CORAL HARBOUR
A community justice outreach worker has been helping to bring women together to discuss healthy living, while learning new skills in Coral Harbour.

The traditional doll Paddie Jar made was all about hunting on the land in Coral Harbour in April of 2015. - photo courtesy of Ruth Eetuk

Ruth Eetuk was helping the Coral justice committee to oversee four programs simultaneously during the past two months.

Eetuk secured funding to hold a sewing program that saw the participants make hunting parkas and pants, as well as a pair of mitts.

A second program focused on cooking lessons to prepare healthy meals, while a third featured participants making a pair of kamiik and the fourth saw a Coral's women's group program focused on healthy living and making traditional Inuit dolls.

The Coral Women's Group program was funded through the Victim Assistance Fund (VAF), while the other three programs were funded by Brighter Futures.

Funding from the VAF is administered through the community justice program.

The VAF program brought the women together to discuss a number of issues surrounding safe and healthy living.

The women also learned a new skill in doll making during the program, which ran from February until the end of March.

Eetuk said the women's group program was targeted at women and young mothers aged 25 and older.

She said the program consisted of segments aimed at raising awareness among the participating women on team involvement, independence and healthy living, as well as increasing their basic skills.

"We had two groups of eight women taking the program," said Eetuk.

"I had four ladies who had made dolls in another program a couple of years ago.

"But a lot of these ladies were new to this, so their creations were pretty interesting.

"One of my aunts, Clara Ell, is very talented and puts her heart into everything she makes, so she was helping a lot of the ladies in her group with the doll heads they were sculpting out of clay and they did a really great job."

Eetuk said another significant aspect of the program is that it mirrors how Inuit mothers used to do things in the past.

She said they didn't just visit each other to drink tea, sit down and chat.

"This is what they did in the past: bring something to sew while you're there, sit down and start up a conversation while you're sewing.

"It was social, yes, but things were getting done, too."

Eetuk said she'd love to see these types of programs continue in Coral Harbour.

She said the initiative kept a lot of women busy in the community, with eight instructors and more than 60 participants involved in the four programs combined - and many more wanting to join.

"This really got the women going, and it's something they definitely want to see happen again in Coral.

"You have to know where to look to get the funding and then it's all to do with how well you've written your proposal for the program.

"For these latest programs, we received funding to provide wages for the instructors and snacks for the participants.

"It was also in the budget to purchase all the materials they needed, except for the tools the dolls carry, which were made by their husbands at home."

Eetuk said she was pleased to see more than 100 women sign up to participate in the program, even though that was far more than she could accommodate.

She said with so many wanting to participate, the community justice board decided it would have to come down to chance.

"It was decided we would have to draw the names for the 16 women who would participate.

"We divided it into two groups, one group of younger women and another of older ladies so they would be comfortable with where they were at.

"There was some disappointment among those who weren't picked, in a way, but we were lucky enough to have those other three programs that most of them could sign up to do.

"The kamiik program actually attracted a lot more people to participate than the doll making program."

Eetuk said she was surprised at the start of the project, when she was having a hard time finding instructors.

She said that experience really served as a wake-up call for her.

"We have to work harder than we've been doing to try and pass on traditional knowledge that's disappearing.

"Not very many really know the proper steps for making kimiik today.

"We need to continue with more programs that help us pass that knowledge along, while we still have people who can."

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