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NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
Every week for the past three years, girls in Tulita have been getting together to talk. The evenings, known as Girl's Night In, are open to girls in grades 6 to 12.

Judy Poitras helps to bring awareness about violence in the NWT during a demonstration in 2009. Spousal abuse rates in the Northwest Territories are 12 per cent higher than in other parts of Canada, according to Statistics Canada. - NNSL file photo

"Like most areas of the North, drinking and drugs are a big issue," said Vivian Harris, a kindergarten teacher and Girl's Night In organizer. "We wanted to give girls a safe place to come to build confidence and self-esteem, and along the way teach them to make healthy choices."

Healthy choices can range from making good decisions about sexual health to making good choices about relationships.

According to Statistics Canada, spousal abuse rates in the Northwest Territories are 12 per cent higher than in other parts of Canada. Between 1975 and 2004, 22 women were killed by their spouses, compared to 11 men.

That's part of the reason why this year, Family Violence Awareness Week is focusing on youth, said Lorraine Phaneuf, executive director of the NWT Status of Women Council. The organization partnered with agencies throughout the territory and created a youth manual, titled Healthy Relationships and Teens, which aims to teach young people about healthy relationship choices.

Phaneuf said while there are various contributing factors to violent behaviour, one thing is true in all cases.

"Root causes of family violence are multifaceted," Phaneuf stated in an e-mail to News/North. "There are catalysts that can exasperate abusive behaviours, however, abuse is always a choice. It is always around taking away the victim's power and controlling the victim's lives."

One way to help restore that power is through awareness, Phaneuf said.

Throughout the territory this week, women and men will walk together in Take Back the Night marches in their communities.

In Yellowknife, the march begins at Sombe Ke Civic Plaza at 6 p.m.

"There are lots of signs and awareness, there's an excitement in the city," Phaneuf said. "It gets the population talking about the importance about the safety of women."

Katherine Brach, a counsellor and teacher at Mackenzie Mountain School in Norman Wells, said she and Angela Keats, a registered nurse working at the health centre, have decided to hold a Take Back the Night march in Norman Wells.

"Women in the North, and definitely in the Sahtu, have experienced a lot of violence in their lives," she said. "Most women have experienced violence in one form or another. It's a very pertinent topic up here."

Brach said she began getting in touch with other women and organizations in the region. Now, communities throughout the Sahtu are organizing their own walks.

"I contacted different women in the Sahtu, they all seemed very interested and eager to do their own," Brach said. "It looks like it might be a Sahtu-wide event."

Brach and Keats have now organized a walk, which is scheduled to take place on Sept. 27. Participants will gather at the school before beginning a 15-minute walk throughout the community.

Phaneuf said marches are also taking place in the Behchoko region as well.

"They'll be carrying the coalition against family violence banners," she said. "It's exciting to see the smaller communities taking part in something that is territorial wide."

While awareness is growing, violence against women continues to be a large problem in the territory, according to information from the GNWT.

Violence against women is five times the national average in the NWT, Paneuf said.

In 2007, the government published a document titled Violence Against Women in the NWT - A Way Forward, which highlighted the issue.

There are only five shelters in the territory, located in Yellowknife, Fort Smith, Tuktoyaktuk, Hay River and Inuvik, Phaneuf said.

That means women in other communities must leave home to access a shelter.

"Many women have to leave their home communities to access shelter services and with the lack of housing, trauma treatment programs and other supports to leave an abusive relationship permanently, many end up returning to their home community and their relationships," the report stated.

The report also stated the NWT is ineligible for federal funding for shelters, because most federal funds are allocated for on-reserve programs.

"The NWT is essentially an 'off-reserve' jurisdiction because there are only two small reserves in the entire territory," the report stated. "The lack of access to federal monies means that services are largely unavailable to many aboriginal women in particular, who so desperately require services."

Andy Langford, director of community wellness and social services with the territorial Health Department, said while the NWT isn't pushing for more shelters, they are working on developing community mobilization teams to "assist and facilitate in emergency situations."

"I'm not aware of any push for more," Langford said. "The push that I am aware of is for more integrated services in those communities that don't have a shelter."

Langford said integrated services include "better co-ordination between local social workers, nursing staff, RCMP, mobilizing to bring together the resources that are required."

Langford said each community has funding to transport a woman to and from a shelter if she requires one, along with children, as long as beds are available.

"Each of the health and social service authorities has funding within their budget that covers the cost of transportation to the shelter and back home again," he said.

There were 354 women living in shelters in the territory in 2004, along with 368 children, according to a Statistics Canada report published in 2006.

For the girls attending Girl's Night In in Tulita, healthy choices can also mean deciding whether to attend post-secondary school, Harris said.

Every year, the group arranges field trips to universities to show the girls what the schools have to offer.

"The goal is to show them the different opportunities that are available to them, most of them end up staying here in town," she said. "We want to show them there are great aboriginal centres at each of these campuses to make them feel welcome."

Harris said she is proud of the positive impact the group is having on the community, both for the girls and their parents.

"I think they see the benefit of meeting with the girls and talking openly, being honest and trying to equip them with the proper knowledge to be safe and make positive choices," she said.

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