Arctic Bay youth need community gym

I would like to express my concern about the attitude of the hamlet of Arctic Bay toward its young people.

I am an avid athlete in traditional games such as Arctic sports, which are good for the body, mind and soul.

A fellow athlete and I, along with other potential athletes, play this challenging sport regularly, but there is one problem. There is just no support for athletes like us in the Hamlet of Arctic Bay.

Although the community gymnasium was built for the young people of Arctic Bay, we, the athletes who try to make changes within ourselves have fallen short this year because of “materialistic” office workers.

Every year we use the gym to practice our traditional art for free. But this year we have to rent the gymnasium from the hamlet in order to play traditional games.

The community gymnasium is our only way to solve local problems, at least some of the problems.
For instance, why is the suicide rate so high? Simple, no support from the hamlet that people look up to so much. I think it’s time to wake up and make yourselves heard about little issues like this.

It may mean little to the hamlet but it means a huge chunk to us young people.

In addition, I hope this letter enables other young people to express their feelings about big issues that others think that are small. Taima, and thank you.

Rene Tautu
Arctic Bay