Nunavut’s first “youth empowerment” camp an inspiration

Deborah Koblogina and Jarret Miyok display their Arctic char filets which are ready for drying — part of the skills they practiced during the two-day land portion of the Makimautiksat Wellness and Empowerment camp in Cambridge Bay. (COURTESY OF THE QUAJIGIARTIIT HEALTH RESEARCH CENTRE)

Exercises were part of the program at Cambridge Bay’s Makimautiksat Wellness and Empowerment camp. (COURTESY OF THE QUAJIGIARTIIT HEALTH RESEARCH CENTRE)

Learning how to make spears, or kapuutiit in Innuinaqtun, was a highlight of the land portion of the two-day land portion of the Makimautiksat Wellness and Empowerment camp. (COURTESY OF THE QUAJIGIARTIIT HEALTH RESEARCH CENTRE)

Ask Kavyak Aitauk, 13, about the best part of her experience at Cambridge Bay’s recent Makimautiksat camp, and she’ll tell you it was learning how to make a spear and to “let stuff out of your heart.”

For everyone involved in the organization of the first Makimautiksat Wellness and Empowerment Camp for Nunavut youth, Aitauk’s response couldn’t be a better

That’s because it means the 10-day camp, the first of several pilot project camps, succeeded in its goal of helping youth like Aitauk become stronger and more confident in themselves and in their culture.

The first seven days of the Makimautiksat camp, which took place from June 30 to July 13 in Cambridge Bay, were spent in the community.

There, the 10 campers, young teens, aged 13 to 15, worked on seven of the camp program’s “Eight Ujarait [rocks],” meant to symbolize the foundation of skills and knowledge that young people need to build their lives.

These “ujarait” touched on healthy relationships, improving coping skills, increasing awareness of the body, movement and nutrition, exploring creativity, increasing self-esteem, self-discovery and future planning, and how to deal with peer pressure and substance abuse.

During the community-based portion of the camp, elder Sarah Takolik of Taloyoak came to speak to the group about the past and the nature of relationships between Inuit.

That discussion left Aituak with a renewed respect for elders and a desire to steer clear of gossip.

Stories told by Cambridge Bay elder and literacy promoter Annie Neglak, 64, who recently graduated from Nunavut Arctic College, inspired Tetra Otokiak, 13, to think about setting her own goals: you’re never too young or old to make your dreams come true, she learned.

Those seven days at camp in Cambridge Bay felt like being in school for a month, admits Kassidy Koha-Laube, also 13, but in a good way.

Campers hung on every word they heard, says Julia Ogina, programs co-ordinator at the Kitikmeot Inuit Association and one of Makimautiksat’s facilitators.

“They kept taking notes and saying ‘I need more paper,’ so I knew it was hitting home,” Ogina says.

Role models from Cambridge Bay, including public health workers and wellness counsellors, also visited the camp.

Their visits help to build a circle of adults in the community that the camp participants can feel comfortable to go to later, if they need help or simply to talk, Ogina says.

And, during the presentations, campers also learned not to interrupt and how to respect confidentiality, that “what’s said here, stays here,” Ogina says.

During the sessions, Ogina, who has organized youth camps in Nunavut’s Kitikmeot region for years, had some pleasant surprises — that the boys in the camp — about half the campers — were as involved as the girls.

“When we were talking about healthy sexuality, it was the boys who were talking the most,” Ogina says.

For two days the group went to Camp Kungak, in a secluded location near Cambridge’s Bay’s Gravel Pit, Akulailguk, where they made their own spears, or kapuutit in Innuinaqtun, and a blind for hunting.

They went out seal hunting, but saw the seal dive away, fished, and then prepared Arctic char for drying. All these were new experiences for about half the campers.

There, they also experienced some on-the-land problem-solving and learned how to rely on each other.

After emptying their fishing nets, they had paddle their boat back to shore across melt water on the ice. First, they went around in circles as they paddled.

“You guys figure it out,” Ogina told them from on shore.

It finally took the campers 45 minutes to get back to the nearby shore but during that time they learned how to co-operate with each other, Ogina says.

Campers say they came to Makimautiksat to learn more about Inuit culture.

And they did.

Sarah Jancke, youth co-ordinator for KIA and a facilitator at the camp, says she could heard their “passion and pride” when the teenaged campers talked about being Inuit during the camp — and that impressed her.

A graduate of the Ottawa-based Nunavut Sivuniksavut program, which has a focus on Inuit history, language and culture, Jancke also attended many youth camps herself.

But the Makimautiksat camp got campers thinking about — and experiencing — Inuit culture in ways she didn’t until after NS, says Jancke, who’s only 10 years older than most of the campers.

The lessons learned from Cambridge Bay’s Makimautiksat camp will help fine-tune future camps.

These will be held in Iqaluit in partnership with Iqaluit Social Services from Aug. 1 to 14 and in Arviat in partnership with the Arviat Wellness Centre from Aug. 17 to 30.

Pilot camps are being planned for Pangnirtung and two other Nunavut communities in 2012 and 2013.

The Makimautiksat camp is one of four programs currently underway at the Qaujigiartiit Health Research Centre, an independent, Iqaluit-based community research centre on child and youth mental health and wellness in Nunavut.

Last February, the Qaujigiartiit Health Research Centre received $2.4 million over four years from the Public Health Agency of Canada to support its programs.

These also include research with youth using photo-voice research methods — in which youth use cameras to answer a question like “what makes you happy?” — and piloting a parenting support program for Nunavummiut rooted in Inuit values and beliefs related to childrearing.

As for Makimautiksat’s success in Cambridge Bay, the campers have the last word, saying “it felt very good” to open up, make new friends and learn skills.

Making a spear? That’s something they say could now do in less than an hour — and they all vow to support each other and help elders.