Utqiaġvik Artist Creates Iñupiaq Workbook for Young Learners

Alaina Kuupaaq Bankston, an Utqiaġvik artist and parent, received a Rasmuson award and will spend a year creating a workbook primer that teaches the Iñupiaq alphabet and numbers to young children. The project is intended to create a classroom style workbook in Iñupiaq for preschool and kindergarten age learners, providing materials families can use at home as well as in schools.

Bankston said her 4 year old son Qalayauq inspired the project. "It all kind of started with creating for him and being able to use those resources," she said. "So now that he's getting into the workbooks, so I'm like, oh, I need to create a workbook." She grew up learning Iñupiaq in school and continues her own language study through conversations with elders, dictionaries, and the Rosetta Stone app.

Bankston emphasized a need for child focused materials that mirror what is available in English. "Like you start kindergarten, you have the whole workbook, you're learning the alphabet, the numbers, the colors, and we have all that in English," she said. "What if we had that in Inupiaq? So that's just, that's what I'd like to create." She added the project is born of practical necessity for families. "It's really born out of necessity," she said. "I'm sure there are resources out there. I'm sure there are things, but they're not something you could just go pick up at a store or buy online."

Her workbook will join a suite of recent efforts to revitalize the language on the North Slope, including a digital Iñupiaq dictionary and a local restoration of Inupiaq immersion programs by the North Slope Borough School District two years ago. A popular word puzzle in Iñupiaq also launched in recent years, reflecting community and linguistic engagement across generations.

Bankston framed the work as part of a larger cultural and educational journey. "I think it's a really important journey, and I think we've been making big strides recently," Bankston said. "With the history of it, it's definitely a dying language, but I think it's important we keep it alive." For North Slope Borough residents, the workbook promises practical support for parents and teachers, and a local tool to help sustain language transmission at the earliest stages of learning.