Western Nunavut youth, women, elders want help with drugs, alcohol, language loss

Kitikmeot youth share their concerns Oct. 16 in a presentation to the Kitikmeot Inuit Association’s annual general meeting in Cambridge Bay. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

CAMBRIDGE BAY — Youth, elders and women all testified to the havoc that drugs, alcohol and overcrowded housing play in western Nunavut when they spoke Oct. 16 to the Kitikmeot Inuit Association’s annual general meeting in Cambridge Bay.

Adults don’t know the pain they cause by drinking, said KIA youth delegate Tetra Aaluk of Cambridge Bay, who reached for a tissue to wipe off her tears as she spoke.

Some kids go days without food so their parents can buy drugs and alcohol, Aaluk said, “and they leave their children starving.”

Youth also are turning to drugs and alcohol, she said, because “youth are bored and have nothing to do.”

In a separate presentation, women delegates said drugs and alcohol abuse siphons money that should go towards feeding families — and that is difficult already enough due to the many people who live in overcrowded households.

“It creates a problem for the community, because it takes money that would be used for food for the families,” they said.

Their concerns were also echoed by elders, who said they also fall prey to violence and intimidation in the home from family members extorting money.

The youth, women and elders also proposed some solutions.

Youth suggested they need role models to help them to connect with their language and culture.

“Our language is like a huge rock. It means that it takes more than one person to move it,” said Jamie Takkiruq of Gjoa Haven.

And youth could also use role models to keep them in school.

Women said they would like to see more places where they can work with younger women on cooking and sewing — and they’d like to see more programs similar to the one in Kugluktuk where women learn to cook dishes like Arctic char soup or muskox stew and then serve these up to people in the community as part of a soup-kitchen effort.

But many of the youth, women and elders groups said they need assistance — or funding— to move ahead with their projects.

The KIA resolutions, passed late Oct. 16, as the KIA meeting wrapped up, reflected these needs.

The resolutions called, among other things, for access to drug and alcohol abuse prevention programs and language revitalization programs which would see elders trained as “language promoters” in the region.

Donna Lyall and Sarah Jancke, who works with youth issues at the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, throat-sing Oct. 16 after the KIA’s community feast held at the Luke Novoligak Community Hall in Cambridge Bay. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)