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Lending support Women's group looks to take root across Kivalliq
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Published Tuesday, September 3, 2013
TIKIRARJUAQ/WHALE COVE
A special visit to help support the women of the community was the first of its kind to be held in Whale Cove earlier this summer.
Among those helping to establish a women's support group are Martha Panika, back row, on the left, Cecile Panika, Eva Sheetoga, Annie Napayok, Charlotte Kattegatsiak, Kayla Jones, Lucy Taipana, Myra Netser and Martha Teenar. In the front row, from the left, Donna Adams, Eva Voisey and Mary Voisey. The group was in Whale Cove earlier this summer. - photo courtesy of Donna Adams
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The three-day event was spearheaded by a team of four cultural support workers -- Myra Netser of Coral Harbour, Charlotte Kattegatsiak of Chesterfield Inlet and Hannah Benoit and Donna Adams, both of Rankin Inlet -- through Kivalliq Counselling and Support Services in Rankin.
The workers held group and private counselling sessions, hosted a sewing session for ladies to make sealskin/leather mitts. They were joined by Allan Voisey and Steven Innukshuk to hold a special Gospel Jam.
The group also brought four action packers of used clothing from the Deacon's Cupboard in Rankin, with the clothes sold at the community hall for $5 a bag.
The movement is attempting to parallel the success of Angutiit Makigiangninga (Men Rising Up), which has spread across the Kivalliq since its beginning in Coral Harbour.
Adams said the meeting came about due to a need expressed in the community.
She said with the men's group becoming so established in the past few years, it's time to use that momentum for similar program for women.
"Women are naturally the front-line workers in a community," said Adams. "They deal with the body when there's a death, and they often act as psychiatrists and counsellors to help people in their community cope.
"Women are the caregivers of a community."
Adams said it's time for women to have a solid support system in place.
She said they constantly volunteer to help and never receive any recognition for what they do.
The group was well received in Whale Cove, Adams said, with 25 people taking part in the first night, more than they would get in Rankin.
"It was a huge, overwhelming success,” Adams said. "They were grateful we came and they want to see us come back."
Adams said it was about 50-50 among the women who attended the meetings, when it came to who was comfortable sharing with the group and who preferred to sit and listen the first time around.
She said that's quite normal when a healing-and-support group first starts interacting within a community.
"It's important, as time goes by, for more and more of these women to feel comfortable enough to talk and share with the group,” Adams said. "But it's even more important for the women to establish their own group locally.
"That's key to its success."
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