IQALUIT, Canada — Filleting a fish, lighting a fire, or building an igloo:
In Canada’s Arctic, Inuit youth are being encouraged to connect with their culture in an
attempt to prevent severe depression and save lives.
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A dozen teenagers
and young adults gather around instructor Alex Flaherty. They do not want to
miss any of the traditional hunter’s precise gestures as he carves a fish or
lights a fire.
“Our culture has
changed so much in the last 50 years when people used to live in igloos ... the
change is happening so fast, (and) we are losing our culture,” he tells AFP.
Flaherty blames
the societal shifts for a series of social ills such as violent crime,
substance abuse and a high rate of suicide.
Hoping to help
remedy these problems, he’s taken hundreds of teenagers hiking, camping, and
hunting in the vast tundra in the past three years.
In addition to
keeping alive Inuit culture, his government-funded Polar Outfitting program
also aims to bolster young people’s mental health and teach them to adapt to a
changing climate — in a region that is warming much faster than elsewhere.
Flaherty says he
takes mostly youth aged 12 to 20 years old, “because that’s when their
lifestyle starts changing (and) when they need help.”
In the summer,
they hike across the rocky, windswept lands near the bay city of Iqaluit that
is home to some 7,000 residents — and is accessible only by plane most months.
They also learn
to make fishing nets to catch Arctic char and to navigate and survive in the
pristine but unforgiving environment.
Inuit teens learn how to cook salmon over an open fire at a summer camp focused on mental health, in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada, on July, 27, 2022.
In the dead of
winter, when sunlight is reduced to just a few hours per day, they will go out
on the ice to fish, and build igloos.
‘Not just about
fishing’
At 22, Annie Kootoo is the oldest in the current class. She gushes with
joy after spending 10 days in the wilderness.
“I did a lot of
activities that I don’t usually do, and it’s been very helpful for my mental
health,” she says.
Chris Laisa, a
14-year-old echoes the sentiment. “I feel great,” he says after a lesson.
“It was fun
because I learned how to fillet a fish, how to prepare it.”
Flaherty,
standing nearby, adds that it’s “not just about fishing. It’s about clearing
your mind, being outdoors and sharing with others.”
In the Nunavut
territory of northern Canada, where the average age is 28, young people are
deeply affected by the isolation and intergenerational traumas caused by past
colonial policies.
Like many
Indigenous peoples in Canada, the Inuit are haunted by memories of being forced
into residential schools where they were stripped of their language and
culture, and abused by teachers and headmasters.
Here the suicide
rate is much higher than the rest of the country — 76.6 per 100,000 inhabitants
in 2020 compared to 10.1, according to Statistics Canada.
Camilla Sehti,
the
Nunavut government’s head of mental health and addictions services, goes
through a long list of what’s contributed to the crisis: “It’s just so many
factors.”
Healing, she
says, “starts with reconnecting people to their culture.”
“I think
colonization had a huge impact on this territory and the ability for people to
feel connected to self,” she explains, describing new mental health initiatives
that emphasize “family, culture and community.”
After losing her
best friend two years ago, Minnie Akeeagok started posting warnings on social
media about depression and suicide.
“Everybody in
Nunavut knows someone who has committed suicide or faced mental health issues.
I personally know more than five,” the 18-year-old told AFP.
“We need more resources,
more accessibility within the mental health field in Nunavut,” she says, noting
that in the far off communities of this Arctic territory the situation is even
more dire.
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