Rankin Inlet (Nov 24/04) - Social challenges facing Inuit society remain high on Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.'s (NTI) priority list, says its president.

Paul Kaludjak says NTI needs to start working harder on getting back Inuit tradition.

"We have to give our culture back to the communities," says Kaludjak.

"NTI is being directed to play a larger role in the social and cultural work being done in the regions, in terms of raising families in our traditional style."

Kaludjak says NTI is being looked upon to handle the issue of suicide in a way that ensures the involvement of traditional skills.

He says NTI has to make sure its preventive measures are making a difference, and that the organization is not promoting initiatives that may be missing the mark.

Seek the right answers

"We have to ensure our initiatives are actually helping to prevent suicide.

"That means we have to seek the right answers and the message we're receiving is that those answers lie within Inuit culture."

Kaludjak says NTI will be looking into the possible establishment of a conference for youth, women and elders.

He says bringing those groups together would provide valuable insight into what priorities should be focused on.

"We need to look at areas of urgency -- be that family violence, suicide or women's issues -- and determine where NTI needs to concentrate its efforts.

"In short, we have to concentrate heavily on the social programming available to our communities to determine which ones are working and which ones need to be improved."

Kaludjak says one suggestion that caught his attention during NTI's annual general meeting in Rankin Inlet earlier this month was using drop-in centres as cultural centres for youth.

Good step

"That would be a good step towards the introduction of traditional skills to our youth.

"There are pressing issues facing youth, women and elders right now and we need to do our best to embrace them all."