Don't take my sunshine away
Youth report impacts passing of first KIA suicide prevention resolution
Beth Brown
Northern News Services
Monday, October 24, 2016
KITIKMEOT
When Bessie Sitatak heard Kitikmeot youth talk about the need for suicide prevention programming at the Kitikmeot Inuit Association's annual general meeting this month, she had to tell them about her dream.
Youth representatives at the Kitikmeot regional meeting present their perspective on suicide, education, healthy relationships and language training. From left, Lonnie Alookee, Courtney Takkiruq, Julianne Angulalik, Harley Evalik, and Shannon Kayaitok. - photo courtesy of Sarah Jancke |
Sitatak was at the meeting to represent her community women's group. But she, along with youth representatives from each of the five Kitikmeot communities, contributed to the passing of the KIA's first suicide prevention resolution.
"My husband and I were in Gjoa Haven this summer," said Sitatak. "There were two incidents there with teenage boys. It was a really sad time.
"I felt it emotionally, it was a heavy thing."
While visiting the community the Kugluktuk woman dreamed she was sitting around a table with a group of teenage boys.
"This tune was playing in the background - You Are My Sunshine. I started singing it and the boys started following. Every time we came to that line, 'Please don't take my sunshine away', the boy sitting across from me would nod his head, with tears running down his face."
The music got louder and louder and their voices rose to meet it, Sitatak recalled.
"But every time we came to that line the boy would nod his head, crying. It was so beautiful."
After the youth representative from Gjoa Haven, Courtney Takkiruq, spoke about the summer suicides, Sitatak asked everyone to sing - and the assembly at the meeting stood together to sing You Are My Sunshine for the youth, for the region, and for a territorial struggle that often sees only silence.
"It was one of the most powerful moments I've ever felt at an AGM," said Sarah Jancke, who co-ordinates youth and women's programs for the KIA.
Under the resolution, the KIA should connect with existing programs of the Embrace Life Council and other Nunavut organizations with a suicide prevention mandate to ensure these initiatives are connected with and accessible to Kitikmeot Inuit. In addition, the KIA should ask that national and territorial strategies have action plans to partner with communities in the region, and should lobby for Inuit-specific suicide prevention counsellors to support Inuit entering the justice system.
Kugaaruk youth representative Shannon Kayaitok, 18, said the need for suicide prevention and healing programs was a priority for all the youth delegates, regardless of their home community.
"In some ways it is hard to talk about, but we just have to get through it," said Kayaitok. "So many young teenagers don't know who to talk with."
The youth report states: "We as youth of the Kitikmeot know there is hope. We believe people can be helped. We can't stay silent any longer.
"We know the strengths of our communities and we have to work together at the grassroots and all other levels to combat Inuit suicide.
"If KIA takes action, the communities take action, and individuals take action, we can seriously save lives."
The youth report also discusses the importance of youth centres, not just for social opportunities, but so young people have a support group to talk with when faced with difficult life issues, or when home isn't a safe space.
There is no youth centre in Kugaaruk, but Kayaitok is helping to organize a youth group in her hamlet. So far 14 youth have come out to be involved with the group and are willing to volunteer their time to make the youth initiative sustainable.
"There could be things happening in Kugaaruk," she said. "But so many people only go to the hamlet to hang out."
The report shows the Kugluktuk youth centre is running well with programming and staff. In Cambridge Bay, the centre in functioning, but with limited programming or youth connection.
Taloyoak has a potential building for a centre but requires funding. Gjoa Haven also has a building established but funds are still being gathered for needed renovations.
Kayaitok also spoke about needed support for education and the importance of informing youth about the options available to help them develop and take ownership of academic opportunities, future careers and the quality of their own life.
This was the first year for a suicide resolution, but it isn't a new need, Jancke said.
"People know what they want."
She said there is too often a disconnect between regional needs discussed at annual meetings and decisions made higher up, at territorial and national levels.
"KIA is listening," said Jancke, but the question now is, "how do we connect that to make change at the grassroots."
Kitikmeot youth asked that change happen through the actions of individual people at a community level, regardless of funding or programming - because they don't want to wait any longer.
"We want action now in this generation because we want change for the next generation," the closing statement of the youth report reads. "We don't want the next generation of youth to have to struggle the way we have been struggling. The youth of today want the next generation to have positive role models, opportunities, pride and hope for the future."
