Nunavut Premier Eva Aariak says federal government has to provide more money to improve territory's education system. (CBC)

For generations, Inuit hunters used Inukshuks — flat stones stacked in the shape of a human — to help them find their way through the trackless and featureless tundra.

Now, Premier Eva Aariak thinks she has found an Inukshuk to guide Nunavut's leaders through the territory's similarly trackless next decade.

"I take education as an underlying solution to many of the issues that we're dealing with today," says the eastern Arctic territory's new premier, chosen by her legislative colleagues last November following the territorial election.

As Nunavut marks its 10th anniversary on Wednesday, finding the loose end of the territory's knotty problems can seem impossible.

Poor housing, suicide, domestic violence, substance abuse, poverty and inadequate job skills are all bound up together.

But tug on the string labelled "education" and all those ills just might unravel, Aariak says.

"Education deals with many of the issues we are dealing with today. Job readiness, suicide, dropout rates, social issues, alcohol and substance abuse — when engaged in focused efforts such as trying to complete their education, individuals are engaged in where they want to go," she suggests.

"They don't have as much time to think about breaking and enter and all the stuff that we see is happening and being done by people who have fallen in the cracks along the way.

"Education at all levels — training and skills development — will have to play a very big part."

Berger report called for millions more from Ottawa

It sounds simple. But education in Nunavut has tangles all its own.

Only 25 per cent of students end up graduating, the worst result in the country and less than half the average for southern aboriginals. A 2006 report by former justice Thomas Berger found Nunavut's education system didn't produce graduates competent in either English or Inuktitut.

And a system already falling behind will only face increasing demand. Nunavut has the highest birth rate in Canada and over half of Nunavummiut are under 25.

"We need more teachers, many more teachers," Aariak sighs.

She says the solution is attached to the federal purse. Ottawa hasn't provided the necessary funding.

"We need money to do those things. We need a collective effort, both our government and Canada, to work together. I think there's a lot of room to grow in that area."

Berger estimated it would take another $20 million a year to revamp and run Nunavut's schools properly.

Ottawa faces a billion-dollar lawsuit from the group that oversees the Nunavut land claim over allegations that the federal government's failure to provide proper training costs Inuit $123 million a year in lost wages.

Inuit language, culture need to be promoted at school

But not just any education system will do.

Aariak draws on her own experience to insist that Inuit children need to learn in an environment that nurtures their culture and language. Educated in a residential school and in Ottawa, Aariak knows that need first-hand.

"I lived it," she said. "When I was young, gaining information about the outside world was very much pushed. There was no Inuktitut taught in the schools I attended."

Eventually, that lack became painful.

"There was still something missing in me. I don't know enough about who I am, where I come from."

Aariak learned her fluent Inuktitut as an adult. She also learned traditional sewing skills and can make her own kamiks — sealskin boots — and parkas.

With the passage of new legislation that promises Inuktitut-language instruction, Nunavut has taken the first step toward building an education system geared to its own culture and needs. There's a long way to go, but Aariak is an optimist.

"We are coming out with a lot of positive things," she says. "We can't expect things to be fixed in a decade."