Nunavut women, elders call for end to overcrowded homes, domestic violence

Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. delegates Celine Nigark, Edward Taqtu-Qaqqasiq and Dorothy Aglukkaq prepare to deliver their reports Oct. 22 at the NTI annual general meeting in Cambridge Bay. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

CAMBRIDGE BAY — We need safer, healthier living conditions — this was the message from two delegates representing women and elders at the Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. annual general meeting Oct. 22 in Cambridge Bay.

Improved housing, food security and domestic peace were at the top of the list of needs that they say must be met to build strong and healthy families.

In today’s overcrowded households, elders are particularly vulnerable, they said.

Elders are keeping their children at home, but then their children also have children of their own, and they all live together due to a lack of housing, said Celine Ningark of Kugaaruk, in her report to the AGM.

This means there’s often too little food to go around as well — “people are short of food in a crowded home, with hardly any food to feed all the people,” she said.

As well, caring for active children, particularly when their parents work or go out for the night, leaves little time for elders to rest, she said.

Elder safety is also an issue, she said. That’s because sometimes young people “are causing problems such as stealing from them or threatening them.”

When the elders get their pensions, often “their money is taken away from them.”

For grandparents looking after young children, the violence creates an unsafe environment, she said.

“We need to protect elders,” said Dorothy Aglukkaq of Arviat, the elder delegate at the meeting.

Women are also at risk, Ningark said.

“Young ladies are being bothered too much too. It is not safe at times. We are running out of options to stop the abuse,” she said.

Earlier during the NTI meeting, which wraps up Oct. 23, NTI president Cathy Towtongie NTI vowed action on drugs, alcohol, housing in Nunavut.

The reports from women also asked for more efforts to maintain the Inuit language, cultural programming and parenting programs.