Kuujjuaraapik’s family house lays out a feast for elders

Kuujjuaraapik’s Tasiurvik family house is bringing the community together with activities like free breakfasts and elders’ feasts, including a feast on Feb. 28 at the Katittavik Culture Centre next door to the family house.

Kuujjuaraapik’s Tasiurvik family house shares this building with the radio station, near the school and the culture centre. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)

The food was sourced from various community members, who were paid to cook bannock, caribou, goose stew and other traditional meals.

Roughly 25 elders came to share a meal together and partake in a raffle for furs and household items.

“As a family house, we are more involved with the community, of all ages,” said Tasiurvik president Minnie Tookalook in an interview after wrapping up the feast.

“The house is meant to help out people as a family.”

The organization’s activity co-ordinator and board of directors, which boasts seven members and two observers — one elder and one youth — plan community activities to promote a healthy lifestyle.

Ideas are collected by the family house every year during its annual general meeting. It’s at this meeting that community members can participate and give their thoughts on what should be done in Kuujjuaraapik, which has a population of about 800.

“The goal is to give activities, pass on the knowledge from elders to the younger generations,” Tookalook said.

She was appointed president of the Tasiurvik family house in 2021, but at first things did not run smoothly. Manager rollover was high and it was hard to find stability.

“I was very new, and I did not know what was going on and what I got myself into,” Tookalook said.

“But ever since, I started liking the role.”

She began applying for funding, namely from the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services to get projects going.

Since then, three times a week, a free breakfast is offered to community members. They only need to go to the family house and use the ingredients and the kitchen there to cook it for themselves.

“Usually at the end of the month there are a lot of people,” Tookalook said, adding it can look like about 50 people using the space during the final week of any given month.

She said this is because welfare payments start running out about this time, and people struggle with money.

“The family house is supposed to be a very safe place for the families that are willing to be more involved in the community,” she said. “We try to welcome everyone.”

The rules of the house are simple: no violence, no harm, and zero tolerance.

The goal in the future is to have more youths involved in the organization behind Tasiurvik because “as you get older, the new generation has more ideas,” said Tookalook.