Survey put in context
NTI puts results in proper historical and cultural perspective for Nunavummiut
Laura Busch
Northern News Services
Published Monday, February 10, 2014
NUNAVUT
Canadian Inuit are one of the most studied peoples on the planet, yet most of the research conducted in Nunavut rarely makes it back from the south.
To help repatriate some of the knowledge held in southern universities, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI) made the Inuit Health Survey - the largest health survey ever conducted in Nunavut - the subject of its new Annual Report on the State of Inuit Culture and Society, released Feb. 4.
"Research has a tainted legacy in Nunavut, characterized by uneven power relationships between Inuit and researchers. Unfortunately, aspects of this legacy can be seen in the way this was carried out," the report reads.
The Nunavut portion of the Inuit Health Survey (IHS) was carried out from 2007 to 2008 aboard the Canadian Coast Guard ship Amundsen, which visited 24 coastal communities in the territory (a separate survey of Baker Lake was conducted in 2008) and collected information from 1,923 participants - more than 12 per cent of the total Nunavut Inuit population at the time. In addition, the mental health and community wellness segment of the survey collected information from 1,710 people.
While the results of the survey were first published in a 2010 summary report and at least 13 papers have been published in academic journals on health survey results, NTI's report states the information was never properly disseminated back to the communities.
"The information contained in these papers is of tremendous importance, yet their practical use can be limited to the academic audience they were written for," it reads.
Despite these setbacks, the results of the health survey provides vital baseline information for Inuit overall health, including nutritional health and mental health, said Natan Obed, NTI's director of social and cultural development.
"One of the big things that we're fighting for is being able to understand Inuit health over time, and this was the first point in time that we hope we can then learn from," he said.
That baseline information outlines major inadequacies in the health outcomes for Nunavut Inuit, which NTI's report credits to the shortage of adequate housing, poor infrastructure that results in Nunavut's high cost of living and too few health-care providers.
"As a member state of the United Nations, Canada is obliged to uphold international standards for the fair treatment of its citizens, yet has failed to ensure that basic rights to adequate housing, education, food security and social services are met for many Nunavut Inuit," the report reads.
The picture painted of Inuit in the results of the health survey is bleak if not put into the proper context, said Obed.
That is why, in this annual report, NTI strove to include historical and cultural information vital to understanding the larger picture of Inuit health.
"We have captured what we believe to be a very complete picture on the health of Inuit in Nunavut, and that's not something that we felt had been done before," Obed said.
"Many of today's social challenges stem from past and present social policies," the report reads, before outlining the shameful history of the colonization of the Arctic by the Government of Canada.
Canadian interest in the Eastern Arctic increased significantly from the 1950s to 1970s. Beginning in 1950, the federal government created policies that aimed to relocate Inuit into permanent settlements - a move that made permanent social, cultural and economic changes to the Inuit way of life.
While some Inuit families moved into settlements voluntarily to take advantage of the services offered by the colonists, others were forced to relocate. However they arrived at the permanent settlements, Inuit faced crowded and unsanitary living conditions that contributed to the spread of disease, including tuberculosis (TB).
"By the early 1960s, nearly 50 per cent of Inuit spent time in southern sanatoria for TB treatment," reads the report.
During that same time period, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and other authorities shot hundreds of sled dogs in the established settlements.
"Their loss contributed to the breakdown of gender roles in settlements, hastening Inuit dependence on social assistance payments and expensive, nutritionally inferior store-bought foods."
The above information has been left out of all health-survey results, and subsequent academic reports, until now, said Obed, adding that correct policy decisions on how to improve the current state of Inuit health can only be made if all of the relevant information is considered.
"Comparing Inuit health statistics to Canadian averages ... often paints a very negative picture of Inuit in Nunavut," he said. "Now, the challenge is to try to be sympathetic and to be fair about historical trauma and about the underpinnings of a lot of these problems, and also recognize that there is a lot of good that happens in Inuit communities. That isn't captured in the same way that a lot of the negative issues are captured.
"The overall connectedness between large social groups and family groups in our communities and the overall health benefits from that, or the culture of sharing of country food and the sharing of things with people in need.
"These are things that are hugely beneficial to our society that can't be captured in any traditional western science kind of way."
Results of the Inuit Health Survey
- 70.2 per cent of Inuit households are food insecure.
- 71.4 per cent of households with children are food insecure.
- 34 per cent of homes with children aged three to five experience severe food insecurity.
- 78 per cent of Nunavut's working-age population are Inuit.
- 64 per cent of working people in Nunavut are Inuit.
- In 2011, 46.2 per cent of working-age Inuit were employed.
- In 2011, 89.2 per cent of non-Inuit working-age Nunavummiut were employed.
- 27.5 per cent of students graduated high school from 1999 to 2008.
- Less than 13 per cent of those aged 25 to 64 held a bachelor's degree or above.
- $62,680: the mean total income for Nunavut families.
- $69,850: the mean total income for Canadian families.
- $1,875 is spent on food per month by the average Nunavut household.
- $609 is spent on food per month by the average Canadian household.
- Preschool-aged children receive about 35 per cent of their daily energy from high sugar or high fat foods.
- 59 per cent of Inuit are classified as either overweight or obese.
- 81 per cent of Nunavut Inuit surveyed said they would like to eat more country food if they could get it.
- In 1999, survey participants received 23.4 per cent of their daily energy from country foods.
- In 2008, that number had dropped to 16.1 per cent.
Source: Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.'s 2011/2012 2012/2013 Annual Report on the State of Inuit Culture and Society
