MITTIMATALIK/POND INLET
Emanuel Maktar is walking this week for mental health awareness, for his own family and for all Nunavummiut who have been affected by suicide.
Emanuel Maktar has become all too familiar with suicide. He hopes by organizing a long march around Pond Inlet during Mental Health Awareness week will get people walking and talking about an important issue. - Lee Narraway Photography
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"It's happening too much around Nunavut. It needs to stop," said Maktar, who lost his two oldest brothers to suicide. He was the middle child in his family, "now I'm the oldest," he said.
The Grade 11 Nasivvik high school student had the idea to organize a big walk around the hamlet to raise awareness of – and hopefully start talking more about – suicide as part of Mental Health Week.
Maktar mapped out the walk, which will begin today, May 6, at the hamlet building, wind past the health centre then down the road near the Northern store past the government building and back to the beginning. It is the first walk of its kind in the hamlet but Maktar hopes it will be repeated next year and years after he graduates.
The school's walk for suicide awareness is the first activity of a week filled with activities devoted to mental health awareness. Students, teachers and mental health workers at Nasivvik are also helping to fundraise for the national kids helpline, devoting lessons to coping with grief and the harmful effects of drug use. The school is also organizing a host of other more positive activities and stress relievers such as yoga, dance fitness and community soccer game. Next week, the junior high school students will take a day-trip and high school students will spend five days out on the land.
Melissa Wilding, a mental health nurse helping at the school, said mental health is an important part of education and physical health for students.
"Mental health affects all of those other things," she said. "There's a high correlation between physical health and mental health."
Wilding, who has been travelling between Squamish, B.C., and Pond Inlet for over a year, offers free family counselling as well as one-on-one time with students.
"Mental Health Week is important because it is a big issue and there's not a lot of awareness about it and there's still quite a bit of stigma around it as well."
Initiatives like Maktar's are aided by the school's new healthy school program, a mantra that started this year at Nasivvik geared toward improving students' overall mental, physical and spiritual well-being.
A basic lesson Wilding says she tries to share is to encourage a "holistic perspective."
"I do try to focus on healthy eating, physical activity and different aspects that are all linked together. I also try to focus on who your supports are so there's always someone you can go to talk to," she said.
Talking is a big part of suicide awareness and while Maktar doesn't talk about it much, he thinks it's important that more people do.
"Don't just let your feelings get bad at something like that," he said.
