More funding, more beluga hunts: Kuujjuaraapik men’s group expands activities

Silas Cookie-Comtois says it is important to have a space where men can open up in Nunavik communities — and Arctic Inspiration Prize funding is helping them do that.

The president of Qimutjuit, Kuujjuaraapik’s men’s association, recently gave an update on how the $425,000 prize won last spring and other funding is bringing in more traditional activities.

The association provides training and education by bringing elders and youths together through harvesting camps and traditional skills.

Cookie-Comtois says the association received more than $1 million last year from the Arctic Inspiration Prize as well as Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services.

The association has built a camp for beluga hunting, and two more spots are in the works with help from the Kativik Regional Government.

As well, the association is set to receive $300,000 this year from the Quebec government for seasonal camps that will be open to anyone who wants to gain practise in traditional cooking, toolmaking, crafts, hunting and fishing.

The most urgent concern is for the men’s association to get a building of its own.

“We do not have a building to fully benefit the community,” said Cookie-Comtois, in an interview at his home in Kuujjuaraapik.

“We need a concrete-slab building like a garage, so we can teach to a full 100 per cent.”

Currently, the association leads with on-the-land activities but some hands-on crafting is missing due to the lack of space.

“You do what you can do with what you have,” Cookie-Comtois said.

The men’s association in Kuujjuaraapik got its start about five years ago, following in the footsteps of the neighbouring Hudson Bay communities Umiujaq and Inukjuak who had by then started their own men’s associations.

Inukjuak’s was the first of its kind, getting its start in 2001 to address suicide among young men in the community.

There are now four men’s associations in Nunavik, with Quaqtaq the only community on the Ungava coast to have one.

“We were missing something; nothing was happening in town for men, especially, we wanted to get that started,” says Cookie-Comtois.

“We needed something that was culturally oriented toward men that can help them go out camping, hunting, and teach the youth at the same time.”

Cookie-Comtois said having a space dedicated to men spending time with each other, sharing their thoughts and any problems they are dealing with in the context of hunting, on-the-land activities and crafts, is the best outlet.

“It is a safer place for you to talk about things that are bothering you, and [other men] probably know how to speak to you better, to understand you,” he said.

“It is easy, it is fun. You can get to open up, start laughing.”