Western Nunavut youth, women, elders seek support from Inuit org

Western Nunavut elders deliver their report to the annual general meeting of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, Oct. 18 in Cambridge Bay. They told how sometimes elders see their pension cheques taken away by their family members to buy drugs and alcohol. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Ten years ago when youth spoke at the Kitikmeot Iniuit Association’s annual general meeting in Cambridge Bay, they told about how some of their peers never wanted to go home because their parents were drinking, using drugs and gambling.

It was a “pitiful” state of affairs, a teenage girl said at the time.

Ten years later, a group of five teenagers, all girls, painted a far more troubling picture of the problems affecting them when they gave their youth delegate report to the KIA’s annual meeting Oct. 18 in Cambridge Bay.

Many youth have nowhere to go or feel they have nothing to do, they said.

That’s despite schools opening late and on weekends for sports and other activities during the school year and the existence of youth centres in the larger communities of Cambridge Bay and Kugluktuk.

But many youth now follow a dangerous path that includes substance abuse, bullying in person and online, violence, vandalism, theft, sexual assault and assault, the group said.

Many are addicted to drugs and alcohol as well, addictions that they inherited from their parents.

“There are scary things that make us scared,” said one of the youth delegates, without elaborating. “Terrifying things are happening.”

That’s the new “normal” for these girls, who also described how they had lost friends and family members to suicide.

In their report, they asked the KIA for support and action on their priorities, which include mental health services, youth centres and substance abuse and suicide prevention programs along with increased learning opportunities about Inuit history and Inuit language and culture.

Elders and women also talked about the impact of substance abuse in their Oct. 18 reports to the AGM.

The elders said there has to be more talk about elder abuse and verbal, physical and financial abuse—a call, echoed by the women’s report to the AGM, which said that there needs to be more support and programs to address elder abuse.

Elders also said they’re concerned about the upcoming legalization of marijuana on July 1, 2018, because they worry it will increase financial abuse and smoking in the home.

The recommendations from the three presenting groups were incorporated into three separate resolutions passed at the meeting.