lot. Igalach is a very vital part of our culture, especially going on daily newscasts in our language to broadcast across a country or even in the world. Now you could live stream it anywhere you go. And I think it play a lot a role to keep our viewers understand what's happening in the North and also understanding their language instead of in English. And it's so important. Tell me more about the role of language in this program. I mean, without a show like Irelac, what would that mean in terms of how folks in the North unilingually knew it would stay connected?

I grew up with the newspapers and all, especially the Bible. And my parents always had Bibles, which were translated into Inuititude. And it was a very big tool for even me as a little child. I read the alphabets, E-O-A-P-P-P-Pa, and that's how we learn how to write our writing system in our language. And I always see my parents reading the Bible. That's all they had when we were living in the village. And after a while, the newspapers came in Inuit,

and they would read it. And they were dying to hear things, read things in their language. And I think Igelac play a big role on passing on their daily newscasts in Inuititude, which they could understand. The Governor General's office has said that you are a trusted voice for Canada's North, a valued advocate for the preservation of the Inuit language and culture and a sought after elder and community advisor. As we heard earlier, you're also looked at as a rock star in your community. What does that mean to you being a rock star?

You know, these kind of things never really matter for me. I just love little children. I love people, actually. I like to be able to talk to them. and it never really get me like as a rock star. But I became very well-known because of what I did on CBC, Galaq. And also, I'm a very strong believer of teaching my culture and language. And right now as an elder, I'm keeping it alive with telling stories.

about my culture to teach everybody, no matter who they are, where I am coming from, where I grow up, what I did. For me, I have to be proud of myself in every way as an in a person. One of the things that you did when you were hosting this program was that you would read the news in Inuktut. But it wasn't that simple, right? Describe how you did this. Describe what you were doing live on television. When I first did the show, the first show was all in Inuitte, in teleprompter. When I got on air, I was stumbling a little bit because maybe the nerves or just reading. I was more comfortable in sight translating, which means the scripts are in English, and I say translate them into my language.

I found that more natural when I'm talking, words coming out more naturally. So you would read the script, it would be in English, but you would just translate live into inuctitude. Yes, yes. I mean, that's incredible. I can barely read a teleprompter in English, let alone translate in real time. It's an amazing skill to have. You know, it takes practice. I used to want to read the script so many times.

five, six times, if not more. In that way, you know the story. And it sounds like you're telling a story rather than reading something. Yeah. Can you talk about your language? You learned to speak English at a residential school as a child, right? Yeah, I was 10 years old when the federal government were collecting children from each villages outside of Pagnotong. and they had set up a school, federal day school in Pengnotong.

That was 1964. Me and my older sister were children that were picked. And I didn't have any clue how to speak English. We had to learn the English. We had to. I always say that was starting of my journey. Did you ever worry in that time that you would lose your language? It never really occurred to me.

We had young couples living with us who didn't speak English at all. And daily basis, we live with them. That was our home language. And that was why we never lost our language. That age group, that generation. I'm talking about, that we speak fluently. And after a while, you start seeing things that were changing. It's had a lot to do with the government influence

by taking the kids away to go to school for residential school. Like looking at the western side of Northwest Territories, they were told not to speak the language. their language when they were going to school. And way, way before us, they lost their language and culture. But very slowly, they regaining it back these days. Do you see that? Do you see a younger generation, we've seen this when we've been to the north,

a younger generation that wants to learn the language and wants to strengthen their ties to the language and culture? Do you see that as well? Oh, I really see that. They're hungry. They're hungry to learn the culture and language, which is so nice to see. I really think we came a long ways. There's a lot of talk now about the North,

and a lot of it is through that lens of Arctic sovereignty, of what it means to be in the North. Do you think as a nation we understand the North better now than we did before? Absolutely. That's why I teach. The more we talk, the more we teach the people who doesn't know the north. It was our land forever. We controlled our lives living in here. And some people think that no one could survive in the north. But we are from here. We know how to survive on our land.

aliens. We've been here forever, like our ancestors had been living here and survive by living off the land. Are you optimistic about that future? It's hard to preserve those ties to the culture, but you're optimistic about where that will go in future? We need a strong people. We need strong people, Inuit people. And what I believe in now, As an older person, we need to include our culture, way of life, traditional values in our government system. And I believe that Western and traditional, when they come together, they could become very strong. We have to get our government system to get into more of a culturally relevant places to work and teach more, get Inuit involved. You have an important role to do with that as an elder as well.

I mean, that's your calling now, it seems like. It is my calling. And now that I teach a lot, I want people to understand us, the way we were, who we are, really. I really think it could happen if we start getting more in control our government system, our organizations. Of course, we need to do Western style of settings, but to put the traditional values in where we work,

and I think it could help so much to make our life better. I know you're uncomfortable with that phrase, but you are a rock star, and this is a great honor to see you celebrated with your. Order of Canada. Rasi, thank you very much. You welcome. El Ali, Coyen Namy. Rasi Nashalik was the first host of CBC

television's Inuktitut-Language News Program Igalak. She is a new recipient of the Order of Canada. This has been the current podcast. You can hear our show Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 at 8.30 a.m. at all time zones. You can also listen online at cbc.ca.ca. slash the current or on the CBC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.ca.com.