Something that I noticed right away when I came here was the sheer amount of youth: babies, children, teenagers. When driving around, you need to be really careful as they are always out on their bikes, walking along the roads, congregating in groups of people at all hours of the day and night. I was even treated to a midnight chorus of airhorns a few weekends ago on my street.
There seems to be a harsh reality of life here though, for most of the youth of Igloolik. On Friday, our community had the most unfortunate experience of another youth committing suicide (they were saying the third or 4th one since December). Social services does not really intervene in terms of youth suicide, but the community had a heavy heart and you could tell by walking through the hallways of the health centre Friday morning that it was not a happy day, despite the sunshine and warmer temperatures. It is incredibly sad to witness the death of any youth, but for someone so young to give up on life so quickly always calls into question: where are we going wrong? Fingers are pointed. It's the parents. It's the loss of culture and trend towards a more colonized, southern-Canadian approach to ways of life. It's limited access to mental health resources. I feel that these are all contributing factors of near-epidemic levels of youth suicide in Nunavut. But I feel that one of the larger problems here in northern communities, is that youth are not engaged. In some of my meetings with young offenders and families, I ask the youth what they want. I ask them their hopes and their dreams. They take an awful long time to think about it. Too many times I hear "I don't know". When I was growing up, if someone asked me what I wanted to be, I would be able to rattle off a list of possibilities, everything from President of the United States to a nurse to a dolphin trainer. I never felt like my options were limited. How can we provide that same level of dreaming to our children in the North?
Risk factors associated with youth suicide in Nunavut are many. Relationship issues appear to be wide-spread here, and can often be quite dramatic. Lack of developed coping skills in both children and adults are often a springboard into suicidal ideations. As I stated before, there are large barriers to mental health treatment. Our hamlet of 1500 provides only one mental health worker. While we in social services are not there to provide counseling, we spend a good portion of our day taking and engaging people in on-the-spot counseling sessions. Sometimes, people want to come in just to sit down and vent and have a good chat. I am happy to provide this opportunity, and grateful to anyone who steps into my office and wants to speak with me. But I can say this is so hard, when there is so much paper to push, and so many other things to do. I realize the importance of this though, and I try to do this as often as I can. As I've stated before, and am reading in various literature, our Northern communities also have high poverty rates, lack of adequate housing resouces, food insecurity, and high unemployment rates.
Before settlement and colonization, Inuit had a horizontal family structure accompanied by a kinship-centred society. Post-colonization, we have witnessed a move from that to a more individualistic ("Western", or "European"-based) approach and a more vertical, nuclear-based family structure. The introduction of foreign foods, alcohol, drugs, electronics, and more individualistic ways of living has broken down the family structure and left youth caught between two worlds. The exposure of "the rest of Canada" through media perhaps leads them to feelings of displacement, despair and longing for a life which they might never get to experience, a life which is vastly different from their own. The introduction of Residential Schools and "The 60's Sweep" left the family structure broken and vulnerable in our Northern communities, an attempt of cultural genocide by the colonial Canadian government which will take many generations to fix.
Schooling in the northern communities also leaves much to be desired. School attendance is not enforced, and many youth drop out of high school at a young age to have children, or because they do not like going. What can we do in order to get our youth more engaged in learning and wanting to better themselves? Is this in and of itself a southern Canada value judgement? I have been informed that many times, teachers will hand out passing grades to all students and that the system needs major restructuring.
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) provides a voice for Inuit living across Canada. In drawing upon traditional knowledge from Elders in Nunavut they feel that Inuit need to:
There seems to be a harsh reality of life here though, for most of the youth of Igloolik. On Friday, our community had the most unfortunate experience of another youth committing suicide (they were saying the third or 4th one since December). Social services does not really intervene in terms of youth suicide, but the community had a heavy heart and you could tell by walking through the hallways of the health centre Friday morning that it was not a happy day, despite the sunshine and warmer temperatures. It is incredibly sad to witness the death of any youth, but for someone so young to give up on life so quickly always calls into question: where are we going wrong? Fingers are pointed. It's the parents. It's the loss of culture and trend towards a more colonized, southern-Canadian approach to ways of life. It's limited access to mental health resources. I feel that these are all contributing factors of near-epidemic levels of youth suicide in Nunavut. But I feel that one of the larger problems here in northern communities, is that youth are not engaged. In some of my meetings with young offenders and families, I ask the youth what they want. I ask them their hopes and their dreams. They take an awful long time to think about it. Too many times I hear "I don't know". When I was growing up, if someone asked me what I wanted to be, I would be able to rattle off a list of possibilities, everything from President of the United States to a nurse to a dolphin trainer. I never felt like my options were limited. How can we provide that same level of dreaming to our children in the North?
Risk factors associated with youth suicide in Nunavut are many. Relationship issues appear to be wide-spread here, and can often be quite dramatic. Lack of developed coping skills in both children and adults are often a springboard into suicidal ideations. As I stated before, there are large barriers to mental health treatment. Our hamlet of 1500 provides only one mental health worker. While we in social services are not there to provide counseling, we spend a good portion of our day taking and engaging people in on-the-spot counseling sessions. Sometimes, people want to come in just to sit down and vent and have a good chat. I am happy to provide this opportunity, and grateful to anyone who steps into my office and wants to speak with me. But I can say this is so hard, when there is so much paper to push, and so many other things to do. I realize the importance of this though, and I try to do this as often as I can. As I've stated before, and am reading in various literature, our Northern communities also have high poverty rates, lack of adequate housing resouces, food insecurity, and high unemployment rates.
Before settlement and colonization, Inuit had a horizontal family structure accompanied by a kinship-centred society. Post-colonization, we have witnessed a move from that to a more individualistic ("Western", or "European"-based) approach and a more vertical, nuclear-based family structure. The introduction of foreign foods, alcohol, drugs, electronics, and more individualistic ways of living has broken down the family structure and left youth caught between two worlds. The exposure of "the rest of Canada" through media perhaps leads them to feelings of displacement, despair and longing for a life which they might never get to experience, a life which is vastly different from their own. The introduction of Residential Schools and "The 60's Sweep" left the family structure broken and vulnerable in our Northern communities, an attempt of cultural genocide by the colonial Canadian government which will take many generations to fix.
Schooling in the northern communities also leaves much to be desired. School attendance is not enforced, and many youth drop out of high school at a young age to have children, or because they do not like going. What can we do in order to get our youth more engaged in learning and wanting to better themselves? Is this in and of itself a southern Canada value judgement? I have been informed that many times, teachers will hand out passing grades to all students and that the system needs major restructuring.
Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) provides a voice for Inuit living across Canada. In drawing upon traditional knowledge from Elders in Nunavut they feel that Inuit need to:
- Pay attention to each other’s needs
- Focus on helping others as a way of promoting connection and a sense of usefulness
- Do something productive, active and healthy
- Talk things out
- Solve conflicts with others, and
- Accept that life is not always easy but that tomorrow can be better
Source: Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami Website
I've also noticed a severe lack of things to do for youth in Igloolik. While I have seen various advertisements around the hamlet for day camps, I still see youth up and around every hour of the day and night. There have been a series of break-ins and vandalizing around the health centre as well. Even our own truck has experienced some vandalization, with children writing and drawing certain phallic items into the caked-on dust. Yes, I know our truck is dirty. Sorry, but I need to erase your Picasso. While yes, we can say it stems from a parenting issue of not setting firm boundaries (not establishing curfews, not enforcing education or structured day and evening activities, etc) we can also turn towards ourselves and ask ourselves: how can we engage our youth to prevent further incidents from occurring? It has less to do with locking up cans of spray paint and not making it accessible for youth and more to do with providing them a place to express themselves and paint murals (or whatever they wish) as a group. Lord knows we have the room and space available. It has less to do with blaming parents and more to do with coming together to accept the responsibility that we are to support and raise this child. We live on an island, but we all don't have to be islands.
My thoughts and prayers are with this family and everyone in this community.
- Nunavut Kamatsiaqtut Help Line - Phone: (867) 979-3333, or toll-free 1-800-265-3333.
Every night, 7 p.m. to midnight. -
Keewatin Crisis Line - Phone: (867) 645-3333
Monday to Friday 7 p.m. -10 p.m. - Kugluktuk Awareness Centre - Phone: (867) 982-4673
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