Wounded Nunavik students trade words of hope

As part of a week-long healing workshop at Arsaniq school in Kangiqsujuaq last month, students made masks to display the contrast between how they appear on the outside and how they really feel inside. (PHOTO BY DAVID BENOIT)

SARAH ROGERS
Special to Nunatsiaq News

KANGIQSUJUAQ — Words of hope line the walls of an Arsaniq School classroom in Kangiqsujuaq.

Posters around the room reveal the words “confused, scared, helpless” and “frustrated.”

Others say “abuse, rape” and “suicide.”

These are not words that most people use to express hope, but a poster explains their purpose.

“What we need to be healthy in life,” its bold headline reads, “is to talk about it, and tell people we need help.”

While these students’ words come from desperate places, the act of talking can bring hope to youth who’ve seen more trauma and grief than most people ever will in a lifetime.

Secondary students in Kangiqsujuaq began their process of
healing last month during a week-long workshop called “Healing from unresolved trauma and grief.”

The workshop has twice visited secondary students in all 14 Nunavik communities.

The workshop leaders use a clinical approach that’s rooted in talk therapy at the group level, said project manager Annie Popert.

The clinical team includes local and visiting members, including Jane Middelton-Moz, a Native American psychologist and expert on multigenerational grief and trauma.

Participation in the workshop is completely voluntary, although it is recognized as part of the students’ studies, Popert said.

“In Kangiqsujuaq, we had amazing participation from the secondary students,” Popert said.

“There was not only an amazing number of students, but they had a strong voice. I know as an adult that the process of healing is not easy. When I look at a 13- or 14-year-old starting that same process, it’s hard. They’re a strong, courageous group of kids.”

For the most part, what happens in the workshop stays there, as the sessions are built on trust and confidentiality, Popert said.

But the same “kids” emerged as a more cohesive and mature group of students after a week, an Arsaniq school teacher said.

Participants now plan to share their posters with the community by reading them over the local FM radio over the coming weeks.

But what many consider a groundbreaking workshop for youth across Nunavik is quickly approaching the end of its funding period in March 2010.

The program has operated over the past five years thanks to more than $1.7 million from the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

Established in March 1998, the foundation received $350 million from the federal government as part of Canada’s aboriginal action plan to address the abuse suffered in the residential school system.

But more money may be on the horizon.

Margot Geduld, a spokesperson for the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, said the department is now conducting a review of the AHF healing programs to “determine their efficacy and to recognize to what extent the funding should continue.”

The review’s findings should be made public before the end of the year.

“We’d certainly like to continue what we’re doing,” Popert said. “Healing is a long-term process and, in my opinion, it’s really just beginning.”

People have had different traumatic experiences, she added./ Some of these experiences take a long time to heal and a lot of time, and don’t appear as issues until later on, she said.

Popert, a former executive director of the Kativik School Board, said when she was doing that job she started to understand how unresolved trauma can influence lives.

“I was often very frustrated,” Popert said. “I felt that there was more we could be doing to help with the success of our students.”

The KSB remains a strong supporter of healing programs in its schools, said the board’s assistant director, Mary Aitchison,

School administrators have noticed that youth who participate in the workshop are more at peace with themselves and their peers, Aitchison said.

“The program is absolutely necessary for our youth and adults, and frankly, I know we deserve it,” Aitchison said. “The interest… to attend is high and the benefits are great.”