Trekking for Kimmirut’s troubled youth

ANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT – Shielding their eyes against the blinding reflection of the Friday afternoon sun on frozen Frobisher Bay, a small group of people scan the horizon for a trekker and his companions.

They begin to talk excitedly as they point their sealskin-covered hands out across the Bay. In the distance, a small figure grows larger as he makes his way across the sea ice, along a well-travelled snowmobile trail, to the shore. Two dogs pull a small kamotiq behind him.

Within five minutes, the travellers reach the group, who welcome Kootoo Shaw, 39, with hugs and kisses.

The dogs yap their own greeting, both nervous and excited by the attention. Then there’s a barrage of questions directed to Shaw about his five-day trek from Kimmirut to Iqaluit, his way of trying to raise money for hockey equipment and an arena for kids in his community.

“We’ve been trying to get that arena for 15 years and we’ve been turned down,” says Shaw, who believes an arena will stop the self-destruction of young people in the South Baffin hamlet of 400 residents.

“It would help a lot and it would stop the suicides in Kimmirut,” he says as he sips hot coffee from a styrofoam cup.

Troubled youth in Kimmirut

Kimmirut RCMP Constable Kelly Tourand said in the year he’s been working in the community, there have been two suicides and two attempted suicides. Many more young people, he adds, talk about killing themselves.

“There are a lot of depressed kids in town,” Coust Tourand said.

He said an arena in the community would “pick up the spirits of the town” for a time, but there are deeper problems that need to be tackled.

Mayor Mickey Akavak is optimistic that kids will be lacing up their skates in a new arena by the fall of 1999.

“Two suicides in one year is an awful lot for a small community such as Kimmirut,” Akavak said.

He said kids could use the arena to “release that energy that they have as far as pressures at home and in school.”

He uses Broughton Island as an example of a community that’s had a positive change since its arena opened.

“A few years ago they had a very high rate of suicide and crime in that community.”

Kimmirut uses outdoor rink

Residents in Kimmirut now skate on a 175-foot by 75-foot outdoor rink near the community’s airport. There are no formal hockey teams and youth use whatever old equipment they can scrounge up to play pick-up games on the weekend.

“We felt maybe we should do a fundraising,” Akavak said, adding some Inuit organizations have already donated money for skates, pucks, nets and hockey sticks. “With the longer days coming, the kids are going to use it a lot more.”

Akavak wants to get enough equipment to suit a team to participate in Iqaluit’s Toonik Tyme hockey activities in April. He’s also interested in future tournaments among South Baffin players.

Raising awareness

Shaw barks an affectionate command to silence his excited companions. Goofy, a golden mongrel whose muzzle barely reaches Shaw’s waist, stands protectively around his master, uneasy with the appearance of people after five days on the trail.

Cleo, an even smaller, grey-mottled mutt, makes fast friends with a small girl whose family has come out to meet Shaw.

“They can pull,” Shaw says of his companions, who pulled a kamotiq loaded with a sleeping bag, Coleman stove, rifle, seal meat and bannock. “They were okay.”

His trek is also about raising awareness of his community’s situation. He planned to start walking back to Kimmirut earlier this week.

“The first day was a hot day,” he explained of his walk to Iqaluit. “Old people used to say the first day is the hottest day. The next day, it’s no problem, you’ve got a lot of power.”

It wasn’t a lonely trip. Shaw said he saw many people along the trail and was offered rides, but turned them down.

“I saw a wolf, foxes, ptarmigan, rabbit, caribou. It was fun.”

Shaw followed the trail between Kimmirut and Iqaluit, bunking at the cabins spread out along the way. Thursday night he fell just short of reaching cabin number two.

“It was too dark, so I had to build a small igloo for me to sleep in,” he explained.

“When you’re walking you always have candy in your pocket for energy,” he said, pulling out an empty bag of Scotch mints from the front pocket of his parka.

Shaw spent the weekend in Iqaluit, arriving just in time for a territorial hockey tournament.