Nunavik’s circus trainers seek help for troubled youth

Students clown around at a Cirque du Monde training session at Kangiqsujuaq’s Arsaniq school in February 2010. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

KUUJJUAQ — Nunavik’s Cirqiniq program is helping its young participants to “face their fears, one at a time,” says a program coordinator at the Kativik Regional Government.

But to offer better moral support to participants, organizers say they’ll have to focus the program in specific communities over the next few years and make sure circus trainers get more help dealing with the social issues they encounter.

The social circus program, modeled after Cirque du Soleil’s Cirque du Monde project for youth at risk, launched throughout Nunavik in 2009.

That’s when Cirque du Monde trainers first began to visit communities to introduce acrobatics, aerials and clowning and also to recruit and train local youth instructors.

The program has been successful, coordinator Karin Kettler told a recent meeting of KRG councillors in Kuujjuaq, although that success needs more support, she said.

While young participants are encouraged to face their fears through challenging physical and team work, Kettler said circus trainers must also provide social support to young participants.

“[Cirqiniq] breaks a communication barrier and [participants] start talking about what’s really going on,” said Kettler, the KRG’s new recreation advisor for arts and culture. “But trainers aren’t social workers. They don’t always know how to handle questions.

“So we need to add resources to our circus visits, to give a sense of security to trainers.”

In addition to promoting talent and creativity, part of the Cirqiniq’s mandate supports suicide prevention and crime prevention.

That calls for an increase in local support and broader training for Cirqiniq’s instructors, Kettler said.

In 2012 and 2013, Cirqiniq also plans it will narrow its focus to the communities that have shown the most interest in the program.

“We’ll be investing in communities who want to continue with the circus,” Kettler said. “We’ve done a lot of work but there’s still work to be done.”

Allan Brown, KRG’s regional councillor for Kuujjuaraapik, said he disagrees with that approach because “it excludes youth who are at risk in those communities.”

“It has to be rethought,” he said.

But Tunu Napartuk, director of KRG’s recreation department said his staff have reassessed the Cirqiniq project and that “with limited funds, it’s a choice we have to make.”

KRG helps pay for Cirqiniq with money provided by the Ungaluk safer communities program. Ungaluk gave $1 million to the program in 2009-10.

In August 2010, Cirqiniq hosted a circus camp in Kuujjuaq with 54 participants, an event which organizers hope to repeat in 2011.