Inuit share health knowledge at workshop

MIRIAM HILL

Three representatives from each of the 13 communities in the Baffin region met in Iqaluit May 6 for the National Aboriginal Health Organization Inuit Centre public consultation and regional workshop.

Community participants in Iqaluit were asked to present ideas and concerns to the Ottawa-based group. Sometimes emotional, the presentations showed common health concerns such as suicide, teen smoking and the lack of trained interpreters for unilingual speakers needing to go South for medical treatment.

The five-day workshop began with an overview on the role of NAHO and the Inuit Centre, and why it’s important to identify areas of concern shared by aboriginal people.

Robbie Watt, the director of the Inuit Centre, explained that NAHO is divided into three centres, one for Métis people, First Nations and Inuit.

“It’s a clearing house,” Watt said of the Inuit Centre. “A way for Inuit to identify health concerns and priorities as well as helping them with information on health issues.”

It has yet to be determined whether the Inuit Centre will be housed in a single building, or if it will be “virtual,” that is, accessible by phone and Internet.

Watt explained that with the limited funding the group receives from Health Canada, if money goes to leasing more space, there’s less left for other projects. Currently NAHO has two offices in Ottawa, one for corporate services and another nearby for the staff of the three centres.

Many Inuit are not aware of the centre, Watt said, and he and his staff are looking at ways to create partnerships so Inuit organizations can share information.

Last week, the room in Iqaluit buzzed with voices as young and old shared information about what is working in their communities. They were asked to write down their ideas on flash cards, which were later posted at the front of the room.

The information will be compiled and made available by the centre to anyone who wants it.

Mary Wilman, appointed to the board of directors of NAHO by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, is also on the governing committee for the Inuit Centre. She said Inuit have their own health practices and methods, which NAHO is trying to have recognized so they can be used in the health system.

“The realization today is that Inuit have survived so they must be doing something good,” she said. Now the traditional knowledge needs to be incorporated with modern methods of health care and prevention.

A large area of concern, she said, is that most of the health research available isn’t specifically relevant to Inuit. “For a long time, priorities were identified from an outside environment,” she said.

“We’re trying to make a shift and recognize what Inuit really want to do. We’re making our own agenda and identifying our own priorities to be able to determine what research is needed.”

Steve Amarualik, 16, said the concerns voiced by the smaller Baffin communities are pretty much the same as they are in his hometown of Resolute Bay. One of the underlying causes of the issues leading to unhealthy living in his community is boredom, he said.

“There’s no hang outs,” he said, during a break from the workshop. “There are only 200 people there and so you always see the same people.” Amarualik said many of the young people in his community who aren’t in school have some degree of problems with drugs and alcohol.

For Amarualik, sport was one way to keep him occupied. The community has no arena, but the hamlet is working on it, he said, and his athletics have given him a chance to leave the community and meet other people.

Bernadette Kublu participated in the discussion from her wheelchair. Kublu has rheumatoid arthritis in her joints, requiring her to live at the elders’ centre in Iqaluit.

She said the workshop was valuable because it allowed a sharing of traditional knowledge about health-related issues. Being able to use home remedies rather than going to the hospital for little things like headaches and colds eases the burden on the system and it doesn’t cost anything, she said.

Kublu suggested medical professionals should be made aware of some of the traditional healing practices, too, as they are often much cheaper than pharmaceuticals. She asked if a book of traditional remedies could be compiled for professionals and for Inuit.

Watt said there are documents that include traditional healing practices, but the Inuit centre’s staff is collecting the traditional knowledge during its consultations and may produce a new pamphlet to be used by Inuit.

“We’re just starting to have ownership of our own data,” he said. “There are a lot of technologies to disseminate the information through. Through workshops like this we can get a better idea of how they want it.”

Workshops have been held in Nunavik, Labrador and the Northwest Territories and others will be conducted in the Kitikmeot and Kivalliq regions.