Women, elders urge KIA to improve social conditions

Delegates representing women in the Kitikmeot want more money and support. From left to right, Leah Eckalook of Taloyoak, Susie Konana of Gjoa Haven and Mona Kaosoni of Cambridge Bay. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

CAMBRIDGE BAY — Women and elders in the Kitikmeot say the Kitikmeot Inuit Association must do more to help improve social conditions in the region.

With tears running down her cheeks, an elder delegate told the recent KIA annual general meeting in Cambridge Bay that, as a widow, she’s tired of feeling scared and defenseless.

“Young people on drugs are unpredictable,” she said.

She also worries about the violence that she sees around her, which is tearing families apart.

“Our ancestors didn’t fight,” she said. “When I was a young girl, I didn’t recall there was family violence.”

A treatment centre ”closer to home… with more culturally-relevant programs which could help drug and alcohol abusers” is needed in the Kitikmeot, elders said in their report to the KIA meeting.

Elders also said they need more support with their daily life, and more elders homes like the $10.6 million continuing care opening this week in Gjoa Haven.

This new 10-bed centre will accept elders who require more than eight hours of daily care, which will be provide by 13 employees, all Inuktitut or Inuinnaqtun speakers and graduates of Nunavut Arctic colleges; home and continuing care program.

Elders also want to see more anger management and parenting skills training as well as land programs for youth “to better their life skills.”

Women likewise lack help and resources, Leah Eckalook, the women’s delegate from Taloyoak told the KIA meeting.

The women’s shelter in Taloyoak has been closed down since last March due to a lack of money and problems with filing financial reports, Eckalook said.

A call for trained secretaries and elders counsellors in each Kitikmeot community, who could help women and elders with their projects and programs, was also included in the women’s report to the KIA.

Women also want to see youth eating better, asking for community breakfast programs in each of the Kitikmeot communities.

And they asked the KIA to help them find more money and training for community wellness programs.

KIA president Charlie Evalik promised the reports from women and elders would guide the organization’s activities over the next year.