Nunavut Christmas message celebrates life

“We’ve all got to be here longer, for families, friends, and everyone else out there in the community”

By PETER VARGA

Sylvia Kilgik of Kugluktuk added a message of hope to her homemade Christmas decorations this holiday season. (PHOTO COURTESY BUILDING A HEALTHIER KUGLUKTUK)


Sylvia Kilgik of Kugluktuk added a message of hope to her homemade Christmas decorations this holiday season. (PHOTO COURTESY BUILDING A HEALTHIER KUGLUKTUK)

Kugluktuk residents have long known Sylvia Kilgik for the unique tuques, ear and neck-warmers and slippers she has made for two decades.

The Christmas season marks a special time when Kilgik also crochets miniature versions of her work, as holiday decorations.

This year, with encouragement from the Society for Building a Healthier Kugluktuk, she has added her own important message to her work, summed up in four small words stitched into the decorations: “Suicide isn’t the answer!”

“It’s the first time I’m making these ones, to stop the suicide,” said Kilgik, who has seen family and friends die by suicide. Kilgik herself weathered the pain caused by suicide with help from the society, and decided to spread words of hope and encouragement.

“I hope it really helps,” she said.

Suicide “has got to end,” she added. “We live only once. We get buried once, and I’m trying to help stop suicide. It’s enough already.”

Suicide hit epidemic proportions in the territory in 2013, when 45 Nunavummiut took their own lives. This year’s numbers are down, but no less alarming, with 19 cases confirmed up to October.

Kilgik promises to help stop death by suicide on another front as well.

She is one of several family members of the 45 deceased who agreed to testify in the Nunavut coroner’s inquest on suicide in the territory next year.

Chief coroner Padma Suramala called for the “discretionary inquest” in response to the high number of cases in 2013.

Testimony from family members affected by such incidents will serve to “highlight risk factors and warning signs, raise public awareness and facilitate making recommendations to avoid preventable deaths in the future,” Suramala said in January.

The Society for Building a Healthier Kugluktuk lobbied the Coroner’s Office to examine all 45 cases from 2013, rather than just three—as originally planned—which were to be chosen from each of Nunavut’s three regions.

Suramala confirmed in March that her office is reviewing every case.

The society will provide support for Kilgik when she eventually makes her way to Iqaluit to testify.

“There’s no date set yet, but [the inquiry] has been definite for about a year,” said Mike Webster, executive director for the society. “We just want to make it a positive experience for Sylvia.”

Deaths by suicide are damaging to everyone, Kilgik said.

“We’ve all got to be here longer, for families, friends, and everyone else out there in the community,” she said. The holiday season is a perfect time to carry that message, she added.

“It feels good to help out, especially like this at Christmas,” said Kilgik. “It’s a special occasion.”

You can find Kilgik’s decorations and other work at the Kugluktuk Visitor Heritage Centre, and through the Society for Building a Healthier Kugluktuk.

Established in 2011, the non-profit society’s key purpose is to provide resolution support for residential school survivors, and to support Inuit culture in the west of the Kitikmeot region. See the group’s website for more information.

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